Recipe - Cream Puffs Or Eclairs

1 1/3 cup Dough

DOUGH
5 Eggs; beaten
1 cup (One half Water; One half Milk)
Three fourths teaspoon Salt
1 teaspoon Granulated sugar
8 tablespoon Butter
1 cup Flour
10 Sugar
Vanilla Pastry Cream
2 cup Milk
One half Vanilla bean; split in 1/2
lengthwise
6 Egg yolks
2/3 cup Granulated sugar
4 tablespoon Cornstarch

CHOCOLATE ICING
7 ounce Semisweet chocolate
5 tablespoon Butter
4 tablespoon Cold water
1 cup Confectioners 10x sugar

Preheat oven to 425 degrees. Place the watermilk mixture in a saucepan and
add the salt, sugar and butter. Bring slowly to a boil, then remove from
the heat and add all the flour at one time. Beat the dough well with a
wooden spoon, replace the saucepan back onto the heat, and beat the dough
for 1 minute or until it comes away from the sides of the pan and no longer
sticks to the spoon. Transfer the dough to a warmed mixing bowl. Add a
third of the beaten eggs, beating the dough all the while with the spoon.
When the egg is mixed in, add half the remaining egg, still beating the
dough; finally, add the remaining egg and continue to beat until the dough
is smooth. Baking: Fill the pastry bag with the dough. Butter and flour the
baking sheets or line them with waxed paper. Dust the pieces of dough
lightly with 10x sugar so that their shapes will be more even after baking.
Bake as soon as dough is ready. Bake each sheet at 425 degrees for 15
minutes; then lower the heat to 400 degrees for another 15 minutes. The
change in temperature will prevent the puffs from cracking open; but be
sure to keep the oven door ajar with a spoon. Small puffs bake faster than
larger ones.

To Store: The puffs can be kept a week in plastic bags in the refrigerator.
They can be kept one month in the freezer, but be sure to defrost frozen
puffs for 24 hours in the refrigerator before using.

Vanilla Pastry Cream For Cream Puffs: Place the milk and vanilla bean in a
saucepan and bring to a boil. Cover and keep hot. With a wire whip beat the
sugar and egg yolks together, until the mixture whitens and forms a ribbon;
then gently stir in the cornstarch with the whip. Strain out the vanilla
bean and pour the hot milk into the egg and sugar mixture, beating all the
while with the wire whip. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and bring
to a boil again, stirring constantly with the whip, so the cream does not
stick to the bottom of the saucepan. Boil for 1 minute, stirring well. Then
pour mixture into a bowl and lightly rub the surface of the cream with a
lump of butter to keep a skim from forming as it cools.

Chocolate Icing For Eclairs: Sift the sugar. Heat the chocolate in a double
boiler until melted. Then add the 10x sugar and the butter, cut into
pieces. Stir until smooth, then remove the saucepan from the heat and add
the water, one tablespoon at a time, to cool the mixture. This icing must
be lukewarm to ice the eclairs, or used for a cake. If it is too hot, it
will run off; if too cold, it will not spread very easily.
Posted to recipeludigest Volume 01 Number 457 by "Diane Geary."
diane@keyway.net on Jan 5, 1998