Choux Pastry Swans and Eclairs

We did choux pastry (pate a choux) earlier this week in class. Turns out it isn't that hard but there are a few tricky things:

• You have to cook the dough on the stovetop before piping the shapes out.
• Piping the shapes with a pastry bag and star tip (for the bodies/eclairs) or regular round tip for the swan heads (make a shape like the #2 for your swan heads)
• The pastries go in a very hot oven for about 10-15 minutes (until puffed up and just a little brown on the edges) and then are transferred to a lower heat to finish baking (until golden brown)
  

Here is a pic below of what the eclair forms look like before filling and dipping in chocolate ganache. We filled ours with sweetened whipped cream (creme chantilly to the frenchies) but you could use pastry cream or bavarian cream instead.