Eclairs for Mom

Last week when I made cream cheese danishes, Mom said she was hungry for eclairs.  Since this is Mother's Day and she made the request, I decided to try my hand at making some.  I chose this Eclair Recipe from allrecipes.com.  The only changes I made were to double the pastry dough - 2 c water, 2 sticks butter, 2 c flour.

First, you mix the water and butter in a saucepan and bring it to a boil.  Then reduce the heat and dump in all the flour.  The recipe said to stir vigorously until the mixture becomes a stiff ball....I stirred and stirred, but it didn't become a ball.  By the time I got a blister, I decided I should stop.  Later, I glanced at a few other eclair recipes and found I really only needed to stir for a few minutes (not long enough to get a blister).

Then, transfer it to a stand mixer and mix it for a minute or two so it can cool a bit before adding the eggs.  It changes into a pretty yellow color from all the egg yolks.

Next, I used a gallon zip top bag as a makeshift pastry bag to pipe the eclairs onto parchment paper.

Then into the oven they go.  The instructions said not to open the oven during baking.  I didn't open it once, but some of my eclairs still fell flat by the end of the baking time.  I'll have to figure that one out the next time I make these.

After they were cool, I made the filling. I whipped heavy cream and folded it into vanilla pudding. (It was instant pudding, shhh, don't tell anyone.)

I decided to just spoon the filling into the eclairs.  I cut the eclairs open on the side, like a hot dog bun, filled them with the pudding and closed them back up.

Then they went into the fridge to chill.  To make the chocolate glaze, heat heavy cream just until boiling and then add the chocolate.  Spoon the chocolate over the top of the eclairs and then put back into the refrigerator until ready to eat.  That is, of course, after you have the obligatory first eclair.  Hey, someone has to try them out.