Cherry Éclairs

Uhh, at first they seem so quick and easy, but the filling and final preparing them was more of a challenge :) However, the final outcome is really wonderful :) I gave a good plate for my brother, but before he reached his house, the plate was already empty ;) 

It would be a sin, not to recommend them ;)
This recipe is a mix of recipes from those two pages.

Ingredients:

Éclairs dough:

• 250 ml of water
• 125g of butter or margarine
• 1 glass of flour
• 4 eggs
• a pinch of salt

Filling:

• 200 ml of milk
• 300g of cherries (fresh or frozen)
• 3 egg yolks
• 20g of flour
• 20g of potato starch
• 90g of sugar
• 1 packaging of vanilla sugar
• 1 tablespoon of butter

Icing:

• 1 glass of powdered sugar
• 4-5 tablespoons of water

Optional icing ingredients:

• flavoured extract - vanilla, almond, lemon, etc.
• food colouring
• or - instead of icing - ganache, chocolate frosting

Optional ingredients - decoration:

• cherry (or any other flavour - different fruit, caramel, chocolate, coffee, nut...) mousse
• whipped cream
• fruit
• nuts
• mincemeat

Preparation - dough:

1. Take a baking tray, grease and put baking paper on it. Put aside.
2. Take a pot, put water, butter and salt inside, boil.
3. When brought to boil, add flour and stir energetically (to prevent the bottom from burning). The dough should be smooth and should not stick to the pot.
4. Put aside, to let it cool down completely.
5. When cooled down, mix the dough with eggs, for a quite long time, till smooth.* 
6. Put the dough inside a syringe or a piping pastry bag with a steel piping nozzle (preferably quite big star shape).
7. Distribute long pieces of cake, leaving some space between them, as they will grow quite much.
8. Bake in the oven for 25-35 minutes, on 200C. Make sure they're ready inside.
9. When baked, cool down and cut lengthways.

* Longer mixing helps it grow up in the oven later on, as there is no baking powder.

Preparation - filling:

1. If your cherries are frozen - defrost, make sure there are no kernels, pour away the water.
2. If fresh - throw away the kernels.
3. Put the cherries in a bowl. Mix, with a mixer, till smooth, to get a mousse. If there's cherry juice, pour it away, for a different use.
4. Take a pot, pour milk and add cherry mousse inside. Start boiling. When brought to boil, turn off the heat and put aside to let it cool down.
5. Take a mixer and its bowl, beat the eggs with sugar and vanilla sugar. Add flour and potato starch. Using a spatula, mix precisely.
6. Gradually add cherry milk mixture to the mixer's bowl, stiring precisely.
7. Put the mixture back in the pot and start boiling. Stir all the time, as it will thicken, like a custard, quite fast. Be careful not to burn the bottom.
8. When thick and ready, add butter and stir, to let the butter melt. Cover with foil and put aside, to let it cool down. Later on, when cool, keep in the fridge (it will thicken more), till you need it.

Preparation - icing sugar:

1. Put all the ingredients together and stir to get a desired consistency of the icing (needs to be thick). 

Finishing:

1. Prepare a baking grill or another baking tray, cover with baking paper, put aside.
2. Take the top pieces of your Éclairs and dip in previously prepared icing. 
3. Transfer them into steel baking grill or baking tray and leave for a while in the fridge.
4. Put the cherry filling inside a syringe or a piping pastry bag with a steel piping nozzle (preferably quite big star shape) and distribute it on the bottom piece of your Éclair in any way desired. You can add fruit, whipped cream or use only the cherry filling.
5. Cover with the suitable top piece covered with icing.
6. Store in the fridge.
7. Bon Appetit! :)

Cherry Cube

Ohh wonderful! Truly chocolate, soft, mouth-watering - and - to my great surprise - it is not heavy and not extremely sweet :) frankly, it is its enormous advantage! 
This cake will wonderfully decorate your table and enrapture your guests. I do recommend.

