Chocolate Eclairs

        This is my favorite dessert. I could eat eclairs everyday for the rest of my life and I still wouldn't have enough of it.

        It is a simple recipe but you have to be very careful to follow all the steps and pay attention to the tricks I'll give you.


        Ingredients:

        - 250 ml water
        - 100 ml vegetable oil
        - 1/2 teaspoon of salt
        - 125g flour
        - 3 large eggs (60g per egg, or bigger)

        Pastry Cream:

        - 600 ml milk
        - 1 vanilla pod or 1 tablespoon of vanilla extract
        - 6 large yolks
        - 100g sugar
        - 4 tablespoons flour (40g)
        - 4 tablespoons corn starch(40g)
        - 150 ml whip cream

        Chocolate Glaze:

        - 100g dark chocolate
        - 50 ml milk


        The very first thing that you need to do is to preheat your oven. Increase the temperature gradually until you get to the step before your last on your oven (if your oven has 8 steps, cook the eclairs at 7).

        Now prepare the eclairs. Put together in a pan water, vegetable oil and salt and heat it. When it boils, take it off the heat and pour all the flour at once and start mixing. Put it back on the stove and mix it until it starts getting together like a ball and it's not sticking on to the pan.

        Let it cool down and then start adding your eggs one by one, mixing well after each one. If you have smaller eggs, add 4 instead of just 3.

        Put the batter into a pastry bag which is fitted with a large plain tip and on a baking paper start piping the batter into thick sticks, just as eclairs should look like. Leave space between them as they will rise. Dip your finger in cold water and tap on the sticks where they seem uneven, especially where they have a rise from the piping.

        Bake them until they turn a light golden-brown color. Turn the oven off and leave the door open to cool down. This way they will dry inside instead of becoming sticky. Just protect your oven's buttons to don't melt from the heat. It will take you around 20-30 minutes to bake them. Watch them through the window door and what ever you do, do not open the door.

        The cream is really easy to do. Pour the milk in a saucepan together with the vanilla pot and bring it to a boiling point, without actually boiling it. Meanwhile, mix together the yolks and sugar, and add the flour and corn starch.

        Take out the vanilla pod from the milk, scrape the content and add it to the milk.

        Temper the yolks so they won't curdle by pouring milk over the yolks using a ladle and mixing. Pour all the milk, mix and put it back in the saucepan and on the fire on a medium heat. Whisk the mixture constantly to don't curdle. When you see that the cream comes together, lower the heat but keep on mixing. Put the cream into a clean bowl, place a foil on top of it and set aside to cool down. If you haven't used a vanilla pod, add the vanilla extract now and whisk.

        Whisk the whip cream and mix it with the pastry cream.

        Using a pastry bag with a plain medium size tip, pipe the cream inside each eclair after they cool down. You will feel them getting heavy and try to get them as full as you can.

        Put together in a pan chocolate and milk and melt it into a cream. Dip each eclair top into the chocolate and place them on a platter.


        Trick:

        - you can make the cream more interesting by coloring red with red beet extract; cut into cubes a small beet and boil it until there is only one tablespoon left
        - combined with the beet reduction will make the mixture pink after you add the whip cream
        - you can choose to pipe the batter into profiteroles instead of eclairs, or do both.
        - if you are left with cream, you can put it into a bag and freeze it until you need it
        - remember to don't open the door while they bake, to have your oven heated and to let them cool down with the door opened


P.S.:

- the chocolate on my eclairs looks bubbly because I kept them in the refrigerator, got them out and then took pictures, and being hot in the house, condense occurred. 


         It might take you more than a plain cake does, but the result will give you satisfaction and happiness when you will see them fly off the plate and your family or friends will ask you to make more.
         Kisses :*


                                                                                                   Bon Appétit!