Caramel Eclairs

This week I couldn't decide what to make. I wanted something easy and comforting but difficult enough for me to think I'd really achieved something considering my macarons were a flop!
In the end I decided to make eclairs, I hadn't made choux pastry in years and I'm a sucker for whipped cream. Not being too big a fan of chocolate eclairs - call me crazy but I don't really like the taste of the chocolate with everything else; so I used a caramel sauce instead. I'm a firm believer that caramel makes pretty much everything taste 10 times better with it!!


The choux pastry recipe is from James Martin (are you sick of his recipes yet? I'm not!) and it is soooo easy its like making cereal...ok not quite, and I realise you don't really 'make' cereal.
The caramel sauce is my own made up invention, and was sticky and gooey and everything I wanted it to be, I could have eaten the sauce with nothing else!
We had to take pictures of the eclairs pretty quickly as my little sister and I devoured more than is acceptable in one sitting... I went running to repent...


Choux Pastry
(from James Martin's Desserts)


Ingredients


125ml water
125ml milk
150g plain flour
75g unsalted butter
5g caster sugar
a pinch of salt
4 eggs


Method
1. Preheat the oven to 220C, grease or line a baking tray.
2. In a pan put the milk, water and butter and melt over a high heat until it boils.
3. Sift the flour and add quickly to the milk/butter mixture off the heat. Make sure you beat it well so it forms a smooth paste. Return to the heat for about 1 minute cooking the flour and letting some of the water evaporate, but don't let it dry out too much as it will crack when it cooks.
4. One by one beat the eggs into the pastry off the heat until they are well mixed and the choux looks smooth and elasticy. 
5. Put the pastry into a piping bag or if you don't have one create rustic looking balls. Pipe into thin strips for eclairs or balls for profiteroles.
6. Bake for 15-20 minutes until golden brown. Whilst they are still warm make a hole in the pastry to pipe the cream into.


Caramel Sauce


Ingredients


3/4 cup sugar
1/4 cup water
2 tblespns golden syrup
1/2 cup double cream


Method


1. Put the sugar, water and syrup into a pan and heat, stirring to dissolve the sugar.
2. Once it is boiling stop stirring and let it cook until it turns a caramel golden colour (about 10 minutes). Make sure you watch it though so your sugar doesn't burn.
3. When the caramel is ready put the cream in off the heat and stir well. Don't worry if the sugar feels like it's hardening it will soften and dissolve again. Let it cool before using, this will help it to thicken a bit more.


To assemble the eclairs
1. Make up a whipped cream mixture with double cream, 25g icing sugar and whip until light and thick.
2. Put the cream into a piping bag with a nozzle and fill the inside of the eclairs. For thin ones I put cream in between and sandwiched two together.
3. Pour some of the caramel on-top of the filled eclairs. Mine dripped all down the sides but made for a nice finger licking experience!!