Chocolate Eclairs

The traditional éclair uses vanilla pastry cream as a filling and rich, almost ganache-like chocolate glaze. Make this recipe with basic choux pastry dough.

Prep Time: 2 hours

Cook Time: 20 minutes

Ingredients:

• Basic choux pastry dough
• Vanilla pastry cream
• 4 ounces semisweet chocolate, chopped
• 1/2 cup heavy cream

Preparation:

Make vanilla pastry cream according to directions and chill.

Preheat oven to 425F and lightly grease 1 baking sheet. Spoon the prepared basic choux pastry dough into a pastry bag fitted with a wide, plain tip and pipe 8 5-inch lengths onto the baking sheet. Bake for about 20 minutes, until the éclairs puff up and turn golden brown. Remove them from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before filling.

Make the chocolate glaze while the éclairs are baking and cooling. Place the chopped chocolate in a heat safe bowl and set aside. Heat the heavy cream just to boiling over low-medium heat and remove from the heat immediately. Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until it forms a thin, smooth consistency. Set the chocolate glaze aside at room temperature for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

To assemble the éclairs:

Fit a pastry bag with a medium-sized plain tip and fill it with vanilla pastry cream. Insert the tip of the bag into the end of an éclair and pipe about 2 1/2 tablespoons of pastry cream into it. Gently spread 1 tablespoon of chocolate glaze onto or carefully dip the top of each filled éclair into the glaze before serving.

This chocolate éclairs recipe makes 8 servings.