Coffee Eclairs

I think I have already told you how much I like eclairs. (I know, I keep saying that every time I post a new recipe.) I've been craving eclairs for a long time. It's probably not a surprise that I made them coffee-flavoured. 
So at first I had some difficulties with the filling. It came out too thick. Maybe 2tbsp of cornflour were too much but instead of decreasing the amount of cornflour I added more milk and slightly more sugar (the recipe below is already modified) and finally it turned out well. 



Coffee Eclairs

Pastry 
65ml milk
65ml water
50g unsalted butter, softened
½ tsp sugar
pinch of salt
75g flour
2 eggs, beaten

Coffee custard filling
350ml whole milk
2 tbsp instant coffee powder
80g sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 egg
2 tbsp cornflour
25g butter, diced into small cubes

Coffee glaze
                              100g icing sugar
                              2 tbsp strong coffee
 

1) Preheat the oven to 180C and line two baking trays with parchment paper. Place the milk, water, butter, sugar, and a pinch of salt in a large pot, and bring to the boil over a high heat. Remove from the heat, add the flour and stir with a wooden spoon until smooth. Return to a medium heat and cook for 1 minute until the mixture comes away from the sides and forms into a ball.


2) Remove from the heat and gradually whisk in the eggs till you have a smooth batter. Leave the mixture to cool.

3) Fit a large piping bag with a 1cm nozzle, fill with the cooled mixture and pipe 12 éclairs onto the baking tray, spaced 5cm apart. Bake for 25–30 minutes or until golden brown and puffed. Transfer to a wire rack and leave to cool.

4) Meanwhile for the custard filling, place the milk, coffee powder, sugar, vanilla extract and a pinch of salt in a pot and heat to just under the boil. Remove the milk mixture from the heat, cover, and leave for 10–15 minutes. Meanwhile, whisk together the egg and cornflour in a small bowl and set aside.

5) Strain the milk mixture through a fine sieve into a bowl. Return the mixture to the pot and heat again to just under the boil. Whisk 2 tablespoonsful into the egg mixture. Pour this back into the pan and whisk constantly over a low heat until you have a thick custard.

6) Strain the custard and stir in the butter cubes. Leave to cool.

7) Cut each eclair lenghtwise and fill with custard.

8) For the coffee glaze, sift the icing sugar into a small bowl and whisk in the coffee. Spoon the glaze over the éclairs. Let them set at least for an hour before serving.