My specialty

Over the years I've been asked what my "specialty" is. And until recently I always answered "I don't know". But it all changed one day a while back. A friend and I decided we wanted to make eclairs. Those scrumptious, delicious, heavenly pastries that make your mouth water and your eyes pop and your brain say "who cares about that diet?". Yes, they are that good. They are quite possible my favorite desert. My favorite food to bake. My favorite thing to eat. My favorite thing to look at. My favorite treat. My favorite... okay I think you get my point. I like them quite a lot. In fact I like them so much I have a hard time sharing them. When people ask to have one it generally goes something like this:

Them: "Ohhhh, Alyssa can I have one of those eclairs?"
Me: "Ummm, well....ya about that....there aren't really any left..."
Them: "What? You just made them yesterday and I didn't have any."
Me: "Ya...I don't know where they went so quickly. Somebody must have been eating them."

Yes, I know that someone is me. No I do not tell everyone that. You know "What the eye doesn't see the heart doesn't grieve over" and "What you don't know can't hurt you". Right? Right.

Anyway, I'm sure you're all dying to see pictures of these oh so amazing pastries. And so without further delay The Eclair:

You start with the filling. Now most eclair recipes would just use a lame whipped cream filling. NO! DO NOT FALL FOR THAT TRAP! That is not the way to make an eclair. You must use a custard filling. Let me reiterate. YOU MUST USE A CUSTARD FILLING OR YOU ARE BEING LAME AND I DON"T WANT TO SPEAK TO YOU EVER AGAIN! Haha, okay, okay I'm joking. No actually I'm not. USE CUSTARD! You want my reasons? Okay here you go:
Number 1: It's what they actually use in real eclairs so if you don't use custard you aren't making real eclairs. Number 2: It tastes heavenly and it's slightly less sweet removing the overly sweet after taste of most whipped cream fillings.
Number 3: I told you to! So you have to! Hah!

Step number two. The pastry. Little puffs of delicious airy goodness. Not overly sweet and light as light can be. Mmmmmmmm!

Now to combine the two! Surgery time! Slice the patients stomach open. Scoop out all vital organs and replace with a nice space filler. Or in other words slice the pastries in half remove some of the  inner pastry and fill with custard.  

 Mhhhhhhhmmmmmmm, look at that amazing custard oozing out of the delicate pastries. Is your mouth watering yet? No well just wait a moment and if you aren't drooling then maybe you should go get your salivary glands checked. They may have dried up.

Chocolate. The finishing touch. The perfect finish to the perfect pastry. I'm crying. Just give me a minute. 

Okay, I'm back. Sorry about that. Beautiful pastries make me very emotional. But moving on before I start crying again. ;)

This. This is what you should be drooling over. Don't lie and say you didn't drool. Cause you know you did. 

I'm gonna steal one! Or two...or three...or all of them.

Yes, this is what your face should look like when eating one of my eclairs. If it's not than you are no longer invited to eat them. Haha, just kidding. You were never invited in the first place cause I'm gonna eat them all!  

Love ya'll and I just might make you eclairs if you beg hard enough. Oh and you might get to eat one if you tie me down and eat it before I can steal it back. ;)

~Alyssa <3