Chocolate eclairs

I made chocolate eclairs!  I've been wanting to make eclairs for a long time and these were one of my baking projects during the holiday break.  It was an interesting experience and I was happy that they ultimately turned out (quite deliciously, but it took two attempts) and we were able to enjoy them with my sister and her family during a relaxing little after-Christmas dinner at our place.

Eclairs filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with ganache

Here's the story: Over a year ago, I made pate a choux and used it to make cream puffs and profiteroles.  They turned out nicely and I was pretty proud of myself.  I wanted to make eclairs next; after all, it's the same dough and all I'd have to do is make pastry cream and either a ganache or chocolate glaze for the topping - things I've done before.  But there was something about the idea of making eclairs (and even making cream puffs and profiteroles again) that seemed daunting and I put it off, and off.  I was reluctant for some reason...and I may now know why.

Maybe we sometimes have a gut feeling about these things.  I was worried about something - I thought maybe it was the steps involved or about wielding that piping bag with my naturally shaky hands.  Turns out...it was the dough!  The dough that should be simplicity to make and involving just a few ingredients.  

I made the pate a choux dough following the same recipe I used successfully last time and it turned out...watery!  I just stared at it, a little shocked because this kind of fail doesn't happen very often.  That's not because I'm "good" but because I'm a bit of a control-freak; I know what I like, and I research and pick reliable recipe sources.

Well, there was absolutely no way I could pipe the dough that sat in front of me; it was almost as thin as the consistency of soup and ran right through the pastry tip. What did I do?  I tried to fix it by placing it in the fridge and giving it some serious whipping with my wooden spoon every so often to see if it would stiffen up.  

I then remembered that the last time I made the dough for those cream puffs, I'd noted that the dough was thinner than I expected!  Looks like I was lucky last time! So while I was awaiting the fate of that watery dough, I started thinking maybe I should use less eggs.  But then I looked around some more...and consulted Dorie's latest cookbook (Jo's chouquettes recipe instructions helped me, too) and realized that I needed to cook the dough longer on the stove, on the heat, to remove the liquid from the dough to dry it out!  Not doing that was what made the pate a choux runny! I love David Lebovitz, the source for the recipe I used, but the instructions did not cite that.  

I decided to abandon that first attempt (the dough had thickened some but no where near enough and I didn't hold much hope for it) and make another batch.  By cooking the dough on the heat a couple of extra minutes, I had a wonderfully thick dough that was a world of difference from my first attempt!  It's a good thing I only sacrificed half a stick of butter and a couple of eggs for the re-do! 

So that was the little drama behind my eclair-making experience.  I feel really good about it after the fact because I learned something!  I also no longer feel a weird reluctance at the thought of making eclairs or pate a choux!

Dark chocolate pastry cream

After all that back story, we can finally talk about these actual eclairs!  They were worth the drama because these little eclairs were not only fun to look at but also so easy - and delicious - to eat!  

As you've clearly seen from all the pictures I threw in as backdrop to my story, I was true to form and went with a chocolate pastry cream for my eclairs.  While a vanilla pastry cream would be very good (I might try that), I can never get enough chocolate and that's just a plain fact for me.

Topped with chocolate ganache, I decided to sprinkle some of the eclairs with pistachios after Nigella reminded me that any cake becomes instantly more beautiful garnished with it.  I think she's right and the same goes for eclairs.  Interestingly enough, I think the eclairs tasted all the better with that bit of crunch and flavor!

My little batch of chocolate eclairs disappeared quickly at the dinner table that night I served them...and there is no better feeling!