French Fridays With Dorie - Quatre-Quarts

Sometimes I do wake up in the mornings and feel like I've just had the most incredible dream.

I've just dreamt my life.

~ Richard Branson 

Helleww......I'm back! After several weeks of wedding-related shenanigans, I'm glad to be wiping the mounting dust off my copy of Dorie's Around My French Table cookbook in order to partake in this week's recipe, a classic French pound cake, or Quatre-Quarts. It's a simple recipe with only four main ingredients, flour, butter, eggs and sugar - used in equal amounts (hence "four-fourths") - and flavored only with a hint of vanilla.

This cake is a great one to bake if you're a rookie in the baking department, it's so easy and quite literally is "a piece of cake", if you'll forgive the pun! The eggs are separated and the whipped egg-whites are then folded into the batter, giving a light and airy-textured cake. By Dorie's reckoning, this is a dry cake compared to American pound cakes, but I thought it was just fine. Or I just may have a propensity for dry, crumbly cakes from having lived in Europe for a bit.

I chose not to dress up the cake and instead sprinkled the top with a mixture of black sesame powder and brown sugar prior to baking it. This gave the resulting cake a slight, pleasant crust from the caramelized sugar and a nutty flavor from the sesame. I loved biting through the crisp top layer into the tender inside of the cake, such an understated but elegant cake. So very French!

Instead of using a round cake pan, I used a heart-shaped mold to bake the batter in. Speaking of hearts, I'd like to share with you some images from my sister's wedding last weekend. Nothing to do with a food blog, of course...but there was a lot of food and feasting involved, I assure you!

The groom saying his wedding vows - just one take and he's part of our clan :).

After the wedding vows, or nikah ceremony

My sister's husband hails from Kosovo, a country only independent in 2008. He was one of the millions of displaced individuals resulting from the war in Kosovo in 1999. At the insistence of his ageing father, he escaped through the mountains, leaving all his family members behind and two weeks later arrived in Switzerland, where he has lived and worked since. And that's where he met my sister. It's hugely ironic that someone who'd come from a war-torn region has ended up with someone who comes from one of the most peaceful countries on earth (Brunei a.k.a. Abode of Peace). Maybe they were brought together for a good reason - to show us that Hope, well it's not just a myth, after all. :)

 Bride and groom getting ready for the wedding reception

Have a blessed marriage, Fidah & Ardian!

Back to the quatre-quarts! See how my online cooking group buddies fared with this recipe here. Better still, get yourself a copy of the book and join us, won't you?

Have a beautiful weekend, everyone!

Lemongrass Chilli Lime Ice Cream with Black Sesame Langues de Chat

I break tradition
Sometimes my tries
Are outside the lines

We've been conditioned
To not make mistakes
But I can't live that way, no

~ Lyrics from Unwritten, Natasha Bedingfield

My friend Nancy of Spicie Foodie blog is currently running a fun recipe contest with a giveaway which runs until July 27, 2011. The winner she eventually chooses will win a copy of her brimming-with-spices cookbook, An Epiphany of the Senses and the great news is, it's open to everyone. Yep, all of us on this planet are eligible to enter. Well, the catch is that you'd have to write up a post featuring a recipe that makes Nancy hungry and also uses several of your favorite spices. If it's your original creation, all the better!

Dragonfruit and Black Sesame Mochi Ice Cream

Happiness, hit her like a train on a track
Coming towards her, stuck still no turning back
She hid around corners and she hid under beds
She killed it with kisses and from it she fled
With every bubble she sank with a drink
And washed it away down the kitchen sink

~ Florence And The Machine, Dog Days Are Over

My childhood friend and I had gotten together for lunch recently and for dessert, we treated ourselves to mochi ice cream at a Japanese restaurant. It was black sesame ice cream wrapped in a plain mochi shell and to say it was hea.ven.ly is an understatement. The creamy, nutty flavor was not unlike frozen peanut butter, with the black sesame ice cream melting effortlessly on the tongue. As for the mochi, oh the mochi...have you ever had it like this before? Despite being frozen, it retained its chewiness, softness and silkiness that it didn't require much of an effort to cut through it. That leisurely afternoon treat lodged an intention in my mind... I needed to learn how to make mochi ice cream at home!

The Brangelina of Polvorons - Blackberry, Black Sesame, Coconut-Lavender and Raspberry. Also Giveaway!

