Éclairs with White Chocolate Cream
Prep time: 
Cook time: 
Total time: 
Serves: 18 eclairs
 
Ingredients
Choux Pastry
  • 20z/56g butter, in pieces
  • ⅔ cup/150mL water
  • ½ cup/75g flour
  • ¼ teaspoon salt
  • 2 eggs, lightly beaten
White Chocolate Cream
  • 1 cup/236mL heavy cream
  • 4oz good quality white chocolate, I used Ghirardelli
Decoration and Icing
  • 4 oz melted white chocolate, divided and coloured
  • assorted candies, sweets and sprinkles
Instructions
  1. Preheat the oven to 400℉/200℃
  2. Mix the flour and salt together.
  3. Have a piping bag with a medium size plain nozzle ready to be filled.
  4. Have a baking sheet lined with parchment paper ready.
Choux Pastry
  1. Place water and butter in a medium pan and bring up to boil gently.
  2. Once butter is melted and mixture is beginning to boil, pull of the heat.
  3. Dump in the flour and salt and beat vigourously to combine.
  4. Don't over beat otherwise the fat will seep out.
  5. Let cool for 2 minutes.
  6. Once the mixture is in ball, using a hand mixer, start to mix the pastry ball.
  7. Add the eggs in a stream and continue to beat.
  8. Beat on high to trap as much air as possible into the pastry, 5 minutes.
  9. Once the eggs have been added and the pastry beaten, it is ready to be piped.
  10. Fill the piping bag with the pastry and pipe out long tubes of about 3"(8cm)
  11. Use a wet knife to cut of the ends from the piping bag.
  12. Pipe out 18 eclairs onto the parchment paper, leaving 2"(5cm) between each one.
  13. Place in the oven and bake for 15-20 minutes, until golden brown and puffy.
  14. As soon as they are out of the oven, remove from the baking sheet and poke two or three holes
  15. at the ends to release air.
  16. Or you can also slit the sides if you prefer.
  17. Place on a wire rack and cool before filling.
White Chocolate Cream
  1. Place the white chocolate in a microwaveable bowl and heat at 30 second intervals till melted.
  2. It will only take about a minute to melt and the residual heat from the bowl will continue to melt the chocolate all the way. Set aside to cool.
  3. Meanwhile, whip the chilled cream to stiff peaks.
  4. Slowly add half of the cooled, melted chocolate and continue to whip gently for a minute.
  5. Then fold in the rest of the chocolate, till combined all the way.
  6. Fill a piping bag with a small nozzle with the cream.
  7. Put aside until ready to fill the éclair shells.
Decorating
  1. Melt some more chocolate and divide into bowls and colour with desired colours.
  2. Have candy and sweets ready to sprinkle.
  3. Once the shells have cooled, using the piping bag filled with cream, squeeze cream into the ends of the shells using the holes you poked earlier.
  4. If you slit the sides, just pipe cream into the shell.
  5. Dip the éclair into your choice of coloured chocolate cream and sprinkle with candy.
  6. Put aside as you complete the rest.
  7. If you are not serving them right away, chill in the fridge.
  8. Éclairs are best eaten on the day they are made but I can eat them the next day too!
Notes
The times given are approximate. Depends on how long it takes to melt your chocolate, how efficient you are at piping and how much decoration you are doing.
Recipe by Coffee and Crumpets at http://www.coffeeandcrumpets.com/eclairs-with-white-chocolate-cream-and-a-giveaway/