Chocolate Eclairs
This one’s not from a cooking class, but I made choux pastry for the first time while under Covid-19 Shelter-in-Place and fell in love with how easy it is to make! I did the dairy-free version so Brendan’s family could enjoy them too, and it doesn’t lose any flavor over the original.
Serves: 8
Ingredients
1 cup whole milk (oat milk also works for dairy-free)
1/2 cup butter (or margarine)
4 eggs
1 cup flour
Pastry Cream Filling
3 cups milk
1/2 cup sugar
salt
2 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup cornstarch
1 tbsp flour
4 egg yolks
4 tbsp butter
Chocolate Ganache
2.5 oz dark chocolate
2.5 oz water or heavy cream
Steps
Preheat oven to 425F
Melt the butter along with the milk over medium-low heat in a saucepan. When it comes to a boil, turn the heat to low and add in the flour. Whisk rigorously until mixture turns into a dough and a film forms coating the pan. Turn off the heat and remove the saucepan from stove top to cool slightly.
Mix in eggs one at a time. It might take a while but will eventually be thoroughly incorporated into a smooth mixture.
Pipe the mixture into 4-inch long logs. Bake at 425F for 20 minutes, then turn off the oven and leave shells inside for 10 minutes without opening the oven door. Remove from oven and let cool to room temperature.
While baking, make pastry cream. In medium saucepan, stir together milk, sugar, vanilla, and salt. Bring to a simmer over medium heat. In another bowl, whisk together eggs, cornstarch, and flour. After milk is heated, slowly pour 1/3 of hot mixture into cold mixture, whisking constantly to temper the eggs. Pour egg mixture into sauce pan and continue whisking over heat until custard thickens. Cover and chill in fridge.
While pastry shells are cooling, make ganache. Melt chocolate together with water or heavy cream in double boiler or in microwave in 30-second bursts, stir until mixture comes together and chocolate is smooth. Let cool to desired frosting consistency.
Assemble eclairs by piping pastry cream into shells or cutting shells in half and spooning pastry cream in. Top with cooled ganache. Enjoy!