Mini Eclairs, or "what to do with all that leftover custard filling from Boston Cream Pie Cupcakes."

I am going to be sooooo sick now.

Why?

Because I've just demonstrated an epic lack of self control by stuffing my face with mini eclairs.

Yes, yes, I know. Merely one post ago I was bemoaning the fact that I really don't like custard-filled anything. But I also said that I was growing into it. And these eclairs are like a gateway custard...they make all the hard-core custard easier to take.

Regardless of how much I may or may not be into custard, eclairs really aren't something that I would gravitate toward making anymore. There was that brief stint in high school when I made them often and earned a name for myself, but I haven't made them--haven't even thought of them--for years.

But after making those delectable BCP cupcakes in the previous post, I found myself faced with an inordinate amount of leftover vanilla custard. It is not in my DNA to waste sugar-laden goodness. So I knew I had to do something.

The good thing about eclairs is that when you're dealing with custard that's already been made, it's really pretty easy. But when making eclairs with leftover filling, it is wise to check the container of custard in the fridge to ensure that your husband hasn't been sneaking bites of it and whittling it away, resulting in the fact that you don't have as much custard as you thought you did and now you have a billion mini eclairs that don't have anything for the filler, and if you would have known that the custard would be just delicious on its own and people would eat it like pudding and that it wouldn't go to waste (but certainly to waist) if you didn't do anything else, but you had already started this whole shindig because you thought you had more than you did and you didn't want to waste anything, so now you have to come up with another filling to stuff all these billion empty little balls of pastry, and this is really just becoming quite frustrating and confusing, so you're going to stuff that offensive little smart-aleck eclair in your mouth to keep it from mocking you.... but that's a WHOLE different story.

Anyway, my original point was going to be something like, "Have leftover custard? Make mini eclairs!" So I'm going to stick with that.

Pastry
1 cup water
1 stick (8 tablespoons) unsalted butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
1-1/2 teaspoons sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
3 eggs, plus 1 extra, if needed

Egg Wash
1 egg
1-1/2 teaspoons water

Chocolate Glaze
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 ounces chopped semi-sweet chocolate
1 tablespoon light corn syrup

Preheat oven to 425 degrees (if you have a convection oven, you can set it lower). Line a sheet pan with parchment paper or a silicone mat. In a medium saucepan, bring water, butter, salt, and sugar to a rolling boil on medium-high heat. Once it boils, immediately take the pan off the heat and add all the flour at once, stirring with a wooden spoon until fully incorporated, or about 30-60 seconds. Return to the heat and cook, stirring, for 30 seconds. Transfer the batter to a stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or use a hand mixer with a large bowl. Mix at medium speed. With the mixer running, add eggs one egg at a time, scraping down the bowl after each addition. After the third egg, check to see if the dough is smooth and glossy and that the eggs are fully incorporated. When you lift the beaters or paddle out of the bowl, the batter should be thick but fall slowly and steadily from the beaters. If it is still clinging to the beaters, add the remaining egg and mix until incorporated.

You can use a pastry bag to pipe the eclairs, but I just used a plastic zip-top sandwich bag and snipped off a corner. Regardless of which you choose to do, pipe fat lengths of dough about 2 inches long onto the baking sheet, at least an inch apart.

Whisk the egg and water together for the egg wash and brush the surface of each eclair. If any of the eclairs have piping peaks or other deformities, use your fingers to smooth them out. Bake for 15 minutes at 425, then reduce heat to 375 and bake until the eclairs are puffed up and light golden brown, or approximately 25 minutes. Try not to open the oven door when baking. Let cool on the baking sheet.

Use pastry tip to poke a hole in one end of each eclair, or use your finger (I used my pinky to open the whole eclair). Using a pastry bag or a zip-top bag fitted with a medium plain tip (snip a corner off the bag, put the tip on the inside, and tape the bag around the tip--or, if worst comes to worst, just snip a corner off the bag), pipe the custard into the eclair gently, filling it but not stuffing it.

For the glaze, put the chocolate in a heat-safe bowl. In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream and corn syrup over medium heat just until boiling. Pour the cream over the chocolate in the heat-safe bowl and whisk until it's completely melted and smooth. Let stand for approximately 5 minutes to thicken and cool slightly, and then dip the top of each eclair into the chocolate. Chill the eclairs uncovered in the refrigerator for at least one hour, or until the glaze is set. Serve chilled.

And if you just happen to find yourself in the same situation as me and you have half a million eclairs with no filling, but a bunch of leftover glaze and some whipping cream in the fridge, consider making a whipped chocolate cream filling by whipping 1/2 cup of whipping cream with a mixer until stiff, and then folding in some of the glaze to taste. Pipe into the eclairs (though I suppose now they're cream puffs, no?) just as you would with the custard.

Filling
For those of you who don't have any leftover custard, consider this custard from my BCP post, or, for a super-easy alternative, use instant vanilla pudding made to the "pie filling" directions. You can even add half a cup of cream cheese (at room temperature, with a mixer) to thicken it and make it less like pudding.

Recipe for pastry adapted just slightly from 'Butter Sugar Flour Eggs" by Gale Gand, Rick Tramonto, Julia Moskin; Clarkson N. Potter Publishers, 1999. Recipe for glaze slightly adapted from The Best of America's Test Kitchen Cookbook 2012.