Mini Chocolate Eclairs

By casamia-inlondon.com on February 20, 2013 • ( 1 )

Mrs Cricri. Lucky her. She has been living in London for many years, as most of us: two kids, far away from her hometown, a husband super stressed for his job, always tired and sleepless, no weekends to the beach during summer time (what!? summer time?!), no (easy) weekends in the mountain on winter. Went off to Italy for our beloved Christmas break and her husband gets a brand new job in ROME. Yes, IN ROME. An impossible dream coming true, it’s like to reach the unreachable star, as Elvis Presley used to sing in the 70s. So, she never comes back from the winter break and tries – then and there – to settle down again. New school, new house, new nanny. …But then, your family is just a doorstep away (is that really SO good?!) and lunch at Salvatore alla Scialuppa – very nice restaurant, by the beach, in Fregene – just 30 minutes driving. After a few months she comes to visit us in London. The typical italian girls night out: Mrs Cricri, Mrs Sissi, Mrs Picci, Mrs Lilly and myself. Mrs Cicci is too heavily pregnant to be part of the group this time, or maybe she just had too much of my cookies! 😉

Dozo Japanese is our favourite place in South Ken. And here Mrs Cricri starts her dinner long complaint about Italy!!!!!!! One for all ‘at school, parents asked to keep the blinds closed because it’s too cold outside!’ (average winter temp in Rome is around 15C!).

Her favourite CASA MIA recipe is Mini Chocolate Éclairs, so here it’s my Goodbye, Mrs Cricri!!

Mini Chocolate Eclair

Ingredient

Pâte à Choux

250 ml water

100 gr butter

2 gr salt

5 gr sugar

150 gr flour

250 gr eggs

Chocolate Pastry Cream

500 ml milk

1 vanilla pod

150 gr egg yolks

90 gr sugar

30 gr flour

30 gr cornflour

80 gr melted chocolate

Method

Turn the oven on at 200°.

First of all sieve the flour.

Bring the water, the butter, the sugar and the salt to simmering point in a medium saucepan. Make sure the butter is all melted in. Remove from heat. Quickly stir in the sieved flour and quickly cook the mixture over medium heat, stirring constantly, until mixture pulls away from sides and a film forms on the bottom of the pan.

Transfer to a large bowl, spread the mixture and allow to cool down. Break the eggs up and add the eggs to the mixture, in stages, stirring with a spatula until you reach the dropping consistency – it is when lifting the spatula there are at least 2 dropping. Keep the remaining eggs for later, if any. Grease the baking tray with butter and pipe the choux pastry with nozzle n.6 in small bumps, big like a 10p. Spread a bit of the remaining eggs on top of the bumps. Bake them until are golden, then lower the heat to 170° and allow to dry inside for another 10 minutes or so. Break one choux to make sure they are totally dry inside. Once ready, transfer everything immediately on a wire rack to cool down completely.

Baking Eclairs

Melt chocolate on a Bain Marie.

Prepare the Pastry Cream: scrape the seeds from the vanilla bean. In a saucepan, combine milk, vanilla seeds, and half of the sugar. Warm the mixture up. Beat the egg yolks with remaining sugar until pale. Sieve the flour and cornflour together and add this to the yolks mixture until mixed. Pour a bit of the hot milk onto the mixture and then return everything to the pan, all together. Cook it and bring to boil whisking very fast to prevent scorching. Remove from heat and spread it onto a cool tray to cool down. Cover with cling film pressing directly on the surface of the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming. Transfer to the refrigerator to chill completely. Immediately before using, knock the pastry cream back again and fold in a couple of melted chocolate to flavour it. Add as much chocolate as you prefer. Transfer the pastry cream to a piping bag with a small nozzle. To fill the choux, use a small pastry tip to create two small holes on the bottom of the choux (this will ensure a properly filled éclairs). Pipe the pastry cream into the éclairs.

Dip the top of each éclair into the melted chocolate, let the excess to drip off and leave it to dry for at least 1 hour.