In order to have friendship you must look past the color to the soul, because within the soul lies a rainbow of many colors

~ Lyman Frank Baum

About a month back, I introduced you to the joys of Polvoron, a crumbly shortbread widely enjoyed in Spain, Mexico, Argentina, and the Philippines. It's crafted with milk powder, butter, flour and sugar, and delicious when eaten with coffee, tea, or alone as a snack. On my last post about these delectable little sweets, I added three different ingredients as flavorings - matcha (green tea), chocolate and red dragonfruit.

This time round, I wanted to experiment a bit more with other flavors and came up with these winning 4 (or 5): blackberry, raspberry, black sesame and a combination of coconut and lavender. I'm not ashamed to make this confession - I prefer making polvorons to macarons. Like good guys vs. bad guys, the former's more reliable, no eggs need to be aged, no ovens need to be turned on, you can make them whether rain or shine and best of all, no tearing-out-hair sessions need occur when the feet don't form. Polvorons, in fact, don't have feet and always turn out the way you envisage them to be!

Still Hopeful - Black Sesame Macarons with Dragonfruit Cream Filling

I am sick and tired of the perfect macaronages going on around me. Can we even remember what life was like before Ladurée and Pierre Hermé Paris came along and showed us that food superstardom could be packaged as small, colorful and incredibly tasty discs? All of a sudden, I wanted in on the fun.

There has always been a wall around my mind where the thought of making macarons refuse to penetrate. It is odd, but I was intimidated... afraid to jump in and look foolish if I failed. Which is even more odd because being perceived as foolish is something that has never stopped me from living a full life, the funnest life. And I've failed at a lot of things, actually.

FFWD - Tourteau de Chèvre with Sesame, Figs and Thyme

Oh.My.Heavens. Chèvre. Isn’t that another word for Goat Cheese? The first goat cheese I ever tried was almost the last: someone I shared a lot of meals with once handed me a chunk of brownish chèvre and urged me to "try some of this amazing goat cheese”. I took a small nibble, and spent the rest of the week trying to get the taste out of my mouth. It really did taste like a well-aged goat carcass. Many years later I was finally emboldened to try a bit of fresh chèvre, and was delighted that I didn’t gag. Although I must say… I have never gotten too crazy in love with it either.

Until I was writing this post, I had never realized that opinions about chèvre were so polarized. There is something otherworldly about this cheese and it seems like you either love it or hate it. Now that chèvre is trendy, I can see how some goat cheese lovers might want boast that they are (goat cheese lovers) as a way of highlighting their foodie sophisticated-ness. On the other hand, I can also understand why many others seem to have an aversion to this cheese. A bit of surfing on the net revealed these gems relating to the taste of chèvre:

- "It’s like what the beard of the billy goat smells of since he has been "spraying" it." (Haha)

- "It’s unbearably musty and the smell reminds me of something mildew-y that desperately needs to be cleaned out."

- "It’s totally disgusting and gamey."

Goat cheese is definitely something that for many of us takes time to appreciate. So instead of tossing this week's French Fridays with Dorie’s Tourteau de Chèvre recipe to the "Try-Another-Day" bin, I decided to give goat cheese another chance. Dorie’s first-time experience with this dish swayed me, and I too wished for it to surprise me.

For the record, I sort of winged the measurements for the filling. Why? Because I have this adorable 4-inch springform baking pan that’s only slightly larger than my palm. And this being a goat cheese tart (meaning, I would be the only one within a five-mile radius who would be eating it), I decided to use the miniature pan for practicality's sake. The size dictated that I use only 1 egg, 200g of chèvre and no cornstarch and/or extra flavoring.

I couldn’t get hold of plain chèvre but did find a marinated version – I might have spotted unidentified herbs and red bell peppers in the marinade…eeks! Although Dorie’s recipe meant for this tourteau to be a dessert, what I ended up with was something in between sweet and savory.

 Ms. Jenny J, I stood under the hot, tropical sun with my tourteau and 5-inch heels - just for you.

Now don’t declare me insane as I’m about to throw this bag of logic your way. I made the crust with black sesame powder (ground sesame seeds) because of its pronounced nutty taste, and I did this because cheese normally pairs well with nuts. I’ve also never cooked goat meat in my life but the closest I have gotten to doing so is lamb, and whenever I’ve cooked lamb I always sprinkle thyme to complement its gamey flavor. Using this line of thinking, I’ve included toasted fresh thyme in this recipe - a little bit sprinkled on the crust and on top of soft, dried figs tied the flavors together brilliantly. A drizzle of acacia honey across the fig topping completed the dish.

