Coffee Pecan Éclairs

Not an éclair in the pâte à choux sense, but an éclair in the spirit of. These elegant confections, petit-fours if you will, come from Carole Walter's Great Cookies, one of my favourite books on the subject. She attributes the recipe to master baker Nick Malgieri. A rich little number, it yields a luscious array of flavours and textures in all of one succinct bite. Not exactly the fastest thing to whip up when you're in need of an instant sugar fix, more the stuff of leisurely preoccupation on a rainy afternoon, the best possible kind of project when you're in an un-harried frame of mind. Pecan meringues, scented with the warm whiff of cinnamon, sandwich a plush cushion of coffee buttercream. Good immediately, even better upon standing - the creamy filling softens the undersides of the crisp cookies, making for a deliciously deliquescent mouthful.