Chocolate Eclairs

I went gluten-free when I was in my 20's so a lot of my cooking is inspired by memories of (gluten) baking I ate when I was younger. Some things I haven't been prepared to live without for ever! One such thing is chocolate eclairs. Although they are typically long in shape, I like to shape them like cream puffs.

I recently challenged myself to come up with a GF alternative to chocolate eclairs and now I have all kinds of people asking for the recipe as a preference to regular eclairs! I love it!

Chocolate Eclairs
75g butter
1 cup water
1/3 cup tapioca flour
1/3 cup brown rice flour
2 Tbsp white rice flour
1 Tbsp xanthan gum
2 teaspoons sugar
1/2 teaspoon (imiation) vanilla essence
3 eggs
whipped cream
chocolate icing*

Combine butter and water in a saucepan. Bring to the boil. In a separate bowl, combine tapioca flour, rice flours and xanthan gum. Quickly add the flour to the boiling mixture and beat with a wooden spoon until mixture leaves the sides of the saucepan. Remove from heat. Add sugar and vanilla. Add eggs one at a time, beating well after each addition. Grease an oven tray. Use two teaspoons to shape the mixture into small balls and place on the tray. Bake at 200C for 30 minutes or until eclairs are puffy and golden. Turn out onto a wire rack to cool, then use a sharp knife to cut slits in the sides of each eclair. Ice tops with chocolate icing and fill with whipped cream.
Makes about 20.

*I forget how much chocolate icing I made, but I used 1 part cocoa, 2 parts icing sugar, both sifted, and boiling hot water to make a thick paste.