Chocolate Éclairs for Valentine?s Day

I was going through some of my older posts and came across these éclairs I made a long time ago and I thought that these would be a perfect Valentine’s Day dessert.

I was really afraid to make éclairs as I used to think that they would be very complicated to make but they are really very easy to make. I watched this video in order to understand how they are made and I filled them with a pastry cream I have been doing for years. The chocolate icing I made was not enough so in the recipe I have doubled the amount.

Chocolate Éclairs for Valentine?s Day

Preparation time: 20 minutes

Cooking time: 35 minutes

Makes: 15

Ingredients:

For choux pastry

115 grams butter (1 stick)
235 ml water
125 grams/4.40oz all-purpose flour
A pinch of salt
4 eggs

For the pastry cream

4 cups of fresh milk
2 tablespoons of flour and 4 corn flour
6 tablespoons of sugar
½ teaspoon vanilla essence
3 egg yolks
1 tablespoon butter
75 grams/2.65oz couverture chocolate

For the chocolate icing

200 grams/8oz caster sugar
200ml/7oz water
250 grams/4oz dark chocolate
50grams/2oz unsalted butter

Directions:

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F (200 degrees C). Line a baking tin with parchment paper.
In a saucepan, combine butter and water. Bring to a boil, stirring until butter melts completely. Reduce heat to low, and add flour and salt. Stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves the sides of the pan and begins to form a stiff ball. Remove from heat and place in your mixer bowl and attach the dough hook. At medium speed, add eggs, one at a time, until incorporated completely after each addition.
With a spoon or a pastry bag fitted with a large tip, spoon or pipe dough onto parchment sheet leaving about an inch in between.
Bake 15 minutes in the preheated oven, then reduce heat to 180o C to 350 o degrees F) and bake about 20 minutes more. Cool completely on a wire rack.
For the filling, heat milk keeping a few tablespoons cold milk to dissolve the dry ingredients.
In another sauce pan add the flour and corn flour (starch) mixture, the egg yolks, sugar, vanilla and the cold milk and stir well with an egg beater.
When the milk is hot, pour to mixture stirring constantly. Put on the heat and mix until cream sets. Add butter and couverture chocolate and mix until they melt and are incorporated.
Slice lengthwise each choux with a sharp knife and pipe in the pastry cream or fill with a spoon.
For the icing, place the sugar and water in a small saucepan over low heat and bring to boil mixing to dissolve sugar. Lower heat and boil for 3 minutes to make a syrup. Remove from the heat and wait for a few minutes and when the syrup is still warm but not hot add the chocolate and butter. Stir until both have melted and blended to a smooth, sauce.
Leave to cool, stirring occasionally. When the sauce starts to thicken, it’s ready to ice the éclairs.

Hope you all have a lovely Valentine?s Day.

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