Chocolate eclairs with custard filling

Baking Chocolate eclairs has been in my to do list for a long time.  I have seen bakers baking this on TV and I have been wanting to try my hands on it ever since but like many other things it never happened  and luckily Baking partners came with a lovely challenge of baking chocolate eclairs this month and I was delighted to give this a try. I halved the recipe which yielded me 10 small medium eclairs and I took them to a friends place for a tea party and the they all loved it .

Before going to the recipe let me tell you a little about custard filling too, I have been making homemade custard and custard cream  since a long time eventhough I  never got to blog about it and I have to tell you you should try to make  home made custard atleast once and I am sure you will never go and make custard out of a packet ever again as it tastes soo soo delicious !

INGREDIENTS

For custard filling

Eggs yolks - 3

Milk - 3/4 cup

Double cream - 3/4 cup ( or use  milk )

Vanilla essence - 1 tsp or  Vanilla pod -1 

Sugar - 1/2 cup

Cornflour - 3 tbs

Salt - a tiny pinch

For pastry

All purpose flour/ maida  - 1 cup

Unsalted butter - 4 tbs

Sugar- 1 tsp

Salt - a pinch

Eggs - 2 

Water - 1/2 cup

For chocolate glacing

Chocolate - 100gm

Double cream - 100ml

Butter - 1 tsp

Honey - 1 tsp

METHOD

Making of Custard cream 

• In a pan take 3/4 th cup of milk  and  3/4 th cup of double cream .Split vanilla bean by running a knife and put the bean in the milk- cream mixture. Place them on a low flame and bring it to boil.Turn of the flame and set aside for 10-15 minutes for the vanilla flavour to infuse.
• Meanwhile in a bowl whisk  custard powder, sugar, salt and three egg yolks until sugar is dissolved and looks like the picture shown below.

                                   

• Very slowly add warm milk mixture to this and stir continously taking care not  to cook the  eggs.
• Pour everything back into a saucepan and cook on a very low flame( must be on low flame )whisking continously until the custrad thickens.Takes about 10- 15 minutes on a very low flame.
• Transfer the custard into a bowl and cover it with a cling film touching the custard to prevent skin forming.
• Refrigerate for 2-3 hours.

Making of pastry

• In a saucepan bring water, butter, salt and sugar to rolling boil. Turn off the flame and add  flour and stir continiously with a wooden spoon for 30-60 seconds until its mixed properly.
• Return the saucepan to fire and cook for 30 seconds stiring continously and you will get a smooth dough.
• Transfer it into a standing mixer with paddle attachment or to a mixing bowl with hand beater aside.
• Break 2 eggs in a bowl and lightly beat them. With mixer running add the beaten eggs to the dough slowly until the dough  is smooth and glossy. Dough should be thick and should fall like a ribbon from the beater. Add more beaten eggs if dough is too tight  to get the smooth dough.
• Fill a  pastry bag / icing bag with a round tip of 2 cm and pipe a line of about 5-6 cm. Leave few inches between them as they puff up when baked.
• Finally give an egg wash  with a brush or finger and smoothen  any bumps.
• Bake them in a preheated oven at 210 degree c for 15 minutes and then reduce the temperature to 190 degree c and bake for another 25- 30 mins.
• Once baked let them cool .

Making the chocolate Glacing

• In a saucepan bring double cream to almost boiling point.
• Turn off the flame and add chocolate, butter and honey. Mix well and set aside.

Assembling

• Once they are cool make a hole on each eclairs. Fill the prepared custard cream in an icing bag and pipe them into eclairs. You can also cut the eclairs into halves and fille the custard inside.
• Dip the eclairs into chocolate glacing and set aside until chocolate sets. Decorate the eclairs if you like and  serve them immediately.