tasty yumness

I made chocolate eclairs the other night, much to the delight of the family. Of the eighteen I made, these two were the only ones left in the morning. I cobbled together a couple of recipes, and, although timeconsuming, it wasn't actually hard.

Chocolate Eclairs

Pastry
6 tablespoons unsalted butter
3/4 cup water
1/4 teaspoon salt
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
3 large eggs

Preheat oven to 425°F with rack in upper third.

Bring butter, water, and salt to a boil in a small heavy saucepan over high heat, stirring until butter is melted. Reduce heat to medium. Add flour all at once and cook, beating with a wooden spoon, until mixture pulls away from side of pan and forms a ball, about 30 seconds. Transfer mixture to a large bowl and cool slightly, about 5 minutes. Add eggs 1 at a time, beating well with an electric mixer at high speed after each addition.

Transfer mixture to pastry bag and pipe 8 (5-inch-long) strips (about 1 inch wide) onto baking sheet, spacing them at least 1 inch apart. (I used a ziploc bag with the corner nipped off. I also made them smaller.)

Bake éclairs 15 minutes, then reduce temperature to 400°F and continue to bake until golden, puffed, and crisp, about 15 minutes more (leave oven on). Immediately pierce side of each éclair with tip of a paring knife and return to oven to dry, propping door slightly ajar, 5 minutes. Halve an éclair horizontally: If still moist inside, return éclairs to oven and dry 5 minutes more. Cool éclairs completely on a rack, about 25 minutes. I used the handle of a wooden spoon to poke a hole in the end of each while they were still soft.

Pastry Cream
1 1/2 cups half and half
1/2 cup sugar
2 large eggs
1 large egg yolk
2 tablespoons all purpose flour
2 teaspoons vanilla extract
1/2 cup heavy whipping cream

Bring half and half to simmer in heavy medium saucepan. Whisk sugar, eggs, egg yolk and flour in medium bowl to blend. Gradually whisk in hot half and half. Transfer to saucepan. Whisk over medium heat until mixture thickens and comes to boil, about 5 minutes. Boil 1 minute. Pour into medium bowl. Stir in vanilla. Press plastic onto surface of pastry cream. Cover; chill until cold, about 4 hours. (Can be made 1 day ahead. Keep chilled.) When well chilled, whip the cream until very stiff. Fold the whipping cream into the pastry cream.

Chocolate Glaze
about a cup of whipping cream
about a cup of semi-sweet chocolate chips

Heat cream (I used the microwave). Add chips, let sit, then stir until smooth.

To Assemble Eclairs

Load pastry cream into a pastry bag with a round tip. Pipe into cooled eclair shells. Spread chocolate glaze on top of eclairs. Let cool.