Eclairs with chocolate cream filling and chocolate icing

It is recommended to start off with the crème filling, as it requires some time to cool. Pour Creme Patisserie unsweetened into a saucepan, add chopped chocolate and heat until just simmering. The chocolate will melt and needs to be stirred thoroughly. Leave to cool and then refrigerate for at least 3 hours, ideally overnight.

Melt butter and water in a saucepan, add sugar. Reduce heat to low and add flour and pinch of salt and stir vigorously until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan and starts to build a stiff ball. This process takes about 1 minute. Be careful not to burn the paste.

Remove from heat and leave the paste to cool in the pan. Start adding eggs one by one, beating well between each addition. The resulting mixture should be sticky, but not runny.

Heat oven to 200°C and prepare a large sheet cake tin lined with baking sheet (or use two smaller tins).

Transfer the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a decorative nozzle (in the shape of a star with 8 vertices).

Pipe the dough onto the baking sheet, each strip should be about 10 cm long. Leave enough space between the strips as the dough will puff up during baking. You should make about 16 eclairs from the dough.

Bake for 20-25 minutes. Be careful to not open oven during baking. The choux pastry should be puffed and golden.

Once baked, leave to cool completely. Meanwhile, beat the refrigerated crème and prepare the chocolate glaze. For the glaze, melt 100 g of chocolate over a hot-water bath and add about 2 tsp cocoa oil.

Split each éclair in the middle and fill the bottom half with the crème. Dip the upper part of the éclair in the glaze and place on top of the crème. Repeat with each eclair. You may decorate the eclairs with almond slices or other ingredients of your choice.