Chocolate Eclair

I often wonder what the world would be like without desserts. No ice-cream to chill down, no Tiramisu to tease the taste bud, no creme brulee for Christmas and no chocolate cake to drown one's sorrows. To watch such a world goes by would be like watching a silent black and white movie; with no punch line nor colourful scenery.


By now you should have guessed that I am a dessert person. I love my desserts no matter what shape they are. Recently, I saw some chocolate eclairs in a bakery shop and it brought to memory those chocolate eclair days shared with hubby on our dates. We used to pop by the bakery of a supermarket by the name of Kimisawa along Old Klang Road to get our weekly fix of chocolate eclairs. In the 1980s there weren't as many bakery selling chocolate eclairs as today. These days we are spoil for choices.


To reminisce the good old day, I decided to bake some eclairs. The paste used to make eclair is call the choux paste (pronounce as "shoo"). The uniqueness of choux paste is created when the flour is cooked in the water and butter mixture. Cooking of the flour caused the starch to break down and swell, developing gluten.

These eclairs that I made are filled with whipped cream and top with chocolate ganache.






Ingredients
1 cup water
100g butter
1 tbsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup plain flour
3 large eggs

1. Bring water, salt, sugar and butter to boil, till butter has melted.

2. Give it a good stir and add in all the flour.

3. Turn down the heat and stir the mixture vigorously until it comes together like a dough.

4. Transfer to a bowl and cool for 3 mins.

5. Add eggs, 1 at a time; beating well after each addition.

6. Spoon paste into a piping bag fixed with large star nozzle and pipe on greased baking tray.

7. Bake in oven preheated to 200C for 10 mins, then reduce temperature to 180C and bake for another 15 mins.

8. Cool eclairs and fill with any filling of your choice.