Chocolate Eclairs

In all my years of baking experience, I haven't made choux pastry since high school. Even though I love chocolate eclairs, it's just not something I ever thought of making at home.

That's why I put this week's bake off in the too hard basket until today. In fact, I've whipped these up this afternoon, in the time between Sophie waking up and the kids getting home from school. And the longest part of the process was the actual baking time.

 As you can see, they're a long way from perfect. I think I had air bubbles in my pastry bag. And finding a recipe that had good reviews was actually quite difficult. I went with a recipe that had two reviews (versus some with fifty or more), so statistically the chances were high that the recipe wouldn't work.

Ingredients
choux pastry
60g butter
¾ cup water
¾ plain flour
3 eggs, lightly whisked
chantilly cream
1 cup cream
1Tbs sugar
1tsp vanilla extract
dark chocolate, melted

Method
* place butter and water in saucepan, bring to boil, remove from heat
* add flour, place over heat, stir well, until mixture pulls into a ball
* place into bowl, allow to cool five minutes
* add one egg at a time, mix well. Mixture will be sticky
* scoop mixture into piping bag with plain nozzle attached
* pipe mix onto lined trays, 10cm long
* bake 200°C for 20min, then turn heat down to 160°C for 30min
* allow to cool before splitting
* chantilly cream - whip all ingredients until cream is thick
* melt chocolate in microwave
* remove uncooked pastry from centre of shells
* pipe cream into base, dip top into melted chocolate, assemble
* refrigerate 10min before eating

Next week's challenge is PIES (sweet and savoury)

You can find inspiration on the Lifestyle Bake Off website

The Great Australian Bake Off airs on Lifestyle channel, Tuesdays at 8.30pm

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