CHOCOLATE ECLAIRS

Steps:

• Pastry cream (Make a day ahead and up to a week ahead): Pour milk into saucepan, add scraped vanilla bean including pod.
• Sift cornstarch, flour and sugar into a bowl.
• Whisk egg yolks in another bowl.
• Add dry ingredients to egg yolk and whisk until smooth.
• Take yolk mixture, milk and butter to stove.
• Heat milk until just simmering, stir about 1/2 cup of milk into yolk mixture, pour yolk mixture into pan with milk and heat on med low until it comes to a boil.
• Stir constantly with wooden spoon.
• Let boil, stirring, for 1 minute.
• Turn off heat and stir in butter until completely melted and incorporated.
• Pour entire contents of pan thru a strainer into a shallow stainless bowl.
• Cover with plastic wrap, pressing directly on to cream.
• chill until cold and firm.
• Pate a Choux: Preheat oven to 375.
• Place water, butter, sugar and salt in heavy saucepan and bring to boil.
• Add flour all at once and stir until mixture comes away from sides and forms a ball.
• Remove from heat.
• Put mixture in mixer with a paddle and mix on low to cool to warm, not hot.
• Add eggs one at a time, beating well to incorporate each before adding the next.
• After last egg is added, beat until smooth.
• With a piping bag and round tip, pipe mixture on to a parchment lined sheet pan.
• You can make as big or as long as you want.
• They will about double in size when cooked.
• Bake at 375 until they become,brown, light and hollow.
• Cool.
• Dark Chocolate Ganache: Bring cream to a simmer.
• Pour over chopped chocolate, let sit for 2 minutes, stir until melted and smooth.
• Assembly: Take finished pate a choux and punch a hole in one end with something like a chop stick.
• Put pastry cream into a piping bag with a narrow round tip and squeeze cream into hole to fill up pate a choux.
• When ganache has cooled enough to leave tracks in itself when drizzled back into the bowl it is ready to use.
• Dip filled pate a choux into ganache to coat.