Chocolate Eclairs
Who doesn’t love a chocolate eclair? Crispy choux pastry, creamy filling and a rich, chocolate ganache across the top. This recipe will make about 12 eclairs, with half filled with a vanilla creme patisserie and half with a chocolate creme patisserie. This is a bit of a long recipe - but the steps are easy and it is totally worth trying. I recommend baking them on a day when no one is coming round so you can enjoy them all to yourself.
Method
First thing to do is make the filling, Slice the vanilla pod open lengthways and scrape out the seeds. Put the seeds, the pod and milk into a saucepan and bring slowly to the boil, stirring occasionally to prevent it from sticking. It’s very important that you bring the milk to a full boil.
Meanwhile, place the egg yolks, 125g of the sugar, and flour into a bowl and whisk together until the mixture is perfectly smooth and there is no flour visible. The flour needs to be completely incorporated.
Pour half the boiling milk over the yolk mixture, whisking constantly to prevent curdling. Once combined, pour into your saucepan with the remaining milk and bring back to the boil over a medium heat, whisking constantly. Once boiling continue whisking and let it boil for 30 seconds until the mixture is very thick.
Pass the mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl and transfer half the mixture into a second bowl so you have 2 bowls of roughly equal quantities of creme patisserie. Place a sheet of cling film on the surface of each custard to prevent a skin forming and place the 2 bowls into the fridge to chill completely.
To make your eclairs start by pre-reheating the oven to 170ºC.
Put the water, milk, butter, sugar and salt in a medium saucepan over a high heat and bring the mixture to a boil.
Remove the pan from the heat and furiously beat in the flour until the mixture is completely smooth.
Turn your hob down to medium and cook the mixture until it comes together and pulls away from the edges of the pan, beating it all the time.
Remove the pan from the heat and gradually beat in the eggs until you have a smooth, dropping consistency. You want it to easily drop (but not run) off a wooden spoon. You may not need all of the egg to reach this stage.
Transfer the pastry to a large piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm nozzle and let the mixture cool for about five minutes in the bag. This will stiffen the mixture and make it easier to pipe.
Line a large baking tray with greaseproof paper and pipe on 12 éclairs about 15cm long, leaving space in between each one for them to rise.
Bake the éclairs on the middle shelf of your oven for 30-35 minutes. You will want them to be golden-brown.
Once cooked transfer to a rack until they are completely cool.
While your eclairs are cooling you can finish off your fillings and make your icing.
For the chocolate filling, melt 20g of dark chocolate (either in a bowl over some simmering water or very carefully in a microwave). Take one of your bowls of creme patisserie and add in your melted chocolate, sift in the cocoa powder, and whisk until it is all combined and light. You can then put this into a piping bag with a 0.5cm nozzle and put to one side.
For the vanilla filling, whip the double cream with 30g of caster sugar until it forms stiff peaks. Add this to your second bowl of creme patisserie and stir through until it is all incorporated and light. Fill another piping bag with this mixture also with a 0.5cm nozzle.
For the icing break the chocolate into small pieces and place into a bowl. Heat your cream until it just starts to simmer and pour over the chocolate along with the butter and salt and mix together until it is smooth and thick.
It is time to assemble!
To fill your eclairs turn them over so the bottom is facing up. Using your piping bag make 4 small holes in the bottom and as you do pipe in some of the filling. This should ensure they are filled all the way through.
Keeping the eclair upside down, run the top of it into your chocolate icing to cover them. Flip them right side up and set aside for the icing to thicken and cool. You can use a small palette knife to neaten the icing if you wish, but I like it dribbling down the sides. Repeat this step for each of your eclairs, filling half with the vanilla and half with the chocolate flavour fillings.
Ingredients
Choux pastry
4 tablespoons water
4 tablespoons whole milk
50g unsalted butter
1 teaspoon caster sugar
100g plain flour
4 medium eggs, beaten
pinch of salt
Creme patisserie filling
1 vanilla pod
500ml whole milk
6 egg yolks
155g caster sugar
38g plain flour
65g double cream
20g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
1 tablespoon good quality cocoa
Chocolate icing
340g dark chocolate (at least 70% cocoa solids)
175ml double cream
2 tablespoons unsalted butter
Generous pinch of salt
You will also need:
lots of bowls
some large piping bags
a 1.5cm fluted piping nozzle and a 0.5cm piping nozzle
Top Tips
These eclairs are best eaten on the day you make them, but they will keep for about 3 days in the fridge. Alternatively you can freeze them for up to a month.
If you struggle to get even eclairs when you pipe them you can use a pencil and ruler to draw a line for each eclair on the reverse of the greeseproof paper before laying it on the baking sheet. The lines should be visible through the other side, giving you a guide for piping.
If two fillings is too much you can sift the creme patisserie into a single bowl, double the amount of chocolate and cocoa, or cream and sugar. Follow the recipe to make a single batch of either chocolate or vanilla filling.
If you have filling leftover, either flavour will make amazing ice cream. Pour into a tub with a lid and put into the freezer. Take it out every 30 minutes and whisk furiously before returning it to the freezer for the first 4 hours (so 8 whisks in total) and then leave to freeze completely.
