When I first made eclairs about 3 years ago, they were a disaster… actually disaster is a nice word, they were a FLOP.

They did not rise, they just shrunk as they baked and they still tasted eggy when I bit into them.

That said, when we recently had a family prayer service for my mum’s cousin who passed away, I decided to make eclairs for the service, I know what was I thinking!!! Let me just set the record straight, I was so nervous while they were baking; I was literally glued to the front of the oven.

Because I watch The Great bake off’s and I own most of the bake offs book, I am aware that consistency is the key. So when I piped out my choux pastry, I drew lines on my parchment paper ensuring that each éclair was exactly 7cm long.

Again when I made the ganache, I accidently reheated and the cream split from the chocolate and I nearly had a television worthy melt down, but seeing as I had no chocolate left over to make another ganache from scratch, I had to use it, which wasn’t so bad especially after I piped white chocolate over the top in lines.

MMMM the éclairs was delicious, even if I have to say so myself and to top it, I took inspiration from the bake off yet again and pipped my cream evenly between each éclair, very professional even for me, normally I would have spooned the cream onto the éclair.

I really should stop watching the bake off, I am following too many of their steps lol.

Ingredients:

• 1 x cup cake flour, sifted.
• 100g x butter.
• ½ x cup full cream milk.
• ½ x cup water.
• 4 x eggs.
• Pinch of salt.

Method:

• In a sauce pan, bring the milk, water and butter to the boil.
• While still on the stove, add all the dry ingredients.
• Stir with a wooden spoon till the mixture comes together.
• Place the mixture into another bowl and allow to cool slightly.
• In a separate bowl, whisk together the eggs.
• Pour a little of the egg mixture at a time into the cooled mixture.
• Using your spoon, stir and mix till the eggs are well combined.
• Fill a pipping bag with the mixture and pipe lines of choux pastry onto a greased baking tray.
• Pop into a preheated oven and bake at 200 degrees till the pastry is golden brown.
• Allow to cool completely on a cooling rack before cutting in half.

To make the cream, whip together 250ml cream with 250ml of castor sugar till stiff peaks are achieved.

To make the ganache, heat ¼ cup cream and pour over 80g semi sweet chocolate chips, whisk till nice and smooth and allow to cool to room temperature.

To assemble your éclairs, dip the top half of the éclair into the ganache, shake off the excess and allow to set before cutting the éclair in half and filling it with the whipped cream.