Hey there, has the sun tickled your nose yet? Yep, spring is on the way. And I have got something springlike for you right here… Spring is the time of love – and I fell in love with these:

Eclairs. Damn. I love European treats. Now, pate à choux has always been interesting to me. So puffy, light, airy… So I decided to try it.

I wanted to combine it with something German and chose the cherry-chocolate-cream combination from Danubian Waves Cake. I bet if the Danube flew through France, the French would have made this treat.

There are many myths I have heard about pate à choux. In fact, it is very easy. You just have to follow the instuctions EXACTLY. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN TO LOOK – the air in the dough will shrink and it won’t rise again. So please be patient with it. Make sure your oven has the exact temperature before you put the pastry in. If you do so, everything should go to plan.
If you are searching for airy, Euopean, low-carb, low-fat treats, give this recie a chance to tickle your taste buds. :)

éclairs recipe adapted from “Mmmh… Erdbeeren”
pastry cream adapted from Sprinkle Bakes book

(makes about 20 éclairs)

Pate à Choux

50 g (1 2/3 oz.) butter/margarine
250 ml (1 cup + 1 tbsp) water
1 pinch salt
150 g (1 1/4 cup) flour
4 large or 5 medium-sized eggs
1 tsp baking powder

Chocolate Pastry Cream:

2 tbsp cornstarch
250 ml (1 cup) whole milk
1 egg
2 egg yolks
6 tbsp sugar
2 tbsp butter
1 tbsp vanilla extract
45 g (1 1/2 oz.) semi-sweet chocolate

40 cherries
120 ml (1/2 cup) heavy cream

100 g (3 1/3 oz.) chocolate, for coating

Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F).
Bring water, butter and salt to a boil in a medium saucepan. Add all the flour at once and stir with a wooden spoon until the dough forms a ball and detaches from the edges of the bowl.

Remove the pan from heat and stir in 1 egg at once, using kneading hooks.

Let the dough cool for 3 minutes. Stir in one egg after the other, incorporate each one very well before you add the next one. Stir in the baking powder in the end.

Fill a piping bag with a large star tip with dough and pipe 10 cm (4´´) long stripes onto a baking sheet covered with wax paper.

Bake for exactly 30 minutes. DO NOT OPEN THE OVEN TO LOOK!

Let cool after baking. Then cut into halves with clean scissors.

Let cherries drain in a sieve. Beat heavy cream until stiff. Set aside.

To prepare the pastry cream, dissolve cornstarch in 1/4 cup of the milk. Add the egg, then the egg yolks one at a time to the milk mixture.
Combine 3/4 cup milk and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a boil while whisking.

Whisk the egg mixture and add 1/3 of the hot milk. Return the remaining milk to medium-low heat. SLOWLY add the egg mixture to the saucepan, whisking constantly. You do not want to boil the eggs. While whisking, bring the mixture to a boil. Remove from heat and combine with butter and vanilla. Melt semi-sweet chocolate in the microwave and stir in.
Transfer the cream into a bowl and let cool to room temperature.

To avoid askin on top of the cream, press a sheet of plastic wram directly on its surface.

Spread heavy cream at the bottom of the inside of the éclairs. Cut the cerries into halves and put 4 halves into each éclair. Spreag pastry cream on top of the cerries and close the éclairs.

Melt chocolate in the microwave and sptread in zigzag with a teaspoon over the éclairs.

Let chocolate dry and have a bite! You won’t regret it.