Ingredients:

Pate De Choux

½ cup milk

½ cup water

1 stick butter (4 oz)

½ tsp salt

1 tsp sugar

¾ cup Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour

4 large eggs

Pastry Cream

6 egg yolks

½ cup sugar

4 tbsp cornstarch

½ tsp Authentic Foods Vanilla Powder

¼ tsp salt

1 cup milk

1 cup heavy cream

Ganache

8 oz of your favorite chocolate

1 cup heavy cream

Directions:

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit.  Line two half cookie sheets with parchment paper.  Set aside.

Add the milk, water, butter, salt and sugar to a boil in a 2-quart saucepan.  Once the mixture comes to a rapid boil, take the saucepan away from the heat and add the Authentic Foods Multi-Blend Flour all at once.  Use a wooden spoon to mix the flour into the milk mixture rapidly.  Mix until all of the dough comes together and the bottom and sides of the saucepan are coated with a slight crust from the dough.

Add the dough to the bowl of an electric mixer.  Using a paddle attachment, beat at medium speed for a couple of minutes.  Then add one egg at a time (this is very important, do not add more than one egg at a time).  After each egg addition, make sure to mix until the egg is completely incorporated.  At first the dough, will separate; then it will come together the more you mix.  Increase the speed if necessary to get each egg incorporated into the dough.  Once all the eggs are incorporated, the dough should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon when you lift up the paddle attachment.

Add the dough to a large pastry bag with a large tip.  Pipe logs, 4 inches long at least 2 inches apart onto the prepared cookie sheets.  Bake in the oven for 10 minutes; then lower the temperature to 350 degrees Fahrenheit and bake for another 30 minutes.  Take the pastries out of the oven and let them cool completely.

Pour about 2/3 cup of chocolate ganache into the cold pastry cream (recipes below).  Whisk until even throughout.  Pour the pastry cream into a large pastry bag with a long pointed tip, similar to this one.  Poke a hole in the side of each éclair with the decorating tip and pipe your desired amount of pastry cream into each éclair.  Then dip the top of each éclair into the chocolate ganache.  Place the eclairs in the fridge so that the chocolate ganache hardens.  Then enjoy a delicious, chocolatey treat!

Pastry Cream (this can be made before or after making the pastries)

In the bowl of an electric mixer, use the whisk attachment to mix the egg yolks, sugar, Authentic Foods Cornstarch, Authentic Foods Vanilla Powder and salt together until very light and fluffy (this will take a couple minutes). 

In a small saucepan, bring the milk and heavy cream to a boil.  Remove the saucepan from the heat.  Turn the mixer on medium speed and slowly add in the cream mixture to the egg yolk mixture.  Mix for about a minute until foamy. 

Clean the saucepan you used to heat up the milk and cream.  Set a bowl aside with a fine sieve on top.  Then add the foamy mixture to the saucepan.  While whisking continuously, heat the foamy mixture on medium heat.  Continue whisking for 4 to 5 minutes until the mixture thickens to a mayonnaise consistency.  Immediately remove the pastry cream from the heat.  Strain the pastry cream through the sieve into the prepared bowl.  Take a piece of plastic wrap that’s larger in diameter than your bowl and place it directly on the surface of the pastry cream.  Make sure pastry cream is touching the plastic wrap to prevent a film from developing.  Place in the refrigerator for 3 to 4 hours until completely chilled.

Chocolate Ganache

Fill a 2 quart saucepan with water, a quarter of the way to the top.  Bring the water to a simmer.  Place a bowl on top of the saucepan (make sure the bowl does not touch the water).  Pour the chocolate and cream into the bowl.  Stir until all of the chocolate is melted and combined with the cream.  Remove from heat.