Bubble Éclairs

I originally made these Bubble Éclairs because I wanted to test out Dorie's pasty cream recipe. However, I gave up on the pastry cream after several failed attempts. I ended up making these Éclairs with a cocoa whipped cream filling instead. I also wanted to make these Éclairs because I thought I could knock 2 recipes out in one shot (also making Chouquettes).  All in all, these turned out well and I would make these again.

Making choux pastry was a lot easier than I thought it would be. It was like making Gougeres, but without the cheese.

I like how this recipe is made with only a few ingredients: Milk, eggs, butter, sugar, salt and flour.

The first step is to combine everything, save the eggs and flour, on the stove and bring to a boil.

When the mixture is at a rapid boil, gently dump all of the flour at once into the pot, reduce the heat, and mix, mix, mix!

What you get isn't pretty... This is when the mixture gets transferred to a mixer and prepped for the addition of eggs.

Eggs should be added in one by one.

Immediately put the batter into a bag and pipe them out.

Pipe them as 3 circles, rather than long strips, and then use a pastry brush and go over them with egg wash.

The best part of eating these is the crunch that comes from the pearl sugar. Use generously!

These little guys should puff up and brown nicely after a total of around 40 minutes in the oven.

To fill these, just slice them open, remove any custardy bits, and pipe in whatever filling your choose.

My filling of choice was a cocoa whipped cream.

These are fun to eat; you can bite into them like a hotdog, or you can be more dainty and tear off the "bubbles" which I guess would make them mini cream puffs(?).

Bubble Éclairs recipe on page 230 of Baking Chez Moi.