Granny's eclairs

So after a big dinner of Mexican soup and then a slice of HFW's cake and a cuppa, my sister Sally arrived in the door with a plate of eclairs. She had brought them fresh from Joanna's house, who made them according to my granny's recipe (which you can find below). You can see the eclairs are nice and fat and squidgy and oozing with cream. I couldn't resist having a little taste! In the picture, you can see my granny Laura's old biscuit tin, which used to be kept up high on top of a kitchen press, out of our reach. I'm not surprised...

Granny Laura's eclairs recipe:

Yum yum yum... once you've made these eclairs once there's no goingback... delicious! They take a little elbow grease in the wooden spoon beating bit, good for the arm muscles!

For the eclairs:
100g plain flour
pinch of salt
150ml water
75g butter
3 eggs, beaten

First, heat the oven to 220C and lightly grease the eclair tin, or just a sheet of baking paper on an oven tray if you don't have one. Sift the flour and salt into a bowl.

Place the water and butter in a medium saucepan over a medium heat, stirring until the butter melts. Allow the mixture to come to a rolling boil (bubbling slightly) and immediately remove the pan from the heat.
Add flour and salt and beat very well with a wooden spoon till the mixture comes together.
Reduce the heat and put the saucepan back on it for 1 minute, until the mixture starts to 'fur' (stick to the base of the pan).
Remove from the ehat and allow to cool for 1 minute.
Pour 1/4 of the beaten egg into the pan and beat well using the wooden spoon. Add a little more egg and beat well again till the mixture comes back together. Continue to add egg, beating vigorously all the time until nice and shiny. *leave a little egg out to brush eclairs with before going into the oven.
Put the mixture onto the tray in longish eclair shapes, they puff up though so not too big! Maybe about 10cm long, and about 5cm apart. Brush them with a little beaten egg.
Bake for 10 minutes.
Reduce heat to 200C and bake for a further 15 to 20 minutes.
Remove them and slice the side of each one and pop them back in the oven again for 5 minutes, to let the air out and prevent them going soggy.
Place on a drying rack.

For the icing:
150g icing sugar
20g cocoa sugar
1 or 2 tbsp boiling water
a knob of butter

Mix them all together and Tadaa!

Pop whipped cream into the centre (or! creme chantilly: 400ml whipped cream, 50g icing sugar, 1tsp vanilla extract mixed together... each rich and sugary but extra delicious!)