Oh by the way, did you notice the really funky pink and black apron above? That was sent over by Ms. Jenny J. of Vintage Sugarcube, selflessly sharing her fabulosity across many oceans. We’ve been friends since I first started blogging nearly a year ago and I simply treasure her friendship and convent-school wit. If you haven’t yet discovered her blog, just hop over there and ogle at her over-the-top creativity (and hairdo!).

I’ve had tiny slices of this tourteau and while my expectations were not high to start with, the chèvre, with all the other flavor combinations, have managed to pleasantly surprise me. Still… and I want to be truthful when I say this… I can’t wait to return to the comfort of cow cheese ;-).

Interested to know how the other FFWD members’ tourteaus turned out and if anyone actually substituted the chèvre with something else? Click here to find out.

My Love in Black and White (or Gunmetal Grey)

I gave you all the love I got
I gave you more than I could give
I gave you love
I gave you all that I have inside
And you took my love
You took my love

No Ordinary Love, song by Sade

During the years when I was still stumbling around in the dark trying to search for my soulmate, my favorite go-to songs for romance have mainly been the ones sung by Sade. Her public persona has always been elegant, mysterious, sexy, seemingly just-out-of-reach... everything I'd aspired to be - well, back in the heydays, anyway. Nowadays of course, I've moved on to become the person I am, my own person, and I'm happy with the way things are. Only once in a (very rare) while, when it's just me and my iPod and no chattering kids, family members or friends in the vicinity, the soothing sound of Sade's melodies still draws me in, lulls me. Her voice, smooth as liquid gunmetal, and her words reside in a small corner of my mind, I know them all by heart.

Below's music video of No Ordinary Love was actually released back in 1992. Nearly two decades later, this gorgeous woman seems not to have aged a single day! The fact that she's portraying a mermaid here resonates with my natural love of the sea and scuba diving shenanigans. More than once, I imagined Sade-the-mermaid as, ummm, me... (okay, permission to laugh all you want).

My recipe today was an effort to celebrate my triumphs in love (who really cares about the failures?) by making something as smooth and enchanting as that liquid gunmetal voice. In a shade of gunmetal grey, even.

The challenge was not merely how to get the exact hue, but also how to make such a dark grey-colored dish edible and purposefully alluring if it's ever handed to someone on a plate. I decided to try a simple tart, with very minimal oven time. Sound good so far? I toyed with the idea of creating a very stormy grey crust with a pure white (ie. non-cooked) filling. Black sesame have been a feature in several of my recipes lately, but hey, my stock hasn't yet run out and I had to utilize this ingredient again to get that very, very dark crust. When my crusts came out of the oven, you would've found me doing my jiggy dance of joy because they'd turned out in the exact shade that I wanted - gunmetal grey, baby!

Since this tart is all about the dark and also beautiful aspects of love, I felt the nutty-flavored black sesame crust would contrast nicely with a smooth, rich and creamy Mascarpone filling. A blackened heart positioned smack in the middle signifies my love - stamped in black and white, for always.

Mascarpone Tart With Black Sesame Crust

Makes 12 mini-tarts/one 12-inch tart

Ingredients:

