Sunday, April 4, 2010

Elegant Easter Éclairs--Happy Easter!

These are delicious and easy to make!



1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup flour
4 eggs

In a medium saucepan, bring water and butter to boil; remove pan from heat. Immediately add flour all at once and stir vigorously with wooden spoon until mixture leaves pan and forms a ball. Add eggs, one at a time, beating vigorously after each addition until smooth. Drop by heaping tablespoonfuls onto greased cookie sheet, allowing room for expansion. Shape with a spatula into egg shape. Bake at 400 degrees for about 30 minutes or until puffed and golden. Remove and cool on wire rack while preparing filling.

1 (6 oz) package vanilla instant pudding (I mixed vanilla and banana cream pudding)
2 cups milk
1/2 pint whipping cream

Prepare pudding as directed on package, using only 2 cups of milk instead of 3. Refrigerate for at least 30 minutes. Whip cream. Gently blend pudding with whipped cream.

To fill éclairs, cut horizontally with sharp knife, removing lid. (You don't have to cut it all the way off, you can just cut a small flap.) Scoop out any soft dough. Fill shells generously with filling. Replace lids. Frost the lids with chocolate frosting of your choice. Decorate as you wish or garnish witha small, edible flower.

Shells and filling can be made a day ahead and refrigerated. Fill the shells the day of serving. Makes 8 to 10.

I thought these were good enough without the chocolate frosting, so I'm going to skip that part.

2 comments:

Lory said...

Holly, These were a favorite dessert when I was growing up. We called them cream puffs-they sound like the same thing. we just dusted the top with powder sugar. They are quite elegant, and easily impress people!

Granma Faye said...

Yeah, we used to make these when I was a kid. We'd put either pudding or whip cream inside them. So yummy. We made them kinda big--palm size. I also love the soft insides.