With this horrible rainy and cold Saturday there was nothing else to do than cook some sweets and drink hot tea. After browsing a few recipes of things I wanted to cook, the unanimous choice was chocolate eclairs! And here I am in my kitchen, preparing pate a chou and custard. Of course chocolate eclair is not just enough so I also prepared two other variations: macha and chai. Each was just perfectly delicious. So here is my recipe. Eclairs consist in three preparations: the pate a chou, the custard and the coating.

For the pate a chou:

10cl of water; 10cl of milk; 3 eggs; 70g of butter; 110g of flour; a bit of salt and a tea spoon of sugar. 

In a pan heat the milk and the water. Add the butter, the sugar and the salt. When the butter has melted add the flour all at once and stir well. Continue cooking and stirring until the dough is smooth and doesn’t stick. Cool down a bit and add one egg. Stir until the dough is smooth again. Add the second egg and do the same and then the third egg and repeat again.

Pre-heat your oven at 180 deg. Use a pipping bag to shape the eclairs. Remember they will double almost size so tiny is better. Cook for 25 to 30 minutes.  

For the custard: 

30g of flour; 50g of sugar; 2 egg yolks; 25cl of milk.

In a pan heat the milk. In a bowl mix the eggs with the sugat, add the flour all at once and mix well. Add half ofthe  milk and stir well. Add the mix to ghe rest of the milk in the pan and cook at low heat while stirring for 5min, or until it thickens. Add the flavoring of your choice: cacao powder (2 tbs); macha powder (1tsp); chai spices: cardamom, cinnamon, vanilla, nutmeg… up to your liking. I personally like it with a lot of cardamom.

Cut the eclairs from the previous step in halves and fill with the custard. 

For the coating: 

I didn’t use the usual butter cream but rather a simple sugar coating made with ice sugar, water and macha or cacao powder for the coloring.  Add water little by little to obtain a rather thick mix, and apply with a spoon.

Keep refrigerated.