Crust

150g plain flour

100g black sesame powder

125g butter

1 egg

100g caster sugar

Filling

1/2 cup cold milk

3 teaspoons powdered gelatine

250g whipping cream

1/2 cup caster sugar

250g Mascarpone cheese
2 teaspoons black sesame powder

Method:
1. Preheat the oven to 200°C.
2. Make the crust first: Place the butter, flour and black sesame in a bowl. Rub the butter into the flour with your fingertips until it resembles breadcrumbs. Make a well in the centre of the bowl, add sugar and break an egg into it. Knead with your fingers until you get a pliable pastry mixture.
4. Grease the tart tins with butter. Roll dough into little balls and press into the base of the tart tin. Roll reemaining dough in between your palms to form 'ropes', arrange this against the inside edge of the tin and press against the edge to flatten and form the wall of the crust. Prick the base with a fork and bake in the oven for about 15 minutes. If you’re using a standard pie-tin, bake blind for 15 minutes, then reduce heat to 180°C, remove the parchment paper and baking beans and bake crust for another 10 minutes. Take out of the oven and set aside to cool. Once cooled, release crust gently from the pan and place on a plate or tray.
5. For the filling, add the gelatine to the cold milk in a small pan to soften it, then heat the pan gently, stirring to dissolve the gelatine. Do not allow the milk to boil. Remove pan from the heat and set aside to cool.
6. In a bowl, beat the whipped cream and sugar until it forms soft peaks, then fold in the mascarpone and cooling gelatine mixture. Pour 1/4 cup of this mascarpone into a small bowl and add 2 teaspoons black sesame powder.  This dark mixure will be used to form the heart designs against the white filling.
7. Spoon or pour light mascarpone mixture carefully into tart crust up to very near the top. Bear in mind there is no baking involved after this, so the filling won't expand. Smooth the surface with a spatula, then spoon small dollops of dark mascarpone on parts of the white filling. Carefully drag the tip of a small knife across the dark mixture, forming a heart shape.
8. Chill tray in the refrigerator for about 4 hours or overnight until the filling is set. Serve cool or at room temperature.

Spiral Ravioli - Matcha and Black Sesame

"Life is a journey up a spiral staircase; as we grow older we cover the ground we have covered before, only higher up; as we look down the winding stair below us we measure our progress by the number of places we were but no longer are.”

The Winding Stair, W.B. Yeats

Eric Ripert brought me here. Well, not in person (although that would've been nice :-) ), but the other day I was watching him make ravioli on Avec Eric with this motherly and rather delicious Italian mamma. One chef was French and the other Italian, but for the sake of the programme and its global viewers, they communicated the virtues of homemade ravioli in their heavily accented English. The whole episode made me smile, not so much for the language irony but for the ease and elegance of the ravioli-making process. Something about the way Monsieur Ripert's hands was massaging the dough was hmmm... sexy. And it made me want some. Ravioli, that is.

I looked back at my pasta-making experience to date and can only really recall two times. Yes, you read that right - two. Once was when I made lasagna noodles out of red cabbage(!) and the second time was an attempt at making fetuccine out of tamarind pulp. Why hadn't I started with just plain dough? I don't really know the answer to that. I have a disturbing history of jumping in at the deep end and praying for things to work out alright ;-). Most of the time, I have been lucky. The rest of the time, I've conveniently forgotten about. Optimism pulses through my veins like a welcomed curse.

So I started to do some research on how to make ravioli and then dammit, I came upon artisan ravioli. Gourmet ravioli. Dammit, because they looked absolutely gorgeous! Even while I was learning and figuring out how to make the beautiful, striped ravioli, my brain hijacked itself and urged me to go spiral instead. From the recesses of my memory, I pulled out a technique for getting the spiral effect on pastry and theorized it would work for pasta dough as well. Basically, you need to use different colored dough that are layered one on top of the other, then rolled up like a cinnamon bun, sliced and finally flattened on the cut edge. Did you catch all that? Hmm, there's a reason why they say a picture paints a thousand words!

My colorings: Green - Matcha powder, Black - Black Sesame powder, White - Plain dough

The matcha and black sesame flavors were subtly released upon cooking, however it was the fresh filling of green pepper, cherry tomatoes, black olives, celery leaves and cream cheese that gave the ravioli the punch. I ate this with a simple garlic and butter sauce which complements all the wonderful flavors already contained in my spiral version of artisan ravioli. Eric, you should come over and learn to make these from this mamma!

Spiral Matcha and Black Sesame Ravioli

Servings: 1-2
Ingredients:

Pasta Dough:

2/3 cup plain flour

1 tablespoon plain flour, to adjust dough consistency
1 egg
1 tablespoon matcha powder
1 tablespoon black sesame powder

Filling:
1/2 green bell pepper, diced finely
4 cherry tomatoes, chopped
6 black olives, pitted and diced
1 stalk celery leaves, chopped finely
100g cream cheese, softened
salt and pepper, to taste

Method:

1. Place the flour in a food processor. Add egg and process for 10 seconds until the flour is moist and crumbly. Adjust by adding some more flour to the dough if it is extra sticky and process further. Each time you stop the machine, pinch the dough between your fingers, it should feel firmer each time. After about 30 seconds of processing, the dough should come together and form a loose ball on top of the blade, and feel moist but not sticky when pinched.

