Steven Lockhart
Senior Member
There are 3 elements for this lovely desserts, choux pastry, the filling and the ganache. By reducing its size from the regular one will reduce the risk of the filling spilling out because you can eat it in one bite . Believe me it's worth it.
Ingredients :
Choux Pastry :
- 125 ml milk
- 125 gr butter
- 1 tsp salt
- 125 ml water
- 2 tsp sugar
- 150 gr all-purpose flour
- 4 eggs
- 63 ml milk
- 20 gr cocoa powder
- 65 gr dark chocolate
- 250 ml milk
- 30 gr caster sugar
- ½ tsp vanilla extract
- 3 egg yolks
- 30 gr sugar
- 20 gr cornstarch
- 190 ml heavy cream
- 150 gr dark chocolate
- 10 gr cocoa powder
- Pre-heat your oven to 230°C
- We want to make the choux pastry first. In a medium saucepan, combine your water, milk, butter, sugar, salt and bring them to a boil.
- Turn the heat to low, add the flour and cook them. Stir it with wooden spoon until all combined and mixtures pull away from sides. About 2 minutes.
- Transfer it to your mixer and mix it on low-speed to let the steam out. We want to cool it down before putting the eggs.
- Add the eggs one at a time. Continue mixing until a soft peak form when you touch it with your finger.
- Put your batter in a piping bag using star nozzle. Pipe it on a baking tray lined with silicon mat or parchment paper for as long as 5 cm.
- Bake in a preheat oven 230°C for 5 minutes, and then lower the temp to 180°C and continue baking for 25-30 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN DOOR DURING BAKING OR YOUR CHOUX WILL DEFLATE!!
- After it’s baked, let it cool in a wired rack. Bake it one tray at a time.
- Now, we want to make the pastry cream, in a medium saucepan, bring the 63ml milk to a boil and then turn off the heat, add the chocolate pieces and cocoa powder and mix it until smooth.
- In a different saucepan, bring 250ml milk, sugar and vanilla to a simmer.
- Using a bowl, beat the egg yolks and the 30 gr sugar. Add the cornstarch to the beaten egg yolk and whisk it.
- Add 1/3 of the simmering milk to the beaten eggs, while keep whisking constantly. It will prevent the eggs from scrambling.
- Add the beaten egg-milk mixture back to the other 2/3 milk, cook it in a medium heat and keep whisking. The cornstarch will thicken the mixture. And this is how you make a pastry cream.
- Add the chocolate mixture to the pastry cream and mix it until combined. If you are not going to use it right away, cover it in a plastic wrap in contact with the chocolate pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming.
- If you want to use it straight away, put the chocolate pastry cream in a piping bag using a small pastry tip/nozzle.
- Now to fill the choux, you need to make a hole first. Because of its tiny size, I prefer to fill it from the tip. Using a tooth pick, drill a hole that is large enough for the pastry tip. Gently pipe the pastry cream generously into the choux.
- Now to make the glaze, chop your chocolate into tiny bit pieces and put it on a bowl. We want to melt them.
- Bring the heavy cream until simmer and pour it to the chocolate pieces. Add the cocoa powder and stir it until all combined and there are no chocolate pieces left.
- Dip the top of the eclair into the chocolate ganache and let it cool. Store it in a refrigerator.
