Eclairs are famous French sweets made with choux pastry and stuffed with custard or creme patissiere or whipped cream and then topped with chocolate glaze or fondant.
In my recipe I made a caramel flavored custard.
To know how to make them please watch the following video:
Ingredients:
Caramel Custard:
- 170 grams or 0.8 cup sugar
- 1/4 cup water
- 2 cups milk
- 35 grams or 1/4 cup corn starch
- 2 eggs
- 15 grams or 3 tsp butter
- 1 tbsp vanilla essence
Choux Pastry
- 125 ml or 1/2 cup water
- 50 grams or 11 tsp butter
- 60 gram or 1/2 cup flour
- 2 eggs
- pinch of salt
Chocolate Glaze:
- 100 grams dark chocolate
- 2 tbsp milk
- 25 grams or 5 tsp butter
Tips:
- When making the caramel make sure not to over burn the sugar syrup as it will give a bitter taste. At the same time don’t take it too soon or you’ll have a very mild caramel taste. You have to wait till the sugar syrup is dark amber color.
- When adding the milk to the caramel make sure to be careful and todo it slowly.
- When adding the milk and caramel mixture to the beaten eggs be careful to do it slowly while whisking all the time or else you might have scrambled eggs.
- If the mixture has any lumps you can pass it through a fine sieve.
- When the custard is ready cover its surface with plastic wrap so as it doesn’t form a crust. Leave it to cool completely in the fridge before using.
- When making the pastry leave the flour mixture cool down before adding the eggs.
- When piping the eclairs use a suitable piping nozzle. A 2 cm is the best option. pipe them to 10 cm length and leave enough space between them.
- Bake the eclairs in an preheated oven at 180 C for 30 mins or until they are lightly golden.
- Leave the eclairs to cool completely before filling them.
- When making the chocolate glaze pay attention to how strong your microwave is. So it is better to melt it in 20 seconds interval and mix each time until it melts. It took me 45 seconds.
- Before serving it is better to put the eclairs in the fridge so the glaze will harden up a bit.
