Chocolate eclairs

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 20 eclairs, you will need:

• 1 250 ml Milk
• 2 3 egg yolks
• 3 20 g caster sugar
• 4 20 g cornflour
• 5 80 g dark chocolate
• 6 70 ml Milk
• 7 70 ml water
• 8 60 g butter
• 9 70 g flour
• 10 2 Eggs
• 11 ½ teaspoon salt
• 12 1 teaspoon caster sugar
• 13 250 g fondant icing
• 14 1 teaspoon powdered cocoa
• Total weight: 1,065 grams

Times:

Preparation	Resting	Cooking	Start to finish
2 hours 40 min.	50 min.	25 min.	3 hours 55 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Prepare a confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière) with 250 ml Milk, 3 egg yolks, 20 g caster sugar et 20 g cornflour. Stop cooking as soon as it begins to thicken, there's no need to overcook it. You will notice that this recipe is less sweet than the usual version. This is because we will be adding chocolate. As soon as the custard is cooked, tip in 80 g dark chocolate broken into small pieces (you can also use chocolate chips).
2	Mix thoroughly until you have a prefectly smooth chocolate custard. Cover and leave to cool with the base of the pan standing in cold water to speed this up. Set aside.
3	Prepare a choux pastry with 70 ml Milk, 70 ml water, 60 g butter, 70 g flour, 2 Eggs, ½ teaspoon salt and 1 teaspoon caster sugar.
4	Cut a sheet of cooking parchment to the size of your baking sheet, and mark lines with a ruler about 8 cm (3 inches) long, a few centimeters apart. These are to help you pipe the eclairs to the right length.
5	Turn the sheet over and fix it at the 4 corners. Preheat the oven to 210°C (420°F).
6	Using a forcing bag with a n°10 (10 mm diameter) nozzle, pipe "sausages" of choux pastry 8 cm long following the marks you have drawn.
7	Round off the inevitable imperfections with the back of a small spoon dipped in milk.
8	Continue until all the choux pastry has been used up, preparing more sheets if necessary. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until the eclairs are golden.
9	Remove from the sheet and leave to cool on a rack.
10	Now comes the first tricky stage: filling the eclairs with the chocolate custard. Use a new forcing bag with a special "filling" nozzle.
11	When you have filled the bag with custard, take an eclair in your hand and at one end on the top surface, push the nozzle the full length (in the direction of the arrow). Note: By piercing the top with the nozzle, the hole will be covered by the icing, leaving a perfectly smooth eclair.
12	Press on the bag to inject the custard, and at the same time, withdraw the nozzle gradually while continuing to fill.
13	Finish by removing the nozzle when the eclair is completely filled with custard (if it overflows a little, that's normal and shows that it is properly filled).
14	The short video opposite shows how to fill your eclairs.
15	Do this for all the eclairs.
16	Melt 250 g fondant icing in a bain-marie while stirring. If you have a thermometer, check that the temperature does not exceed (or barely) 40°C (104°F).
17	At this point add 1 teaspoon powdered cocoa and continue stirring until you have a smooth brown icing.
18	Now comes the second tricky stage: icing. Remove the bowl of icing from the bain-marie and place on a tea-towel folded in 4. Take an eclair and dip the top in the icing.
19	Lift the eclair and turn it to remove any excess icing, then stand it level immediately as the icing sets very quickly.
20	The short video opposite shows how to ice your eclairs.
21	Do this for all the eclairs. Keep in the fridge, but take them out an hour before serving so that they are not too cold.

Remarks

You might well be surprised to see that your icing doesn't have the same deep chocolate colour as on eclairs that you buy, but I think commercial bakers must use a special colouring to achieve this (too) rich colour.
You can vary the flavours and make classic coffee eclairs, of course, but give your imagination free rein. I recommend you try lemon eclairs (lemon-flavoured custard and yellow icing), surprising with their yellow colour and, above all, their distinctive taste.

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