Double Chocolate Eclairs
Pate a Choux…it’s a French pastry dough that is absolutely delicious and versatile. Pate a Choux are the shells that cream cream puffs and eclairs. Now, you may be thinking that those look hard to make, but it’s simple if you follow a few simple tips.
Don’t add the egg to the batter until it has cooled a bit, no one wants scrambled eggs in their eclairs.
DO NOT open the oven other than when the directions state and then DO NOT open it until the pate a choux is done. The steam from the oven helps the eclairs puff up and have their signature hollow core.
Ingredients
For the choux:
1/3 cup flour
1/2 tsp sugar
1/8 tsp salt
1/3 cup water
3 Tbsp unsalted butter
1 egg, beaten
For the filling:
One box of chocolate pudding, or any flavor
For the topping:
1 oz. semi-sweet chocolate
1/4 oz. unsweetened chocolate
1 Tbsp butter
Directions
Make the pudding according to package instructions, I usually let mine set for the required time.
Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.
Combine flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl, set aside
In a medium sauce pan, melt butter with the water on a low heat, no need to get the water boiling, maybe a gentle simmer.
Once the butter is completely melted, take the sauce pan off the heat and add in the flour mixture. Mix everything together, it takes about one minute for all the ingredients to combine and should pull away from the sides of the sauce pan easily.
Put the mixture into a clean bowl and beat with a hand mixer until warm to the touch, about 2-3 minutes.
Add in the egg and continue to beat on medium for another 3-4 minutes. The dough should fall away from the beaters, but still hold its shape.
Place the dough into a piping bag with an Ateco #24 Piping Tip OR you can just use two spoons and drop the dough onto a baking sheet.
On a baking sheet lined with parchment paper, pipe (or spoon) the eclair shells about 3 inches in length. There should be about 8 in total. The last bit of the dough can be hard to get out of the piping tip, so I sometimes get on mini creme puff shell.
Bake for 10 minutes. (Don’t freak out if they haven’t puffed! It will happen in the next step.)
Open the oven door for a few seconds then close it. Turn the oven down to 350 degrees and continue to bake for another 20 minutes, or until the eclairs are golden brown. (This is the part you should NOT open the oven, let the steam do it’s thing).
Remove the baking sheet from the oven. Using a toothpick, poke one or two small holes into the shells to release the steam and let the eclairs cool.
Once the eclairs are cool, there are two ways to fill them with the pre-made pudding. You can cut them in half and pour in the filling or you can poke a small hole and use a piping bag to fill it. Either way works! I like to give the pudding a whip with the whisk first.
Next, in a microwave safe bowl melt the chocolate and butter. Do this in 30 second increments because the chocolate can burn!
Dip the top of the eclairs into the chocolate and let the topping cool.
Voila! You just made eclairs, don’t eat them all at once.
