Eclairs

So I definitely had huge plans for this blog during my two week winter break.  I was going try lots of new recipes and update the blog with lots of posts but yea...that didnt happen.  I got too distracted with sleeping, watching tv, and cross-stitching, all of I was able to do in the bed :)

Basically, when I have lots of time on my hands, I dont blog and when I should be studying (aka now), I blog.  Makes total sense..

Anyways, here is a new recipe for eclairs!  A bit time consuming but well worth it especially since it is a really impressive looking dessert that is super easy to make!  The original recipe comes from this youtuber Laura in the Kitchen. She is so hilarious and her food always looks so good.  My roommate and I love watching her, mostly because we love watching her reactions every time she eats. Literally at the end of all her videos, she says "OMGOSH I CANT..I JUST CANT...SO GOOOOOOOOOD." What can we say, she's one of our guilty pleasures hahaha.

Enjoy!

Laura in the Kitchen Eclairs

(seriously..watch her video. Highly entertaining)

Cream filling

- 2 and 1/4 cup whole milk (I just used 2 cups fat free and 1/4 cup heavy cream because I had those on hand)

- 1/4 cup corn starch

- 1/4 cup sugar

- 4 egg yolks (save the whites for breakfast!)

- 1 tsp vanilla extract

- small pinch of salt

1. Combine everything in a pot and bring to a boil while continuously whisking.
2. Once it boils, the corn starch will activate and thicken the cream.
3. When it is at a pudding consistency, pour into a bowl and put plastic wrap right on top of the cream (plastic should be touching the cream).
4. Chill in fridge completely. Ive found that chilling for a couple of hours is the best so that it doesnt firm up too much. 

While the cream chills, make the dough!

Dough

- 1 cup water

- 1 cup flour (whole wheat flour works well too)

- 1/2 tsp salt

- 1/2 cup unsalted butter (aka 1 stick)

- 4 eggs***

1. Preheat oven to 425degrees.
2. Put water, salt, and butter into a pot and heat until the butter is melted.
3. Take the pot off the heat and mix in the flour with a spatula.  It might look weird at first but keep mixing until you have a nice ball of dough.
4. Put back on the heat and keep mixing the dough to cook off the raw flour taste. You know you are done when there is a thin film coating the bottom of the pot.
5. Put the dough in a bowl and cool it off by mixing it around with a mixer or with spatula. Important to do because when you add in the eggs, you dont want the hot dough to scramble the eggs.
6. Once the dough has cooled off a bit, mix in one egg at a time.  It might look weird at first but give it time. The eggs will eventually mix into the dough.
7. Once all the eggs are incorporated, fill a piping bag with the dough (or use a ziplock bag with the tip cut off like I did) and pipe the dough onto a lined and greased baking sheet.  The shapes can be logs, circles, whatever you want!  Just remember to leave about 1in in between each one
8. Brush the top with some water and bake at 425degrees for 10min.  
9. After 10min, reduce the temperature to 350degrees and back for another 20-25 min or until the dough has puffed up and is golden brown.  
10. As soon as they come out, use a chopstick and make a small hole at the end of each shell in order for the steam to get out and for piping the cream into later.
11. Cool completely before assembly.

***So the both times I made these, I used 4 eggs.  Both times I made these, when I took the shells out of the oven, the bottoms stuck to the foil even though I greased it really well.  Not really an issue because I just turned the shells upside down and made them into bowls but still....next time I make these, Im going to only use 3 eggs. I think the batter was a little too thin when 4 eggs are mixed in...

Ganache Topping

- 1/2 cup semisweet chocolate chips

- 1/4 cup heavy cream

1. Heat the heavy cream in a pot.
2. Pour hot cream over chocolate and have it sit for a minute so the cream can melt the chocolate.
3. Mix the cream and chocolate until it is smooth.

Assembly (finally..)

1. Take out the chilled cream filling. If it is firmed up too much, whisk it a bit and it should be fine.  Put it into a piping bag or a ziplock bag with the tip cut off.
2. Pipe the cream into the shells through the holes you made earlier.
3. Dip the top of the cream filled shells into the ganache.
4. Let it sit out so the ganache can harden.
5. EAT!

Overall, really successful recipe for eclairs!  I made log shaped ones and mini donut shaped ones.  Personally I liked the mini ones because they were easier to fill with cream.  Plus eating 3 mini ones feels less guilty than eating 3 log ones haha.