Chocolate Eclairs

I remember there was a time when I went to a night market with my friend and her daughter and we came upon this stall selling chocolate eclairs. They looked very tempting but rather pricey. Nevertheless, my friend bought some for her girl to try. Disappointingly, it was quite dry and did not taste as good as it looked.

The next day, I invited them over for afternoon tea at my place. Pondering on what to serve for tea, I suddenly had an idea and decided to try my hand at making some eclairs myself. Surprisingly, it wasn't that difficult to make as long as you follow the right technique. I was thrilled that they turn out well and got a thumbs up from my friend's daughter! 

Today I decided to take a step further and dress up my eclairs with colourful melted chocolates. The result was ....  yummylicious, candylicious, chocolicious, "can't possibly stop at one" delicious chocolate eclairs!

My girl insisted that I should post this photo of her eclair creation!

Chocolate Eclairs

(makes 16)

Ingredients

For the choux pastry

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/2 tsp castor sugar

125g plain flour

150ml water

60g unsalted butter, chopped, at room temperature

3-4 large eggs, lightly whisked

For the chocolate topping:

50g dark chocolate, melted

100g milk chocolate, melted

red food colouring

For the cream filling:
300ml thickened cream (double cream)
1 tbsp icing sugar

Method 

To make choux pastry :

1. Preheat the oven to 200°C. Line 2 baking trays with non-stick baking paper.

2.  Combine the salt, sugar and flour in a bowl and set aside. Put water and the butter in a medium saucepan and bring slowly to the boil; the butter should melt before it comes to the boil. 

3.  Working quickly, remove the saucepan from the heat, add the flour mixture all at once and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon to combine. Return the saucepan to low heat and cook, stirring vigorously, for about 1 minute or until the mixture forms a smooth, thick mass that comes away from the side of the pan. Do not overbeat the mixture or the pastry will not rise properly.

4.  Transfer the mixture to the bowl of a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment and set aside for 5 minutes or until cooled slightly. Gradually add the egg, beating constantly and ensuring it's mixed in well before adding more. Continue beating in the egg until the mixture is glossy and falls heavily from the beaters. The mixture should fold in on itself when cut through with a spatula. You may not need all of the eggs.

5.  Spoon the pastry into a large piping bag fitted with a 1.5cm plain nozzle.

6. Pipe 10cm lengths onto a lined tray, allowing room for spreading. Sprinkle the baking tray lightly with water to create steam in the oven and encourage the puffs to rise. Bake for 12-15 minutes. Reduce the heat to 180°C and bake for a further 10-15 minutes, or until golden and puffed.

7. Transfer to a wire rack and use a small sharp knife to split each pastry in half to allow the steam to escape. Increase the temperature to 200°C and pipe the remaining choux pastry into 10cm lengths on the other lined tray. Cook the remaining pastries as before, then transfer to the wire rack and split in half. Allow to cool completely, then carefully remove any uncooked dough from inside each split pastry.

To make chocolate topping:

1. Melt the dark chocolate and white chocolate. Divide the white chocolate into 2 separate bowls. Add a drop of red colouring into one of them and mix until it turns pink.

2. Spread the eclair tops with the different colours of melted chocolate and lay them on a tray. Put them in the fridge for 10-15 minutes or until the chocolate is set. 

3. Remove the eclair tops from fridge and using a spoon, drizzle each top with a different colour of melted chocolate in zigzag pattern. Return to fridge to set.


To prepare the cream filling: 

1.  Lightly whip the cream and icing sugar until firm peaks. Do not overwhip. Using a piping bag with a star nozzle, pipe the cream onto the eclair bases. Place the chocolate covered eclair tops over cream and serve.