Chocolate Eclairs

Here is a yummy scrummy recipe for Eclairs. They are not the easiest thing to make but after a little bit a practise they are very easy!
It is the water in the Eclair mixture, with evaporates whilst it is cooking and leaves a hollow middle.

Ingredients:
FOR THE CHOUX PASTRY:
1/4pint water
2oz margarine
pinch of salt
2 small eggs
2 1/2oz plain flour
FOR THE FILLING
50g chocolate
100ml double cream or whipping cream

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 220 degrees C. Prepare a baking sheet with grease proof paper. If you want to draw lines along the sheet 2 -3cm apart, so when you pipe the eclairs they are all the same length.
2. Put the water, margarine and salt in a large pan. Heat until the margarine melts. Then bring the mixture to a  boil. Remove from the heat.
3. Quickly beat in the flour all at once. Continue beating until the mixture falls away from the edges of the pan and comes together to form a ball. Do not over beat. (To help prevent this, stop beating immediately after the mixture start to come away from the edge)
4. Cool the mixture. (The mixture should be cool to the touch) Then beat in the eggs gradually until the pastry is smooth, glossy and can still hold a shape.  All the egg may not be needed. Make sure the mixture does not turn into a runny mess by adding to much egg.
5. Now spoon the mixture into a piping bag, with a large nozzle.
6. Pipe out eclairs which are about 2cm -  3cm in length. Make sure they are all similar in size as this will make cooking them easier.
7. Place them in the oven for 15- 20 mins or until golden brown. Remove from the oven. Do not open the oven door whilst they are cooking as this will affect the cooking.
8. After taking the eclairs out of the oven make a hole in the side with a chopstick or something similar. This will let the steam escape from the middle.  Then place them back in the turned off oven for about 5 minutes to dry out the botoms. Cool.
9. Whip 50ml of the double cream. Make the ganache by melting the chocolate and then adding the rest of the cream (50ml).  The ganache should turn shinny and thick.
10. Place the whipped cream in a piping bag, with a small nozzle.
11. Either pipe the cream in the hole that was made to let the steam out, or cut the eclairs in half and using a knife put some cream in the middle.  Then smooth ganache over the top.
12. Tada!!! You have some eclairs!

Eclair

Troubleshooting:

• If the mixture did not hold its shape or collapsed after they were taken out of the oven then there was to much egg in the mixture.