Eclairs - finishing

Eclairs - today lets talk the finish.

First, we need to create a ganache. This is simply a mixture of hot cream and chocolate.  For this ganache, I'm using 1/2 cup of cream and 4 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate, in this case Ghirardelli which makes a great semisweet chocolate baking bar that is perfect for this sort of thing.  But any good semisweet chocolate will do.

Heat up the cream until is is hot, but don't boil it.  You can put it in a saucepan, but I just set my metal measuring cup on an electric burner and it works just as well.

It's best if the chocolate is chopped fairly small.  If it's not chopped small enough, the hot cream will not have a chance to melt all the chocolate before the mixtures cools and it won't be a smooth ganache.

Add the hot cream to the chocolate and let it sit for 45 to 60 seconds.  Then slowly stir it.  I like to go in small little circles in the middle and then gradually work my way outwards as everything melts and comes together.

Then simply let this sit out at room temperature for a while until it cools.  It will still be liquidy enough to spread.

Now slice the tops off the eclair shells and fill them with your custard-cream mixture.  And then either spoon the ganache over the eclairs or take the tops and dip them into the ganache.  Now you have a finshed eclair.  Pop them into the fridge to chill and the ganache will set.  I like to them sit for a few hours.  Then they're ready to eat.

Eclairs look like they must take a lot of work, but it's not that much, and since you can divide the process up into three separate stages and do each stage at a separate time, the task is easy to schedule around other things.

Soon you'll find them on the menu at brucebakeryandbistro.com.  I hope you will give them a try.