Mini Eclairs With Apple Purée And Hazelnut Butter - cooking recipe

Ingredients

3/4 cup bread flour
6 tbsp (3/4 stick) unsalted butter
3 None eggs
None None FOR THE FILLING AND TOPPING
4 None Granny Smith apples, chopped (do not peel or core)
1 tbsp sugar
3 tbsp unsalted butter, softened
5 tbsp powdered sugar
1 cup hazelnuts, toasted, skinned and chopped
1/2 None lemon, peel finely grated
1/2 cup pistachio nuts, skinned and chopped

Preparation

Preheat the oven to 350\u00b0F. Sift flour with pinch of salt onto a sheet of parchment paper. Place 1 cup water and butter in large saucepan; heat gently until butter melts. Bring to a rolling boil. Remove pan from heat. Add flour all at once; beat vigorously until mixture comes away from sides of the pan. Set aside to cool.
Lightly beat eggs with large pinch of salt. When choux pastry is cool, gradually beat in eggs with an electric beater, beating well after each addition, until the mixture is smooth and glossy.
Line a baking pan with parchment paper and splash with a little water. Fit a large piping bag with a 1/3-inch plain tip. Fill with pastry. Pipe 2 inch-long shapes onto prepared pan. Place in upper third of oven and increase oven temperature to 400\u00b0F. Bake for 18-20 mins until golden. Prick each eclair with a skewer and cool on a wire rack. (If the eclairs are under-cooked in center, return them to turned-off oven for 5 mins to dry out.)
Place apples and 1 tbsp water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan. Cover and cook gently for 15 mins or until apples disintegrate. Stir with wooden spoon to soften puree. Push apples through a coarse sieve; discard skin, cores and seeds. Return puree to a clean pan with sugar. Cook on medium heat for 10 mins, stirring, until puree sticks to wooden spoon. Cool.
Pipe apple puree into eclairs with piping bag fitted with a small tip or split eclairs and fill with puree. Stir softened butter and powdered sugar in a bowl. Stir in 2 tbsp hazelnuts and lemon peel. Spread over top of eclairs, the press gently into chopped pistachios or remaining hazelnuts. Once filled and decorated, serve eclairs within 1 hour.