Chocolate Eclipse Recipes

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F.
• Grease a 9x13-inch baking pan.
• Melt butter and unsweetened chocolate together in a double boiler over hot water.
• In the meantime, heat buttermilk gently in a saucepan until just a little warmer than body temperature.
• In a large mixing bowl combine flour, 1 cup of the brown, sugar, baking powder, baking soda and salt.
• Mix well, using your hands if necessary to break up any lumps to achieve a uniform mixture.
• Stir in chocolate chips, if using.
• Pour the butter/chocolate mixture into buttermilk.
• add vanilla and then pour into the dry ingredients.
• Stir until well combined.
• Spread into prepared pan.
• Combine remaining 1 1/4 cups of brown sugar with unsweetened cocoa in a small bowl.
• Sprinkle this over the batter in the pan as evenly as possible.
• Next, pour boiling water gently and evenly over the sugar/cocoa mixture; do NOT stir.
• Place the pan immediately into the preheated oven.
• Bake for 30- 35 minutes, or until the center feels firm to the touch.
• Watch carefully, as it tends to over brown around the edges.
• Cool at least 15 minutes before serving.
• Best cooled for 2 hours.
• The finished result is a cake with a fudgy sauce hidden underneath.
• When serving, invert the cake so that the fudgy sauce becomes a topping.
• Serve with vanilla ice cream, creme fraiche or whipped cream.

Steps:

• 1. Preheat the oven to 305. Grease a 9 x 13-inch baking pan. 2. Melt the butter and chocolate squares together. 3. In a separate saucepan, heat buttermilk or sour milk gently until just a little warmer than body temperature (don't boil or cook it). Remove from heat, and combine with the chocolate mixture. Add vanilla. 4. In a large mixing bowl, combine flour, 1 cup of the brown sugar, baking powder, baking soda, and salt. Mix well (use your hands, if necessary) to break up any little lumps of brown sugar, making as uniform a mixture as possible. Stir in chocolate chips. 5. Pour in the milk-chocolate-vanilla mixture, and stir until well-combined. Spread into the prepared pan. 6. Combine the remaining 1-1/4 c. brown sugar with the cocoa in a small bowl. Sprinkle this mixture evenly over the top of the batter. 7. Pour on the boiling water. It will look terrible, and you will not believe you are actually doing this, but try to persevere. 8. Place immediately in the preheated oven. Bake for 30-35 minues, or until the center is firm to the touch. 9. Cool for at least 15 minutes before serving (or as much as several hours). Invert each serving on a plate so that the fudge sauce on the bottom becomes a topping. Serve hot or at room temperature. Nice with ice cream.

Steps:

• Start by making the custard filling. Heat the milk until almost boiling in a saucepan. Meanwhile, mix together the sugar, egg yolks and vanilla in a bowl, then stir in the flours, a couple of tsp at a time, to a smooth paste.
• Gradually whisk in the hot milk, pour everything back into the saucepan and cook over a high heat, stirring constantly, for about 5 mins until thick - it will go alarmingly lumpy but don't worry, just keep stirring it vigorously with a wooden spoon until smooth
• Lay a sheet of cling film directly on the custard surface, then cool and chill until you're ready to fill the buns.
• To make the choux buns, heat the oven to 220C/200C fan/gas 7. Sift the flour with the sugar and a pinch of salt into a small bowl. Put the milk and butter into a medium saucepan with 125ml water and gently heat so the butter melts but the liquid doesn't bubble.
• Once the butter has completely melted, increase the heat until the liquid comes to a fast rolling boil. Immediately turn off the heat, tip in the sifted flour and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon until you a have a smooth dough that comes away from the sides of the pan. Spread over a large dinner plate to cool to hand temperature.
• Allow to cool for a few minutes, then gradually add the eggs, mixing well between each addition until the mixture reluctantly drops off the spoon. Don't add all the egg unless you need to.
• Cut two large sheets of baking parchment. On each one draw two sets of 'track' lines with a 10cm gap - these will be your guidelines so your eclairs will all be roughly the same size. Use the paper to line two large baking sheets - penside down.
• Spoon your choux mixture into a piping bag with a 1cm star or round wide nozzle, or into a disposable piping bag with a similar-size hole snipped off for piping. Pipe two rows of well-spaced, squashed 'S' shapes on each sheet between the guidelines. Bake, one tray at a time, on a high-ish shelf for 25 mins, reducing temperature to 200C/180C fan/gas 6 as soon as they go in the oven.
• After 25 mins, poke a hole in the end of each bun, or using a small serrated knife, split down the middle and return to the oven, upside-down, to dry out for 5 mins until crisp and golden. Set aside to cool.
• While the buns are cooling, finish your filling. Whisk the cream until thick, then use your electric whisk to beat the cooled, set custard until just smooth again. Fold in the cream. Spoon your filling into a piping bag - use a small nozzle if you're filling the buns through the holes you've pierced, or a large nozzle if you've split the buns in half. Carefully pipe the custard into each cooled bun - they should feel heavy once full.
• To make the icing, melt 100g plain chocolate and 25g butter together in a heatproof bowl over a pan of barely simmering water. Once melted, remove from the heat and stir in 75ml double cream and 1 tbsp sifted icing sugar. Once cooled a little, spread over the tops of the buns and leave to cool.