Hey bakers, today we're making
a Classic French dessert which just so happens to
be my all-time favorite, chocolate eclairs light
as air choux pastry filled (laughs) with vanilla pastry cream and then dipped in chocolate. So easy to make, so
satisfying let's get started. Choux is one of my all time
favorite things to make. It is so, so simple it's
basically foolproof. Half a cup or 113 grams
of unsalted butter, one cup of water, 240 milliliters, half a teaspoon of salt and like a teaspoon and a
half, two teaspoons of sugar. We're gonna put this over high heat and bring it to a rolling boil. Take this off of the heat really fast. Dump in one cup or 120 grams of flour and stir hard with a wooden spoon. Stir, stir, stir, stir, stir
until it's all incorporated. And we're going to stir
for like 30 to 60 seconds. There we go okay, now back onto the heat. And stir for another 30 seconds or so You're going to see this form like a ball. Now we're going to dump
this out into a stand mixer. You can see it's super hot. So, start mixing it on like medium and cracking an egg in at a time. (egg cracks) One egg (electric mixer motor whirring) Mix (hands clapping together) Steam (mixer motor whirring) Once it's incorporated add the next in (mixer motor whirring) We're gonna want to
scrape the bowl down too (glass clinking) Love the color (mixer motor whirring) (egg cracking) Third egg (mixer motor whirring) I want you to see it's becoming
kind of like more cohesive, like it's pulling away
and forming strands. We want the dough to be hanging on to the paddle attachment
but dripping down slowly. So, you want like a
nice silky consistency. This isn't here yet so we're
gonna add in one final egg. (mixer motor whirring) (egg cracks) (laughs) (beep) Add in one final egg,
like a bit at a time. (mixer motor whirring) (glass clinks) And let's just see where this is at (mixer motor whirring) Almost there I'm gonna add
the rest of that egg in. That's a total of four eggs (glass clinks) (mixer motor whirring) Okay, take a look at this. Clinging silky falling away slowly. That's exactly what we want. Now we can transfer this to a piping bag. I have to tell you the
color is just amazing. And would I eat this raw yes. I've done that and I think it's delicious. I'm transferring my dough to a piping bag fitted with a large
star tip, that's an 869. Normally I would use a round tip but a star tip should give
you a little bit more control when it's baking and have a
nice puffy and prettier eclair but both work and I don't mind the more
rustic look of a round tip. If you don't have a piping tip, just snip the tip off your
pastry bag and it'll be fine. I have a little dollop of dough here. I'm just gonna, you stay there. I have a little dollop of dough
here and I'm just going to (paper rustles) add a
smear onto the corners (paper rustles) of my baking sheet. It'll hold it in place while
I pipe and do my egg wash. I don't want things moving around. I'm going to try and pipe
these out nice and pretty but if things fall apart,
the egg wash fixes everything So don't freak out don't worry about it. Make sure to space them
out a few inches apart cause they do get puffy in the oven. Something very satisfying
about piping these out. We're going to fix those
tips at the end don't worry. (scissors snipping) (laughs) You can also use a pair of
scissors to cut the end off. That works too and it's not cheating. Setting aside we have another batch left. These need an egg wash
before they go into the oven. It'll make them nice and
brown a little gloss. Tablespoon of milk, one
egg give it a quick mix. (glass clinking) (metal whirring) Here's a little tip. If things didn't go as
wonderfully as you'd like during the piping and they're
a little bit misshapen, you can use your egg wash to
kind of sculpt things together, it'll fix a lot of the issues. You don't want any little
points coming off of these because they're definitely gonna burn. These bake at a high temperature. So, just use the egg wash
to push down a little bit. And then you can gently
brush the rest of the way. This one's a little fat, so, I'm gonna push it together over here. Think of it as baking Photoshop (laughs) The ridges are really gonna
disappear for the most part but they help control the
spread during baking so. That's why they're there that looks good. One more batch to go. These are going to go into the
oven at 425 for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 375 and bake for an additional
20, 25 minutes or so until they're nice and golden brown. And don't be afraid to turn
these around halfway through so that they get a nice even color. First off, the custard. It has to chill, so, you
got to make it first. You could even make it the day before. You're going to add in
two cups of whole milk, and you have an option. I'm going to go the old fashioned way and use an actual vanilla bean What are you, like? Dirty old string that's very expensive? No, vanilla beans. If you don't want to buy
these because they are pricey, get vanilla bean paste. It has all the beans in it
a lot of vanilla flavor. Vanilla extract tastes
almost exactly the same. So, you can also just use the extract. The only thing you're going
to miss are the little seeds. All right, we're going
to split this in half. Just cut down the middle. And now use your knife and scrape out all those seeds. Throw the pod in as well. We're going to bring this just to a boil and then take it off the heat. We want nice hot vanilla
milk for this custard. All right, and then
while that's happening, while my milk is heating up,
let's get to the egg yolks. (eggshell cracks) I need
six egg yolks for this. We're gonna separate the whites out, and if you're careful about it, the whites can be used for meringue. Just pop them in the freezer for later. That just came to a boil
