Chocolate Eclairs

After watching Paula Deen of the Food Network channel making chocolate eclair on the television, I'm just itching to get my hands on those big, chunky eclairs but I keep putting off buying it. So one day, I said to myself, 'buat lah sendiri!'

The whole process was tedious, since you have to make three different things - the pastry, the filling and the chocolate icing. My kitchen was a mess.

However it's worth all the hard work baby! Look how it turned out:

Messy I know, kasi chan lah, this is my first attempt. My housemate took 1 piece, and when I asked him how it tastes like, he simply said 'okay lah'. Rasa nak baling periuk kat dia.. Penat2 aku buat, dia kata okay jek??

'Sedap lahh, sedap gila actually' and took 2 more eclairs from the kitchen. Hehehe Alhamdulillah....

There are so many chocolate eclairs recipe online, but this is the one I use:

Pastry:
1 cup water
1 stick margarine or butter
1 cup sifted all-purpose flour
4 eggs

Filling:
3 cups milk
3/4 cup sugar
1/2 teaspoon salt
6 tablespoons all-purpose flour
3 eggs, beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

Icing:
2 (1-ounce) squares chocolate
2 cups sugar
1 cup whipping cream

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.

Heat water and margarine or butter to boiling point. Add flour and stir constantly until mixture is smooth and forms a ball when tested in cold water. Remove from heat and let cool. Beat in 4 eggs, 1 at a time and once incorporated, place into a pastry bag. On a greased cookie sheet, pipe out dough in thick lines that form eclairs. Bake for approximately 30 minutes or until light brown. Set aside to cool. Prepare filling by combining milk, sugar, salt and flour. Cook slowly until thickened. Add 3 beaten eggs and continue to cook until mixture is even thicker. Remove from heat, cool and add vanilla.

With a serrated knife, slice pastry puffs lengthwise, but not all the way through. Pipe custard mixture into the center. Melt chocolate for icing, add sugar and cream. Cook over medium heat until soft ball stage. Let cool and beat until smooth. Ice tops of the eclairs.

(Source: FoodNetwork.com)