Make it Yourself: Eclairs

I was down with a nasty cold last week, and on the day I felt better (when I was no longer feverish or dizzy), there was just one thing I wanted to do: make eclairs.

Eclairs are comfort food to me, you see. As a child, my mother regularly bought a box of profiteroles from the local bakery, and I always asked for my very own eclair. They were like big versions of profiteroles to me, and wasn’t bigger always better? (e.g. christmas presents in big boxes were always to be envied)

Anyway, two nights ago, feeling for the first time in days that I wasn’t on the brink of death, I turned to my husband and said, “I think I’m gonna make some eclairs!”

That was ten thirty in the evening.

Everyone says how easy eclairs are to make- and they are- but they also take a long time. Hours in the kitchen, many dirty bowls… and by 2 a.m., I had a tray of these beauties:

These eclairs were spectacular. Make your pastry cream in advance, and start earlier in the day, but please please make these. Get the recipe from Martha Stewart. Of course.