it's off the heat now. (metal scraping) Let that milk infuse
with all that vanilla. One, two, three, four, five and, okay, six egg yolks. Add two thirds of a cup of
sugar right into that bowl. Whisk until it's light and fluffy. Well, whisk until it's lighter in color. It doesn't have to be super fluffy. This is where my exercise
for the day will come. See, that's lighter in color thickened up. (metal whirring) Wonderful. One quarter cup of cornstarch. So I'm just going to sift
as I whisk to avoid lumps, nice and incorporated. I have my hot milk mixture, I'm going to get a quarter cup of it, and use it to temper the egg yolk. So, basically we're
whisking in a small amount, to warm the mixture up, so that when we dump the
rest in slowly and carefully, you don't get scrambled eggs carefully. I'm going to drizzle this in
while I'm whisking vigorously, vigorously but carefully
now I have my hot mixture. What I'm going to do is just
clean this out really quickly, and then we're going to strain it back in, set it over heat and it's
gonna be almost done. You're gonna set it over and
whisk, whisk, whisk, whisk, continuously and by the by. I'm using my French whisk
which is a narrower shape, than the traditional balloon whisk. So much handier I feel for
getting the corners of the pan. It just started thickening up,
the bubbles are going away. And we're just going to
stir really vigorously and we're done. Okay, so off the heat, I
want you to take a look. That is what you're looking for. It smells so good. So thick and lovely. So hot (laughs) Needs to go into the fridge but of course, a custard will form a skin really quickly, just like a pudding so you
want to cover it with plastic, let it chill for a few hours
overnight just get it cold. So for the eclairs chocolate glaze, I am going to chop up, maybe about five ish ounces of
a really nice dark chocolate. So I'm basically making a ganache. If you have a favorite
way of making a ganache, you can let me know in
the comments I'm all ears. I have half a cup of hot cream in here. Let's just add the chocolate in, you can see it's already starting to melt. Just leave it alone for a bit. Let it hang out for a few minutes. And then when you come
back you can whisk it up. It'll be nice and silky and if it isn't, a couple bursts in the
microwave will fix everything. All right, let's check this ganache, it's been a few minutes. What? I love this part. It genuinely brings me joy. So pretty look at this silky
ganache that's perfect. My pastry cream from
yesterday that I made, is all firmed up nice and cool. And because I haven't had breakfast yet. There's my favorite thing to
eat that's so good (laughs) Okay, so we're gonna make a
little bit of whipped cream. And a by a little bit I mean one full cup, of heavy whipped cream in you go, and then we're going to whip it up with, a couple tablespoons of sugar. Whip it up. (electric motor whirring) (beep) (electric motor slowing down) It's getting thick I'm going
to add in a splash of vanilla. (electric motor whirring) Very nice let's take a look perfect. Okay, choose however
much you want to fold in. You could fold in a tiny little
bit, a lot it's up to you. I'm actually gonna whisk this in, it'll make it more pipeable too. (metal whirring) Okay, there we go now
I have a pastry cream, with a little bit of
whipped cream folded in, it's gonna be easier to fill my eclairs, and it's going to be so delicious. I could just eat this entire bowl. Okay, what am I going to do to fill these? The best way is to use a 230 piping tip. This is basically like a
really large injector needle, and it's going to pierce
the bottom like that. You're going to squeeze in
that delicious pastry cream, that we lightened with the whipped cream, and you're gonna be done. If you don't have one of these tips, what you could do is just
cut the eclair in half, fill it with the filling however you want, and then make it into like a sandwich. It's better not to overfill
your piping bag because, your hands will warm this up, and it'll be kind of a little
bit runny so, cold is best. This looks so daunting (laughs) Take a cooled eclair shell, and then just fill it up and
you'll feel it getting heavy. Holds a lot feels like,
isn't it coming out? Fill, fill, fill, and you can just fill
either until you see it coming out the top or it
feels like it's heavy enough. Here we go this feels
nice and substantial now. These hold so much pastry cream. One of the reasons, I like lightening these up
with whipped cream is because they're just like (laughs)
little balloons they hold a ton. I would eat this right
now in a hot second, but for you, I'm waiting
for the chocolate. These should be filled pretty
much right before serving, for best results because
you want the shell, to have that kind of
nice crispness about it. The pastry cream will make
things soggy after a while. (metal clinking) Now for the finishing touch, a dip in that silky chocolate ganache, I cannot tell you how
excited I am to eat this. That's very nice very nice. Doesn't that look like
sexy I don't know (laughs) Do you want me, I do (laughs) Just like that perfect. If chocolate looks a little bit off. A little cream, a little
whisking, fixes everything. Let's just have a bite. Do you see all this pastry
cream on the inside? With the chocolate, this really crisp paper thin
ultra light shell (hums) (swallowing) I'm not going to subject you to me eating. But if you love this recipe, check out my ultimate
German chocolate cake. It is so good, you will
put your eclair down. Check it out eat the eclair
while you're making the cake. That's the situation there
and you can also check out, my cake super cut compilation video, just the good stuff all the
decorating check it out.
