Eclairs with Egg Nog Cream

I mentioned our church party when I talked about the sparkling cider.  Another thing I volunteered to bring was a dessert.  I went back and forth when I was trying to decide what to take.  I landed here.  I don't drink a lot of egg nog, but it's like a big deal this time of year, ya know?  

I have been seeing a lot of egg nog desserts flying around and this is what I decided to do.  Of course it's covered in chocolate.  Is anyone really surprised by that.  I adapted my normal eclair recipe to have egg nog, I love eclairs so I thought I would have a good chance of loving these.  Even though I think I like the traditional eclairs better, these were really good.  They got rave reviews from the party goers, quite a few people found me to say how much they liked them.  I normally like my eclairs with a lot of filling, (can you tell from the picture?) so I don't usually pipe the filling into it, but I might next time I have to take them to a function like that instead of serving them at home.  They get a little messy trying to transfer them everywhere.

Eclairs with Egg Nog Cream
Adapted from Easy Everyday Cooking
1 cup water
½ cup butter
½ tsp salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs

Filling
1- 5.25 oz pkg instant vanilla pudding
1.5 cups Egg Nog
1 sm. container cool whip

Glaze
½ cup chocolate chips (semi-sweet)
⅓ cup corn syrup
¼ cup butter
½-¾ cup powdered sugar
½ tsp. vanilla


Preheat oven to 400.  Grease 2 baking sheets.  In a saucepan, combine water, butter and salt, bring to boil and add flour all at once.  

Mix until dough forms a ball and all flour is incorporated.  

Transfer to mixer and with mixer running, add eggs one at a time.  Mixture will kind of separate and then come back together.  Once it comes back together, add another egg until they have all been added and mixture is smooth.  

You can either
1.  Transfer to a ziplock bag and cut an end off (this is the one I usually go with so I don't have to clean tips and bags but it makes the eclairs more uniform and neater than spooning onto the sheet.
2.  Transfer to a decorator bag with a large round tip
3.  Spoon mixture onto baking sheets.

Using desired method, place dough on greased baking sheets about 2 inches apart.  

Smooth dough if necessary.   See that little peak sticking up? It will still be there after baking, so I usually smooth them down.

Bake for approximately 30 minutes until deep golden brown.  Remove from oven and cool.

You really want them quite a deep brown.  Don't be afraid you are going to burn them.  Some of these lighter could have been cooked a little more.  If they are done, they won't fall into themselves when you take them out of the oven, they will hold their shape.

For filling:  Add pudding mix and egg nog to a bowl and whisk for 1-2 minutes until mixture is fully incorporated and starts to thicken.  

Fold in cool whip.  

You can return to an airtight container and refrigerate or freeze until ready to use.

Cut one side of eclair open and fill with cream.  

Transfer to fridge or freezer until ready to use.

For Glaze:
In a sauce pan, combine corn syrup and butter, heat until butter is melted. Remove from heat, add chocolate chips and let sit 5 minutes until chocolate is melted.  Whisk until smooth.  Add vanilla and enough powdered sugar to make the glaze the desired consistency, whisk to combine.  You can either dip the top of each eclair in the frosting, or you can place them all closely together and pour over the top.   The dipped ones are prettier, but when you pour over the top they have more frosting and taste better, you decide.

Keep cool and serve cold.  These freeze well, just defrost for about 20 minutes before serving.

Yields: Depends on how big you make your eclairs. Mine were about 3 inches long and it made about 25.

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