2. Take the dough out, and cut into 3 equal portions. Leave one plain, to each of the other knead in the matcha and sesame powder. Sprinkle some flour on a hard wood surface and start to knead the dough pieces separately. With the heel of one hand, push the ball of dough away from you. Fold it back toward you and rotate the dough a quarter turn. Repeat this process until the dough feels damp without being sticky, then stop kneading (about 1-2 minutes). Shape dough into a ball and cover with a large overturned bowl, let it rest for 30 minutes.

3. Take the green dough and roll to flatten. Divide the plain dough and black dough into two pieces each. Place one piece of black dough on top of the green dough, then wrap the green dough around it. Pinch to seal edges, and roll again to flatten. Repeat process of wrapping and rolling with the rest of the dough pieces. (The layers and sequence - green, black, white, black, white).

4. Roll the layered dough to form a ‘cylinder’, then slice across the cylinder to get round discs about 1/2 inch in thickness.

5. Run each disc through pasta machine as per the instructions, until it is thin enough for your ravioli sheet (I went up to No. 4). You will see the spiral effect on the flattened dough, almost like a Mexican sombrero.

6. Mix together the ingredients for the filling in a bowl. Place about a teaspoon of filling (for each ravioli) on top of one spiral sheet and place another ravioli sheet  to cover it. Pat down around the filling to seal dough, then cut into shapes with a ravioli cutter. Gently pinch edges of ravioli to seal it further.

7. Boil water with some olive oil and cook the ravioli for about 10 minutes until the edges are soft but still chewy. Serve immediately with (chopped) garlic sauteed in butter sauce. 

IIP: Lavender-Black Sesame Éclairs with Dulce De Leche Crème Mousseline

When I read 'Lavender' as the theme of this month's International Incident Party, I thought, Uh-oh... I'm in royal trouble. Lavender falls into the 'exotic' category of ingredient to me, mainly because it is virtually impossible to get here in Brunei. I haven't even come across lavender tea being sold here, let alone the real deal! (We do have a variety of lavender soaps and toiletries to choose from, though. I guess we just like to smell fresh and flowery, just like grandma's pillows!).

Being as lavender-deprived as I am, the last time I'd come across this ingredient was when I was sipping a soothing cup of tea in Hong Kong, about six years ago. I brought home boxes of the stuff, and consequently friends and family had to endure a rather long period of being presented with lavender pound cakes and cookies - until the last of the purple flowers were used up. So when the need for lavender suddenly came up, my mind flashed back to Hong Kong. Luckily WL, my friend of nearly 2 decades - actually, she's my sister from another mother (and father) - lives in Hong Kong. She very generously DHL-ed me some lavender tea which arrived a few days ago, just in time for the party! In hindsight, the courier cost was much, much more than the actual price of the tea, so this gesture reminded me who my real friends are. Thank you, WL! If only it is possible to DHL these eclairs back to you, you know I will...

For this party, I had my mind set on making éclairs, sweet lavender-infused ones. Not lavender in the filling nor the topping but in the pastry itself. Lavender gives out that distinctly heady scent and flavor, so I wanted to be careful not to overdo it, otherwise my éclairs would taste a bit like my deodorant (not that I ever ate/licked my deodorant, mind you). Then, when I bought some black sesame powder (to use in a health drink), I thought, why not break the convention a little? Yes.... black sesame éclairs with a hint of lavender - nutty and floral in one bite.  Wait.... how about a dulce de leche crème mousseline as a filling? Dulce de leche in my book contains three of the so-called Seven Deadly Sins (greed, lust, gluttony), so whenever a recipe includes it, you know it's going to taste sinful! I also made my dulce de leche the lazy man's way. Who has 2-4 hours to wait? Popped the condensed milk in the microwave for about 24 minutes, and presto! That's sloth for you.

Black sesame powder ground with lavender (spot the lilac flowers that escaped the blade)

This was my first time making crème mousseline and my work area ended up looking like a disaster zone because of all the splattering that ensued. But oh, it was so worth it! The pastry filling turned out looking like a smooth, rich buttercream yet it was wonderfully light in texture and sweetness, with the dulce de leche providing the right amount of caramelly, smoky flavor. I had some leftover chocolate ganache in the fridge so I drizzled that on the top of the éclairs as a bonus. I took one bite and there I was, elevated to my own personal heaven, completely dizzy from the new tastes and sensory overload. Lavender + black sesame + dulce de leche + chocolate = Absolutely speechless.

Express dulce de leche

 

 Dulce de leche crème mousseline

Tried an éclair with dulce de leche topping too. It was too much, way too much!

