It’s been pouring, pouring, pouring here in Goa, and I feel so lazy, not to mention sleepy. Sadly with 2 very hyper kids who seem to get through the day with minimum sleep, my sleep time gets reduced to a bare minimum. I had some painting work to get done and promised to bake my son some chocolaty treat if he didn’t fight with his brother for 10 whole minutes. Well, he did! And since it was my turn to keep my promise I baked him this yummy dessert.

This oh-so-yummy dessert been on my to-do list, like, for EVER. Somehow it seemed time consuming and I never got around to doing it. But now the time has finally come…

Contrary to what I thought, these were fun to make and assemble. I even got my son to give me a hand. They turned out quite tasty as well- though not quite photo-worthy! Éclairs have been popular with chocolate lovers for years now. Although little is known about the origin of the éclair, it is believed to have originated, (like most wow-desserts) in France around the turn of the nineteenth century.

The only problem I faced was with the cream. Perhaps I didn’t beat it enough, and was a bit messy to fill into the éclair. STILL, they were scrumptious Go ahead try them…

Ingredients

Pastry
¾ cup refined flour
A pinch salt
75 grams chilled butter, diced
3 eggs

Filling
1 cup whipping cream ( I used Amul Fresh cream)

Chocolate Icing
50 grams chocolate
25 grams butter

Method

Preheat oven to 200 C/400 F

Sift the flour.

In a pan heat butter and 1 cup of water and stir over low heat until butter melts. Now dump all the flour all at once and stir over medium heat until the mixture forms a ball and leaves the sides. Now take off the flame and let it cool for about 5 minutes.

Now add the eggs one at a time beating well after each addition. The dough will now look smooth and shiny. This mixture is called choux pastry. Spoon this mixture into a piping bag with a wide nozzle, or you could fill into a zip lock bag and cut the end to form a ½ inch hole.

Line a baking tray with buttered paper. Squeeze the mixture into medium sized sausage shapes. Keep these well apart (3 inches or so) as they will double in size in the oven.
Bake for about 30 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed up and golden brown in colour and feel hard when tapped. Now, and this is important, IMMEDIATELY remove from baking tray and with a pointed knife gently make slits on the top of each éclair so that the steam escapes and the éclairs do not become soggy. Keep aside.

For the icing, melt the chocolate in a double boiler and add butter and mix well. Take off stove.

Now for the filling- Whip the cream for a few minutes until it is stiff.

Fill, using a piping bag, the insides of the éclair and pour the chocolate icing over the éclair. This part turned out quite tricky and messy. Next time I will use a piping bag to cover the éclair with the icing.

Leave for a while, if you can resist it, until the icing sets.