My mother, who is Welsh, is the best hostess in the world. When you pay her a visit, she makes you feel like Queen (or King, if you’re a guy) for a Day. Even today, at the age of 87, she hosts elaborate bridge parties and luncheons with wonderful food. When I was a kid, I remember friends dropping by our house
spontaneously. Instead of panicking, my Mom casually whipped up a batch of whipped cream-filled cream puffs to serve the visitors along with their tea. We were all pretty impressed with that trick. She was, and is, never afraid to try anything new, no matter how daunting the recipe or technique. So it’s in the spirit of my mother’s
cooking approach—sheer fearlessness—that I present a recipe for éclairs, filled with a lightened vanilla pastry cream and topped with a shiny bittersweet chocolate glaze. Making choux paste, the dough for cream puffs and éclairs, is a technique that many find intimidating, though it’s actually fairly easy to put together. The
only problem with homemade éclairs is that they have multiple components—the dough, the filling and the glaze—and it takes time to make each and assemble the finished pastries. The trick here is to make the filling (minus the whipped cream) a day or two beforehand, so that you only have to make the choux paste and the
glaze the day you plan to serve the éclairs. Though I made mine slightly smaller than standard bakery éclairs, you can make them any size you like, and you can also vary the flavor of the pastry cream filling (espresso pastry cream is great with the chocolate glaze). I recommend chilling the filled éclairs while you make the glaze, so that the glaze sets up faster on the cold pastry. And do serve them the day they’re made—you won’t have any trouble finding takers. ♥
