These salted chocolate nutella cream eclairs will literally blow you away (well, tastebud wise!). I used to have a little fear of wanting to attempt choux pastry, but it is actually pretty darn easy if you are patient and is so much fun!
Start off by getting a saucepan and filling it with your water, pinch of salt, and the butter. Whack that under a low flame stirring regularly to melt through but do not boil it just yet. With it all melted together the minute it hits a simmer take the pan off of the heat and tip in the sifted flour, mix well with a wooden spoon and it will begin to form a sort of dough itself!
Place back over the low heat for 1-2 minutes just to cook the flour through then transfer to a bowl to one side to cool fully. (I did not know in the past you had to cook flour, but literally only do this for a minute or two).
Let the dough ball cool and gradually whisk in the beaten egg, do it while the dough has cooled otherwhise it will scramble the eggs. Keep whisking through bit by bit until smooth and that is your dough all done, transfer to a piping bag.
Pipe lines along a baking tray that has been lined with baking paper, make sure they are evenly spread out, and sprinkle the tray with a little water to help create steam which will help make the eclairs rise. It is worth noting your oven should already be pre-heated to gas mark 6 (or equivalent, see video) and really hot before placing in the oven for ten minutes.
At the ten minute stage do not open the oven, turn it down to gas mark 3 (again, see video for equivalent) to continute to cook through. You must be really focused and trusting of your oven here folks if you open it they will all go flat!
Once this ten minutes is up take the risen eclairs from the oven and pierce with one hole with a bamboo skewer, bake again for 3-4 minutes, this simply lets the steam out of them that may be stuck inside. Remove from oven and let cool, they will cool pretty quickly though.
Combine whipped cream with nutella and hazelnuts, mixing through to a milky chocolate colour – this is pretty amazing on it’s own! To get the cream in there I used food scissors and opened the tops (since they will be covered in chocolate anyway) using spoons to push as much filling in as possible. You could always pipe though.
Once completely filled, dunk the eclairs cut size first into the melted chocolate and then rest on baking tray and refrigerate until set. Once set sprinkle with salt (optional) and gobble up!
Really hope you enjoy this salted chocolate nutella cream eclairs recipe, they are very very addictive. Oh, and just like in the video if you prefer profiteroles, pipe the dough in a big circle rather than a long line on your tray and bake away to the same temperatures, except this time fill the cream from the bottom. Enjoy!