Easy & Delicious Eclairs

Directions

• Preheat the oven to 425 degrees F. and line a cookie sheet with parchment paper. Set aside.
• Beginning with the choux pastry, in a medium sauce pot, combine the water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt. Bring this mixture to a boil over medium heat.
• Remove the mixture from the stove top when it begins to boil then add in the flour. Mix the flour in with a wooden spoon .
• Put the mixture back over medium heat and cook the flour in the pastry for 2 minutes while mixing constantly with a wooden spoon.
• Transfer the dough to a large bowl and add in the eggs one at a time mixing between each addition. You can continue to use a wooden spoon for this step.
• Once the eggs have been evenly incorporated, transfer the pastry dough to a piping bag fit with a circle metal tip. Pipe the eclairs on the prepared cookie sheet. Pipe them about 4 inches long in strips.
• Bake the eclairs for 10 minutes at 425 then without opening the oven, decrease the temperature to 325 degrees F and bake for another 30 minutes.
• The eclairs should be beautifully golden brown when finished. Allow them to cool on a wire rack completely.
• Vanilla Custard
• To make the vanilla custard, combine the milk and vanilla in a medium saucepan and bring to a simmer.
• In a separate, large bowl, whisk together the sugar, cornstarch, and salt. Add in the egg yolks and whisk until smooth and creamy. It will be thick and hard to whisk at first but will become creamy as you continue to whisk.
• To prevent the eggs from curdling, whisk the cornstarch mixture constantly while adding the hot milk and vanilla mixture in a slow stream. Constantly whisk and slowly add in the milk until its all been incorporated.
• Pour this mixture back into the pot that you initially heated the milk and vanilla with. Cook while whisking constantly, over medium heat for about 5 minutes or until it has reached a pudding consistency.
• Transfer the vanilla custard to a heat proof bowl, then cover with plastic wrap to cool. Place in the fridge for at least 1 hour.
• Once the pastry cream is cooled, poke a hole on the side of the eclair using a skewer or whatever tool you have on hand. Use a piping bag to pipe the vanilla custard in the eclair. Gently insert the tip of the piping bag in the hole on the side of the eclair and fill completely with custard.
• Ganache
• To make the ganache, place the chocolate in a heat proof bowl.
• Microwave the heavy whipping cream in 30 second intervals continuing to heat until it begins to bubble.
• Pour the heavy whipping cream over the chocolate and let it sit for one minute.
• Whisk the chocolate and heavy cream until nice and smooth. The ganache will be very thin at first. As it cools it will begin to thicken.
• Let the ganache cool down for 45 minutes and thicken before dipping the eclairs.
• Dip the eclairs in ganache one at a time. The ganache will take about 15 minutes to set.
• Enjoy!