The interminable design choices and shocking imaginative thoughts for making them increasingly wonderful, make me stop close to each store with lovely eclairs in the presentation window.
Much the same as macarons, eclairs come in endless various shapes, hues and flavors – that is the reason I like it to such an extent. Despite the fact that advanced cake culinary specialists attempt to make inconspicuous pastries constantly, I kinda like (and like) the works of art.
This is the reason I made these chocolate and hazelnut eclairs that are made of crunchy choux baked good loaded up with dull chocolate ganache, glossy chocolate sheets on top, dim chocolate truffles and split hazelnuts for adornment. It's a great and heavenly pastry which is extremely difficult to stand up to.
- For the dough:
- 125 ml. (1/2 cup) milk
- Pinch of salt
- 30 grams (3 tbsp.) sugar
- 50 grams butter
- 70 grams (1/2 cup) all-purpose flour
- 2 beaten eggs
- For chocolate ganache filling:
- 200 grams dark chocolate
- 250 ml. (1 cup) whipping cream
- 125 ml. (1/2 cup) cold whipping cream
- For chocolate sheets:
- 85 grams dark chocolate, chopped
- 5 grams cocoa butter
- 40 grams dark chocolate, finely chopped
- For decoration:
- Roasted hazelnuts, halved
- Make the eclairs: preheat oven to 190c degrees.
- In a medium saucepan put milk, salt, sugar and butter and heat to a strong boil.
- Add flour and stir while cooking, until it turns into a lump of dough.
- Transfer the dough to the bowl of an electric mixer with a paddle attachment and mix on medium speed for 2-3 minutes until it cools down a little.
- Add the eggs gradually while beating until dough is elastic and smooth. Check the readiness of dough by creating a “trail” with a wooden spoon in the center of the dough – if the track remains stable, add some eggs, and if it closes a bit – the dough is ready. It is important not to add too many eggs to the dough or it may become too soft and ruined.
- Transfer the dough to a pastry bag fitted with a serrated 2 cm piping tip. On a baking tray lined with baking paper pipe 4-5 cm long eclairs. It’s important to leave some space between the eclairs.
- Baking: bake for 12 minutes at first. Than reduce oven temperature to 180c degrees and continue to bake for 7-10 minutes, or until golden.
- Cool completely before filling.
- Make 2 small holes at the bottom of each eclair.
- Whipped chocolate ganache: chop the chocolate and place in a bowl.
- In a small pot, heat 250 ml. of cream to a boiling point.
- Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate, wait about a minute and whisk until you get a uniform, shiny ganache.
- Remove about 1/2 cup of ganache and keep in a separate box for decoration. This will be the piped truffles on top of the chocolate sheets.
- Cool the ganache for about 1-2 hours in the refrigerator until it is completely cold.
- Transfer the cold ganache to a mixer bowl with a whipping attachment, add in the remaining 125 ml. of cold whipping cream and whip until you get a very uniform and stable cream.
- Transfer the cream into a piping bag that is fitted with a 1 cm round piping tip and fill the eclairs generously through the holed in their bottoms.
- Chocolate sheets: in a small bowl, place chopped dark chocolate and cocoa butter and melt together until it reaches 50c degrees. It is recommended to do this in microwave pulses and mix between each operation.
- When the chocolate reaches the desired temperature, add in the finely chopped chocolate and mix well with a spatula until the chocolate cools slightly and reaches a temperature of about 32c degrees.
- Transfer the chocolate to a pan lined with baking paper, and flatten with a palate knife to a large square, about 2-3 mm thick.
- Cool the chocolate sheet for about 5 minutes in the freezer.
- When the chocolate sheet is cold but not completely firm, quickly cut it into 2*9 cm rectangles and return to the freezer for another 1/2 hour until the chocolate is completely hardened.
- Assemble the eclairs: drizzle generous amount of whipped chocolate ganache on top of each éclair.
- Gently place a dark chocolate sheet and squeeze slightly to stick to ganache.
- Transfer the saved (not whipped) chocolate ganache into a piping bag that is fitted with a small serrated piping bag and drizzle a small long strip on top of the chocolate sheet.
- Arrange halves of hazelnuts and serve.
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