What’s your definition of a perfect Christmas morning?

Mine would start not earlier than at 10 a.m. We  would all wake up because we are fully rested and ready for the day, not because the alarm clock went off  or my little Elf’s new teeth didn’t let us sleep any longer. We would lounge for as long as we feel like and make a slow start by preparing delicious breakfast, hanging out in pyjamas until noon. Doesn’t it sound great?

For breakfast… We would give porridge and fruit a well-deserved break and have something quite sinful, like donuts or eclairs! Creamy eclairs with chocolate topping and a cup of freshly ground coffee.. That’s it, that’s how my perfect Christmas morning would look like.

Why wouldn’t I just make it happen? Well, I do not have either impact or control over all the circumstances so it definitely will not be perfect but it can be festive and very special. At the end of the day, it’s a great company and good intentions that count the most, especially around Christmas time.

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Original Recipe Eclairs

Ingredients
For the dough:
butter- 125 g
water- 1 cup
all-purpose flower- 1 cup
eggs- 5 units (if small), 4 (large ones)

For the cream:
whipped cream- 1 1/2 cups
mascarpone- 125 g
castor sugar- 3 Tbsp
orange extract- 1 tsp

For the decoration:
chocolate- 100 g

Directions
For the dough:
1. Melt butter in a medium size pan, add water and keep on the stove until bubbles appear on the surface. Add flour and stir quickly so that no lumps appear. When the dough becomes quite thick and its surface lustrous take it out of the pan and start cooling.
2. Transfer the dough to a bowl and mix in 2 eggs. Once nice and smooth, add another two and keep mixing for about two minutes.
3. Pre-heat the oven to 200C and line your baking tray with parchment paper. Transfer the dough into confectionery sleeve with quite large ending (2 cm). Press out stripes approx. 8 cm long, keeping 2 cm distance between eclairs.
4. Bake for about 22 minutes, until puffy and golden on the outside.
5. Once ready, cool completely on the cooling rack and cut in halves.

For the cream:
1. Pour whipping cream into a bowl, add sugar and orange extract, whip until stiff peaks form.
2. Add mascarpone cheese and keep mixing for about 3 minutes.
3. Scoop the cream into confectionery sleeve and start filling eclairs (they need to look like a creamy sandwich).
4. Melt the chocolate and decorate the cakes on the top. Enjoy!

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As always, so many unexpected and quite undesired things happened throughout the morning that my puffy treats weren’t ready until late afternoon. It obviously wasn’t Christmas day yet but Saturday couple days before and we were forced to drop the idea of spending entire day in pj’s. However, this sweet, creamy treats were just a perfect excuse for the family to stop what we were doing and enjoy little break sipping coffee and eating cakes in a great and truly festive atmosphere.