Stephen Witherden’s Website :: Cakes :: Eclairs

Sally & Andrew came around to see us. The real reason they came was to watch Sarah & I watching TV.

It starts with what’s known as Choux Pastry. Click More to find out how.

Ingredients:
1¼ cups Standard Flour sifted with salt
1¼ cups Water
125g Butter
4 eggs

Method:

• Sift flour and salt into a bowl
• Heat water and butter in a saucepan and bring to a fast boil.
• Once boiling, tip all the flour mixture in one go
• Stir briskly over moderate heat until the flour forms a ball in the center of the pan
• Transfer to a mixing bowl
• With a kneading attachment of an electric mixer, knead the eggs in one egg at a time

Now that you have your Choux pastry, put it into a piping bag and pipe the mixture onto a lined baking tray.
Pipe the mixture onto the tray. Make the eclairs as big as you like. Two fingers high and two fingers wide seems to work well.

Put the pastry in the oven for 10 minutes at 210° C. Then cook it for another half an hour or so at 180° C until golden brown.

When cooked, cut them so that the steam can escape. When cool, dip in melted chocolate and fill with cream. Easy peasy!

Makes about a dozen eclairs.