First up, the puff pastry! I do not know much about making puff pastry, as this was my first time doing a home made version of it. But what I do know is that if you do not follow the directions to the letter, they will fail, and instead of puffing, they will spread and make a nasty unpuffed cookie.
First step. You will need: 1 cup water, 1/2 cup butter, 1/8 teaspoon salt, 1 cup all-purpose flour and 4 eggs.
In a medium saucepan, combine the water, butter and salt.
Stirring occasionally, bring to a boil.
Before it boils it will get a goofy looking fish scale look to it.
You want to put the flour in as soon as it comes to a boil so that you do not boil out too much of the water. Failing to do so, will result in said nasty unpuffed cookies. And as soon as you put the flour in, stir it around to combine with a wooden spoon. (another key point... using a metal beater or mixer will result in unpuffed pastry.)
Continue to stir until it makes a nice little blob in the pan. It will begin to smell a tad like playdough at this point... don't worry, it won't taste as such when it is done.
As soon as the blob forms, remove from heat and let cool 10 minutes. (again, key note.... 10 minutes is key to the success of the puff pastry... more or less than that? Yep, you guessed it, nasty unpuffed cookies.)
After the 10 minutes has passed you are ready to add the eggs. One at a time. Already whipped. So in a seperate dish, break one egg and whip it up.
Add to the blob in the pan. And, using a wooden spoon, mix it up well. About five minutes per egg.
Repeat 3 more times.
After adding in each egg, you will have a nice smooth mixture of dough.
Scoop out about 2 tablespoons per pastry and put them on a well greased pan.
Put in a 400 degree preheated oven. And close the door, let the magic happen and bake for 30 minutes.
While you are baking the puff pastries, you can start to prepare the filling. For the filling you will need: 1 1/4 cup milk, 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream, and 1 package instant french vanilla pudding.
Instant French Vanilla Pudding.
1 1/4 cup milk and 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream.
Add the milk/cream mixture to a medium sized bowl.
Add in pudding packet.
Whisk together for about 2 minutes, once well combined put it in the fridge and let set.
Get your cooling rack ready for the puff pastries arrival from the oven.
Clean up your mess...
Beep, Beep, Beep. Remove puff pastries from the oven and adore their heavenly appearance.
Place on cooling rack and let cool for about 30 minutes.
Once cooled, you will need to cut a hole in the top of each pastry.
Save the "caps" that you cut off for later.
Now's time for the chocolate filling. For the filling you will need: 1 1/2 cups semi sweet chocolate baking morsels, 2 tablespoons hot fudge ice cream topping and 1/4 cup heavy whipping cream.
In a medium sauce pan combine the chocolate morsels
With the hot fudge ice cream topping,
and add in the whipping cream.
Stirring often,
Combine until smooth and creamy, and remove from heat.
Put 1 tablespoon of the mixture into each puff pastry. Pushing it to the sides of each pastry as you fill.
After you have filled each pastry with the chocolate mixture, it is time for the pudding filling to get added in. I use a cake decorating plunger so that I can get it filled neatly and pushed to the insides of each pastry. You can use a spoon if you would like.
Squeeze gently and fill each pastry to the brim.
Once you have done that, you are going to add one more dollop of the chocolate mixture to the tops of each pastry.
After adding a dollop of chocolate, replace the caps of each pastry.
Then sprinkle with powdered sugar. And Wha-la! You have just made Chocolate Eclaires!
Be sure to keep them in the fridge when you are not devouring all their heavely goodness.... so the pudding doesn't get all slimy on you :)
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