Parisian Chocolate Eclairs

I admit I have been a chocolate eclair

lover since I first started baking as a

young girl, but I have always been just

a little disappointed in how they turned

out and how soggy they became.

Then I went to Paris and experienced

the visual delight of rows and rows

of thin, gorgeous eclairs and I knew

I was missing something.

Here is a photo I took in Paris in 2015

at Christmas time.  Of course we sampled

quite a few.

You know how your computers and phones

are suspiciously tracking you and listening in

on conversations?  Well, we are planning a

trip to Europe with our kids and all of a

sudden my Pinterest is just swarming with

pins of eclairs.

I was captured by a photo and the title

of a post by Food Nouveau

on how to make eclairs.  After reading

it, the recipe for the pastry seemed very

typical, but Marie had some tips that

were a little unusual, so I decided to give

her recipe and tips a try, and follow the

instructions exactly - I am not so good at

that, but when we took our pastry classes

in Paris, we learned how exacting that 

teacher was, so I decided to throw some

of my casualness out the door and be

more exacting.

I also decided to pipe my dough out into

thin strips to make them more like my

Parisian favorites, rather than spooning

them out like we always did growing up.

After boiling the water, butter and milk, Marie

said to let the mix cool for about 5 minutes,

stirring a few times to let some of the steam

out.  Well, that seemed logical - remove steam

and I would have a less moist pastry.

Marie's Choux Dough

(A variation)

1/2 C. water

1/2 C. milk

1 cube butter, cut into pieces

1/4 tsp salt

1 C. flour

4 large eggs

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.

Bring the water, milk, butter and salt to a boil

in a saucepan.  Stir in the flour and let it cook

for about a minute to let moisture escape (ahh,

that steam escaping thing again.)  It will form

into a ball.

Remove from heat and place in bowl of

your mixer.  Let cool five minutes and

stir occasionally during this cooling time.

You will see a lot of steam escape as

you do this.

Place bowl on mixer stand with paddle

attached and beat in one egg at a time.

It may separate, but continue until all

eggs are used up.  It will be a nice

glossy mass now.

Pipe into eclairs or puffs, on parchment paper.

I used my half inch sized round tip, and piped

them about 6 inches long.

Bake at 400 for 15 minutes, then reduce temperature

to 350 and bake another 20 minutes.  

Let cool on a rack.

We had always just cut our eclairs in half, but

I wanted mine to be Parisian, so I made

three holes in the bottoms and piped

my chocolate whipped cream inside.

Not certain this would work, I had to make a

test one to see if the filling got all the way in.

Hooray - it worked.

Then they were dipped in chocolate ganache.

These were beautiful just this way, but

I wanted to have some fun.

After the ganache had set, I piped some

wonderful chocolate buttercream on

trying out some of my new Russian tips.

(They take a little practice, but I liked

the way they turned out.)

The secret is my new one and only cocoa

powder.  I honestly can't remember which

blogger recommended it, but there is nothing

like it and I have tried all of the expensive

brands.  This runs on Amazon just under $20

and gives everything chocolate such a 

wonderful flavor (when paired with Mexican 

vanilla, of course.)  I get so many

compliments on my chocolate buttercream

and I have to give all the credit to this cocoa.

Chocolate Buttercream

1 C. softened butter (I always use salted)

4 C. powdered sugar

1/4 - 1/2 C. Extra Brute Cocoa - depending

on how dark you want it.

2 tsp. vanilla

5-6 T. milk

Mix all with paddle attachment until

smooth.  To use the Russian tips you need

a stiffer frosting, so I added about 1/3 C.

additional powdered sugar, or less liquids.

For the filling, you can do whatever

you want, pastry cream, pudding, or

whipped cream.  I whipped two cups of

cream and added 1/2 C. powdered sugar and

1/3 C. of my chocolate ganache.

Now I want to try all kinds of other

eclairs that are popping up on my Pinterest feed!!

Thanks for stopping by for a little chocolate.