Chocolate éclair

In a sauce pan, bring the water, milk, salt, sugar and butter to the boil. Sieve the flour and stir in the hot liquid with a whisk. Swap the whisk to a wooden spoon and beat the dough over strong heat for about 20 seconds to dry out the pastry little. Clear into a mixing bowl and stir in the eggs one by one. Using a pastry bag, pipe the choux pastry into éclairs shaped sticks. Pre-heat the oven at 250°C, put in the tray of éclairs an turn it off. As soon as the choux pastry has puffed up and starts to colour, switch the oven back on and set ot at 180°C. Bake for another 10 minutes or so drying out the éclairs slowly.

Chop the chocolate and melt it down slowly in a bain-marie or in a micro wave oven set at medium power. In a mixing bowl, whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar and cornstarch. In a saucepan, bring the milk and cream to boiling point and stir about a third in the previous mixture using a whisk. Bring the remaining liquid to the boil, pour in the thinned down mixture and cook over low heat whisking constantly until the pastry custard thickens. Cook the custard for about 1 minute making sure that the custard doesn’t stick at the bottom of the saucepan. Pour a third of the hot custard on the chocolate and stir the center with a rubber spatula in order to create a smooth, glossy and elastic core of emulsion. Pour in the second third of cream and repeat the same process. Then, finish with the last third making sure to keep the same texture all along. Smooth, cling wrap in contact of the custard and set aside in the refrigerator.

Chop the chocolate and melt it down slowly in a bain-marie or in a microwave oven set at medium power. Bring the cream to the boil. Gradually pour the hot cream over the melted chocolate in three batches as previously explained. Mix the ganache with a hand blender making sure not to add any air bubbles and set aside in the refrigerator

Using a little bit of oil, stick a plastic sheet on a flat tray. Pour some tempered dark chocolate int the centre, lay a second plastic sheet over and then, spread the chocolate from the centre to the outer edges with a rolling pin. Check the thickness. As soon as the couverture starts to crystallize, stamp out discs of different diameters using pastry cutters. Allow to crystallize for a couple of hours before peeling of the chocolate discs. Fill the éclairs with the chocolate pastry custard using a pastry bag fitted with a small plain nozzle. Melt down the soft chocolate glaze at about 28/30°C and glaze the éclairs on the rounded side. Decorate with the chocolate discs. Set aside in the refrigerator.