Once you try these, you'll never go back... y'know what I mean!

Thank you for hosting this fab party once again, Penny @ Jeroxie.com! For a peek at what the other lavender-inspired creations are, click on the participants' thumbnails below.

Lavender-Black Sesame Eclairs with Dulce De Leche Crème Mousseline

Lavender-Black Sesame Choux Pastry for Éclairs
1/2 cup black sesame powder

1/2 teaspoon dried lavender flowers

1/2 cup all-purpose flour

1/2 cup whole milk

1/2 cup + 2 tablespoons water

2 tablespoons condensed milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

1 stick (125g) unsalted butter

1. Blend the sesame powder with the lavender briefly or simply leave flowers whole. Mix sesame, lavender and flour together in a bowl until fully combined. Set aside.

2. In a heavy-bottomed pan, bring milk, water, condensed milk, salt and butter to a boil.

3. Add the flour mixture to the pan in one go. Stir like mad with a wooden spoon for 5 minutes, until the dough mass is dry and a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan.

4. Transfer to a large bowl and beat for 1 minute to release more steam. Add in about 2 eggs, one at a time and beating furiously after each addition, until the batter comes together and takes about 7 seconds to fall from the beaters.

Stir until you get Popeye-like arms!

 

Crusty bottom (the pan, not mine)

5. The number of eggs is variable (the original recipe says 4, but I had to adjust because the sesame powder makes the batter rather oily/moist and dense). You don't want a runny dough but neither do you want a dough that's too stiff because it won't rise well. That’s why you have to check your dough after the addition of each egg.

6. Transfer batter to a piping bag with a 2/3 inch plain tip and pipe out shapes to your parchment-lined baking sheet- about 4 inch rods for éclairs.

7. Bake in a preheated 400°F (205°C) oven for 10 minutes, then turn down the heat to 350°F (177°C) and bake for at least 20 minutes more, until crispy. Don't open the oven door till at least the 30 minutes total cooking time has elapsed.

8. Once cool, they can be packed in ziploc bags and frozen for a month. Otherwise, keep at room temperature. However, once filled, they must be eaten immediately or they will be soggy.

Dulce De Leche Crème Mousseline Filling

1 2/3 cups whole milk

2/3 cup dulce de leche

4 large egg yolks

2 1/2 tablespoons cornstarch

2 teaspoons (5 leaves) gelatin, sprinkled over 2 teaspoons cold water

7 tablespoons butter, at room temperature

1. In a large saucepan, bring the milk to a boil.

2. In a large mixing bowl, whisk together the dulce de leche, egg yolks, and cornstarch until well-combined, then pour the boiled milk over this in a small stream while whisking constantly.

3. Pour this back into the saucepan and bring to a boil for 30 seconds. Remove from heat and add the softened gelatin, stirring until dissolved.

4. Cool for 10 minutes or so, to about 45°C (115°F), whisking every now and again. Add the softened butter in bit by bit, whisking after each addition. The cream will be satiny and smooth. Place a sheet of cling film flush against the surface to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate for at least 2 hours. I wanted to use mine rather pronto so I cheated and placed this in the freezer for about 15 minutes until it firms up!

Dulce De Leche (the sloth’s way!)

1. Empty a 400g tin of sweetened condensed milk into a large microwave safe bowl.

2. Microwave on medium power for two minutes.

3. Remove from microwave and stir with a wire whisk. Be careful; the mixture and bowl will get very hot and remain that way throughout the process.

4. Microwave on medium power for another two minutes.

5. Remove and stir again.

6. Microwave on medium-low power for 16 to 24 minutes or until milk turns thick and caramel color, stirring every 4 minutes.

Caution: The condensed milk will bubble up ferociously, so make sure your bowl is deep and large.

Chocolate Ganache

150 (5oz) dark chocolate (70% cocoa)

2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened and diced

1/2 cup heavy or whipping cream

1/2 tablespoon sugar

1. Combine chocolate and butter in a bowl.

2. Separately, heat cream and sugar over medium heat until bubbly at the edge. Pour hot cream over the chocolate and mix until smooth.

3. Cool for about 15 minutes until slightly thickened, stirring occasionally.

Assembly:

To assemble the éclairs, match pairs of the baked and cooled eclair shells together. On one half, pipe the cream filling and top with the other half. Drizzle some chocolate ganache on top and serve immediately.