Daring Bakers August 2008 Challenge

Always trying new things, I stumbled upon Daring Bakers last month and decided to join in the fun. Basically, someone picks a challenging recipe, it's secretly distributed to participants at the beginning of the month. We're allowed to reveal our results on a predetermined date (usually the last day of the month).

This month's challenge is Chocolate Eclair's.

The pasty dough is done on the stove top. Here's milk, butter, sugar, salt being heated to boil.
Add some flour
And the dough turns into instant mush.
Dump in mixer with the paddle and add eggs one at a time.
Then it turns into a really nice paste.
I'm not terribly coordinated, so I put my pastry bag in a large cup.
Then piped out each on parchment lined cookie sheets.
I didn't use the defined chocolate because it would have cost $22. This hunk was about $8
To melt the chocolate, I cut it up and then hit it in the microwave for about a minute. Stir till it is all melted (I know that some of you would NEVER melt chocolate this way, but my bowl heats up and retains the heat fairly well, so it doesn't get scorched).
Here's what the pastries looked like coming straight out of the oven. Puffy!
The filling is next. I have the egg yolks, sugar, and corn starch in the sauce pan. The instructions say to sift the corn starch - I just used my colander.
Wisked up with a couple of table spoons of hot milk (tempering the yolks).
The milk and melted chocolate added. I did a quick ice bath by plugging my sink, running cold water & dumping ice in it. This is to stop the cooking phase.
Making chocolate sauce for the glaze.
Heated and thickened.
Here's the beginning of the glaze (chocolate sauce not added yet). It was a little bumpy.
The tops are glazed.
I piped the filling on the bottoms.
Sprinkled some hazelnuts on the tops and put them together.

The puffs really collapsed after they cooled down. These are truly delicious and gooey.