Eclairs Extraordinaire!!

Tony Tahhan and Meeta K. were in charge of this month's Daring Bakers Challenge. My third challenge, thank you very much.

From the acclaimed pastry chef Pierre Hermé I proudly present my interpretation of Chocolate Éclairs!!
We were allowed to change the fillings as we pleased as long as we incorporated Chocolate! No problems there right?

I decided to make a strawberry filling. I pureed fresh strawberries to create a coulis, or thick sauce. Then I added the strained mixture into some whipped cream until it was the color and flavor I liked.This version also had a really nice almond flavored glaze that I made. The secret is to mix in about 1 tablespoon of very soft butter into the powdered sugar, then add milk to desired consistency, and almond extract. This really imparts a nice flavor.
You can see I also made a lovely chocolate version too. Here below.
Éclairs Elements I learned:

• French pâte à choux
• Pastry Cream--a mixture of milk, egg yolks, bittersweet chocolate. This recipe I will make again.
• Chocolate glaze. I will use this on ice cream. But I think I have a better recipe in my own collection that would have worked better here.
  

This recipe took me only a couple hours to put together. It was positively a joy to make. I asked myself why I had not attempted to make these before? Compared to last months challenge , the Filbert Gateau; which was extremely difficult, expensive and time consuming, this was a walk in the park, a walk I will take any day of the week!!