S’mores Eclairs

by Barry Lewis

Ingredients

120g digestive biscuits, whizzed up in a food processor

120g salted butter

250ml water

100g plain flour

4 eggs, plus 1 extra for egg wash

2 tubs marshmallow fluff, approx. 400g

100g dark chocolate bar, chopped into small pieces

100ml double cream

mini marshmallows & extra whizzed up digestive biscuits for decorating

Oh yes! Some of my favourite things combine in this recipe and it brought back memories of working on summer camp – s’mores, with a chocolate eclair vibe… the filling is marshmallow fluff, the choux has actual biscuit crumbs in it and its dunked in a ganache then topped with more crumbs and toasted marshmallows! Deary me this was a really fun recipe to try!

Add salted butter and water to the saucepan, bring to a simmer, turn the heat off but leave on the hob. Add in the whizzed up biscuits and the flour, beat together with a wooden spoon in the saucepan until comes together like a dough like ball in the pan. Take off the hob and allow to cool for about 5 minutes. Meanwhile Pre-heat oven to 200fan/220c.

Crack the eggs into the saucepan one at a time, beating well as you go making sure each egg is into the mixture before adding the next one, this will gradually introduce them as at first they won’t want to join, once all 4 are stirred in you will end up with a nice thickened dough.

Get a lined baking tray and pipe the mixture in thick lines onto the baking tray, they expand a little bit but depending on what size you make them – 5 inches or so is good, you’ll fit a good amount on there. Flick some water onto the baking tray, avoiding the piped dough, this will help to steam the choux pastry. If there are any bits sticking up use a wet finger to press them down lightly.

Beat an egg and brush the tops of the piped lines, to give a golden colour after baking. Bake for 10 minutes, then lower the oven by 40 degrees to 180c/160fan and leave to bake for a further 15 minutes. During this total baking time of 25 minutes do not open the oven whatsoever, that is very important!

Once the times is up they should be golden brown and puffed up. Leave a little longer if not browned. Remove from the oven and one at a time make a small cross incision in the bottoms of the eclairs and place back on the wire rack cross side up to help any steam escape – this will also be your hole to pipe the marshmallow centre.

Whilst waiting for the eclairs to cool, make the chocolate coating. Warm up the cream in the microwave for 1 minute, then add in the chocolate, stirring until the cream melts it. If it needs a bit more heat put it in the microwave for 20 seconds bursts stirring as you go until smooth, leave to cool. You want it to be dunkable so if it sets too much, ten seconds in the microwave and a quick stir and you’ll be good to go.

When the eclairs have fully cooled, pipe marshmallow fluff into them to fill them out and dunk them one at a time on the top halves into the chocolate ganache mixture. Shake off any excess and leave on a wire rack to set. Repeat with remaining eclairs.

Optionally toast with more biscuit crumbs and some mini marshmallows which can be charred with a chefs blowtorch.

This recipe is adapted from Tasty and can be found here https://tasty.co/recipe/mini-smores-eclair