DB's Dare to d-eclair

that Pierre Hermé is their Sugardaddy by making his recipe for double chocolate éclairs their own. Meeta hosted this month's challenge, Toni acted as her side-kick and together they had us all set to make pate a choux, a -chocolate- pastry cream and a -chocolate- glaze.

I knew right from the start that this was a recipe that would score points in my family of chocolate lovers, helped by the fact that this is a familiar treat in Holland/Europe. Familiar in bakeries all over Holland by the name of "Soesjes" (tiny bite-sized cream puffs), their bigger brothers called "Moorkoppen".

and of course the city I live in is famous for their "Sjoklade bóllen"; really really big cream puffs, filled with whipped cream and topped with a very dark thick layer of shiny chocolate glaze.

The latter a meal in itself as Sue and Tanna discovered one Sunday summer morning last year.

So...

Was I scared? No.
Did I take necessary precautions? No.
Took time out of a busy schedule to prepare for this challenge? No.
Did I focus? Ummm, No not exactly.

I made choux pastry, and thought the dough didn't look like what I was used to. Less shiny, less elastic, but the consistency seemed allright so ahead with it. Baked according to the directions and yes they all puffed. A bit wrinkled on top, maybe they could have done with some more heat, or a longer oventime I don't know. I found them to be somewhat softer and moister than I was used to. Still, the inside was nice and dry, and showed an intricate web of holes and pastry.
Next was the pastry cream. We were allowed flavour variations, but had to keep at least one chocolate element; either the pastry cream or the glaze. I decided to go for a chocolate pastry cream. I aimed for a "Banana éclair", filling of chocolate pastry cream and fresh banana, topped with a vanilla glaze and some more banana slices....

While cooking dinner for five.
While having an after-school-talk to one kid in the kitchen.
While directing the others to set the table.
While welcoming the husband into the house.
While loading the washer.
Stirring pastry cream...

which needs some attention. I didn't cook the pastry cream long enough, I should have given it somewhat more time to get a firmer custard that I could pipe. I had to spoon it in, quickly added the banana, closed the eclair (quick, before the chocolate escaped!), piped some whipped cream on top and decorated with some more banana slices. We each had one after dinner, together with a small bowl of chocolate pastry cream pudding. My men didn't mind at all! Had to be quick to snap some blurry pictures. We had the rest of the pastry cream (which actually firmed up relatively nice during the stay in the fridge) as a dessert the next day.

Verdict: Think I won't use the cream puff recipe again, the pastry cream on the other hand was very very good! Nice challenge!