Revised Eclairs

 

Ingredients:

For 9 eclairs+:

Crème diplomat:
1 small whole egg, or half a large whole egg
1 large egg yolk, reserving egg white for the below pate a choux
1/2 t kosher salt (or 1/4 t table salt)
2 T c granulated white sugar
2 T corn starch
1 c whole milk
Seeds scraped from 1 vanilla bean
2 T cold, unsalted butter, cubed
1/2 c heavy cream

Pâte à choux:
1/2 c water
1 t sugar
4 T unsalted butter
pinch salt
1/2 c flour
2 eggs, potentially + some egg white reserved from the above pastry cream
Powdered sugar for dusting (optional)

Chocolate ganache:
2 oz semi-sweet chocolate chips
3 - 4 T heavy cream


Methodology:

Make the crème diplomat first:

Mix the eggs, salt, sugar and corn starch in a bowl.
Heat the milk and scraped vanilla bean seeds to scalding in a pot.
Pour about 1/2 of the milk mixture into the egg mixture, whisking vigorously.
Pour the egg mixture back into the pot with the rest of the milk and heat on low, whisking constantly, until the mixture thickens.
Remove from heat and add the butter cubes, mixing constantly until the butter disappears.
Pour the pastry cream into a bowl, press plastic wrap onto the surface, and chill for at least 2 hours.

In the meantime, make the pâte à choux eclair shells:

Pre-heat the oven to 350°F.

Heat the water, butter, sugar and salt in a pot until the butter melts.
Add the flour and cook, stirring, until the mixture comes together to form a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pot.
Place the dough in a bowl and beat with a hand mixer for a minute to cool.
Add the eggs, one at a time, mixing until thoroughly blended into the dough.  The dough should form a "v" shape off the end of the hand mixer, so drops of the egg white left over from making the pastry cream, if necessary, to achieve the "v".
Scoop the dough into a piping bag fitted with large tip, and pipe 4-5 inch wands of dough onto a parchment paper covered baking sheet.
Dust lightly with powdered sugar.
Bake in an oven preheated to 350°F for 40 minutes, or until the shells are baked through.  Do not open the oven until 40 minutes have elapsed.
Once the 40 minutes have elapsed, turn off the oven.
Pierce each end of the eclairs with a skewer to allow steam to escape, and let the eclairs cool inside the propped-open oven.

Fill the eclairs:

Beat the cream to stiff peaks, beat in the pastry cream and mix thoroughly.  Place it in a pastry bag fitted with a bismark tip.

Make 2 holes in the underside of each eclair with a chopstick, each about 1/4 of the eclair's length from the ends, and enlarge the holes slightly.

Pipe the pastry cream into the eclairs, until the eclairs feel full, and pastry cream threatens to protrude from the ends.
Clean up any cream with a butter knife.

Make the ganache:

Heat the cream to steaming in a pot, and pour over the chocolate.  
Let it sit for 5 minutes, then whisk vigorously to combine.
Spoon, pour or pipe the ganache over the eclairs.

Chill for an hour, and enjoy!

Sources:
Recipe for the pastry cream: Food Wishes

Recipe for the pâte à choux: Food Wishes

Recipe for the ganache: Laura in the Kitchen

Methodology for baking and filling the shells: Home Cooking Adventure

*****Edited 4/27/2022: Changed the pastry cream to crème diplomat, and halved the recipe. Also halved the sugar, as it was terribly sweet.  Removed the instruction to open the oven after 10 minutes baking the shells.