Recipe, slightly changed, comes from this website.

Ingredients:

Cocoa dough, part 1:

• 3/4 glass of oil
• 1/2 glass of water
• 1 glass of sugar
• 3 tablespoons of baking cocoa

Cocoa dough, part 2:

• 5 egg yolks (room temperatured)
• 5 egg whites(room temperatured)
• 1/2 glass of white sugar
• 1,5 glass of flour
• 1 teaspoon of baking powder
• 1 teaspoon of baking soda

Cherry cream:

• 500ml of 36% cream, very cold (before using, put in in the freezer for around 15 minutes)
• 800g of cherries (fresh or frozen)
• 2 tablespoons of lemon juice
• 5 tablespoons of sugar
• 24g (=6 teaspoons =6 gelatin leaves) of powdered gelatin 

Chocolate frosting (ganache):

• 125 ml of 36% cream
• 125g of chocolate (I used 70% cocoa chocolate, but you can use half of milk and half of plain chocolate)

Additional ingredients:

• Glacé cherries for decoration
• 1/2 glass of cherry brandy or amaretto
• whipped cream

Preparation:

Dough:

1. Put all the ingredients from part 1 in a pot. Start boiling, stir, till all the ingredients link and sugar melts. Turn off the heat and cool down.

While the first part is almost cooled down, time for part 2:

1. Sieve the flour, baking powder and baking soda. Put aside.
2. Take a rectangular baking pan (preferably 25x35cm). Put baking paper all over it.
3. Take a mixer and its bowl, put egg whites inside and start beating (it will take 10 minutes). At the end of that time, gradually start adding sugar.
4. Add egg yolks and mix, on a low rotation, till smooth.
5. Add cooled down 'part 1' and stir precisely with a spatula or spoon. 
6. Pour the dough into previously prepared baking pan.
7. Bake for 35-45 minutes minutes in 180C. Preferably, as always - check if the cake is ready with a toothpick.
8. Cool down in an open oven.

While the cake is cooling down, prepare the filling:

Cherry cream:

1. Take a big pot, put cherries inside (no need to defrost frozen ones), add sugar, lemon juice and bring to boil.
2. After that time, if there is too much cherry juice in your pot (especially from frozen cherries) take all of it out, so that only cherries remain in a pot.
3. Take a blender and mix till smooth.
4. Put gelatin in a glass, cover with hot, boiling water (just a little bit of boiling water, to cover the gelatin is enough) and keep stiring till the gelatin dissolves.
5. Add to blended cherries and stir precisely. Let it cool down completely.
6. Take a mixer with its (another ;) ) bowl, put 36% cream inside and beat till stiff (depends on mixer's power it will take between 5-10 minutes).
7. In 3 parts, start adding cooled down cherry mixture. When done, put in the fridge for a while.

Finishing:

1. Take a big piece of baking paper. 
2. If the cake cooled down completely, cut into equal 2 pieces (the best way to do it is to use a thread).
3. Put the first piece of cake on your baking paper. Lift it, and put it back in the baking pan.
4. Here is a good time, to take alcohol and with a spoon, distribute it all over the piece of cake.
5. Cover with cherry filling, put another piece of cake (add alcohol if desired) on it and the remaining part of the filling. 
6. Put it in the fridge for around 15-20 minutes. During that time, prepare the chocolate frosting.

Ganache:

1. Chop the chocolate into small pieces. 
2. Put the cream in a pot, boil. Turn off the heat. Add chocolate and stir till it links and you receive a smooth frosting. Put aside for a while.

1. Take the cake out from the fridge, distribute the frosting all over the top, and put back in the fridge for at least 20 minutes.
2. After that time, decorate your cake with glacé cherries, distributing them quite far away from each other, so that you can cut equal cubes. It is also possible to put some whipped cream all over the cake and then, on it, a cherry, like here, in that recipe.
3. Store in the fridge.
4. Bon Appetit :)