A few days ago, I braved through the snowy day, up a hill, pushing a stroller all the way to a hardware store. Don't ask why I choose the snowy day of all days, but you may ask why. It's because I wanted to buy a pastry pipping nozzle.. I looked all over the city, but could not find the few that I wanted. So because i've been promising myself i'd make eclairs one fine day for over a month, I finally woke up that snowy morning and said.. why not make eclairs on a not so fine day!


It's simple enough but it pretty tedious, and I guess it needs a lot of practise or a very delicate hand to make it presentable. As usual, my food may not look it's best, but hopefully the recipes I share with you here are good ones- those that turned out for me.


Ingredients
Choux Pastry
70 g butter, diced plus extra for greasing
150mls water
100 g plain flour
2 eggs

Pastry Cream
2 eggs, lightly beaten
4 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp cornflour
300ml milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

Icing
25 g butter
1 tbsp milk
1 tbsp cocoa powder
55g icing sugar

Method:
for the choux pastry:

1. preheat the oven to 200C/ gas mark 6. grease a baking sheet. sift the flour.
2. place the water and butter into sace pan and heat gently until the butter has melted.
3. bring to boil and remove from the heat. immediately add in the flour, beating well ntil the mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan and forms a ball.
4. leave to cool slightly, then gradually beat in the eggs to form a smooth, glossy mixture.
5. spoon into a piping bag fittes with a 1cm/1/2 inch plain nozzle. sprinkle the baking sheet with bit of water and pipe eclairs 7.5cm long, spaced well apart. (i made mine shorter so i got more)
6. bake in a preheated oven for 30-35 minutes, or ntil crisp and golden. make a small slit at the side to allow steam to escape, and leave to cool on a cooling rack.

while the pastry is baking, make the pastry cream

1. place the sugar and eggs in a large bowl and beat until creamy and thick. fold in the cornflour.
2. heat the milk in a pan until boiling. remove from heat and pour into egg mixture while whisking.
3. return to the pan and continue to heat until thick and glossy. add the vanilla extract and mix. allow to cool completely.

for the icing:

1. melt the butter in a seperate pan and mix in milk
2. remove from the heat and stir in cocoa powder and icing sugar.

to assemble:
split the eclairs lenghtways and pipr in the pastry cream. spread the icing over the top of the eclair. leave to set.



p/s: it may look sweet and toothaching, but honestly it's not. all in all, there's very little sugar used in comparison to other desserts, none at all the pastry.