Choux Pastry - Chocolate Eclairs

I think we've firmly established that I love my pastry, love it. So I'm trying to push myself to make more and make it perfect. I'm really confident in my puff pastry but not so much choux pastry....I only made it once and I think I was about 15...so it doesn't count...all I remember is that there was some burnt cream involved, don't ask.

I found these could have been a bit sweeter for my liking, so a light dusting of icing sugar could just do the trick I think, I wouldn't recommend adding sugar to the mix on your first go as it can completely change how the mix comes out.
Choux pastry wasn't as scary as I imagined so it's definitely worth a bash!

So lets get to it.

Eclairs Recipe

• 65g plain flour
• pinch of salt
• 150ml water
• 50g butter
• 2 eggs, well beaten
• 300ml double cream
• 150g plain chocolate

Method

1. Sift the salt and the flour.
2. Place the water and the butter in a saucepan, heat gently until the butter melts then bring to a brisk boil.
3. Remove from the heat and til in all of the sifted flour and salt.
4. Stir briskly and firmly until the mixture form a soft ball and leaves the sides of the pan clean.
5. Remove from heath again and cool slightly, ass the egg mixture until it is smooth, shiny and firm enough to stand in soft peaks when lifted with a spoon.
6. Use straight away or if you have to keep it then leave in saucepan and cover with a lid so it doesn't dry out.
7. Fill a piping bag that has a 1cm round nozzle with the pastry and pipe 4inch/10cm sausages on a greased baking sheet. 
8. Bake for ten minutes at 200 degrees (180 fan), then reduce to 180 (160 fan) and bake for a further 20-25 minutes.
9. Take out eclairs, they used be lovely and golden,make a slit in each eclair and bake for a further five minutes to help dry out the middle a little.
10. Leave these to cool completely.
11. Melt the chocolate in a bowl, over a saucepan of gently boiling water.
12. Cut the slits again to ensure enough room for cream.
13. Whip the cream until light and fully whipped (odd sentence I know).
14. Spread the chocolate onto top of eclairs.
15. Chilld in the fridge until ready to eat.
16. Nom!
17. Pipe in the

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Baked Snickers Cheesecake

I can't lie to you, this is the most amazing thing you will ever eat - or make. You will literally never want to eat anything else in your life, so just prepare yourself for that because it is going to be life changing! It will take a few hours altogether but fully worth it!

Serves 8

Ingredients:

Base:
150g peanut cookies
150g chocolate digestive biscuits
75g ulsalted butter, melted

Filling:
500g cream cheese
1 tbsp vanilla extract/vanilla sugar
4 large eggs, seperated
100g caster sugar
200g double cream

240g / 4 Snickers bars, I use more though....

Preheat the oven to 170 degree (150deg fan) , gas mark 3.
To make the base, put all of the biscuits in a freezer bag and bash the fudge out of it with a rolling pin until they're like crumbs. Mix in the melted butter and press down into a suitable dish, springloaded if you have one. Bake for 15 minutes so it hardens slightly and leave to fully cool.

For the topping, beat together the cream cheese, vanilla, egg yolks and sugar. Add the cream and beat again. Now mix in the chopped up Snickers bars so that they are evenly distributed.

In a seperate bowl whisk the egg whites until they form soft peaks then gently fold them into the cheese mixture and be very careful not to knock out all of the air!

Now pour the mixure over the cooled base, smooth over and bake for 1 hour and 45 minutes, and don't be tempted to open the oven door or you may regret it!

It should look beautiful and golden, then turn off the oven and open the door. Leave it to rest like this, in the oven for another hour.

Now you have to wait for it to cool completely, then pop it in the fridge until firm, slice and eat. Nom!


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