How To Make Eclairs
I believe when it comes to eclairs we have been a bit bamboozled. I am only guessing here, but I would bet that most of our experience with eclairs comes from our many trips to the neighborhood donut shop which uses normal doughnut dough for the eclair shell and some kind of custard cream filling. These eclairs are not bad. In fact I have probably enjoyed a few too many. They just aren’t the classic though and I think it is good to know how to make eclairs the classic way. For the classic, choux paste is needed to make the shells and a simple pastry cream (not officially a custard) is used for the filling.
How To Make Eclairs – The Choux Paste
Eclair, like its famous cousins the profiterole and Paris Brest, uses a classic choux paste to hold its creamy filling. When baked, choux paste makes a delicate shell with just enough chewiness and tenderness without being rubbery. It makes a great shell for creamy fillings as it has good texture, but not an abundance of taste. It is essentially a simple vehicle to deliver the richness of the filling and the chocolatey ganache that is usually on top without being overbearing or getting in the way. The trick is to pipe out nice even tubes of choux paste so you have nice even shells. It doesn’t mean they won’t necessarily leak pastry cream filling when you fill the shells, but leaking pastry cream is never bad!
How To Make Eclairs – The Pastry Cream
The Pastry cream is more like a pudding than a custard mostly because it is starch bound. It is perhaps not as rich as a custard, but the addition of a few tablespoons of butter at the end will smooth it out wonderfully – no one will complain. The beauty of it being a starch bound concoction is that it is easy to make. Unlike a custard where boiling is to be avoided, a pastry cream should get to a boil so it thickens fully. The starch will stop the eggs from scrambling and a creamy filling will still result. The pastry cream is then cooled and piped into the eclair shell. Just watch for shells with little holes in them as the pastry cream will ooze right out. Yes, it is ok to lick your fingers. If it is not pretty, no worries. It will still taste good! Oh, and don’t skimp on the filling! Squeeze in as much as you can!
How To Make Eclairs – The Chocolate Glaze
A chocolate topping is very nice on top of an eclair. Some good 70% cacao chocolate, a dash of cream and some corn syrup makes a fine ganache. The ingredients are melted over a double boiler and the filled eclairs dipped right in – YUM! Yes, it is ok to lick your fingers here, too!
The ‘How To Make Eclairs’ video is below. The full recipe follows.
- 1 cup of milk
- 4 tbsp of butter
- 1/4 tsp of salt
- 2 tbsp of sugar
- 1 cup of flour
- 4 eggs
- ½ cup sugar
- 5 egg yolks
- 2 tbsp of flour
- 2 tbsp of corn starch
- 2 cups of milk
- 1 tsp of vanilla extract
- 4 tbs of cold butter
- 4 oz of chocolate (70% cacoa)
- 2 tbsp of corn syrup
- 2 tbsp of heavy cream
- Preheat the oven to 350F.
- In a medium pot, add the milk, salt, sugar and butter. Bring the mixture to a boil over high heat.
- When the mixture is boiling and the butter is melted, pour in all the flour at once and stir with a wooden spoon. Lower the heat to low. Keep stirring until the mixture comes off the side of the pan and comes together as a dough/paste - about 1 minute. Keep stirring for another minute to cook the floury taste from the dough.
- Turn off the heat.
- Add one egg directly into the pot stirring vigorously with a wooden spoon to incorporate the egg into the dough. After the egg is added, the dough will be clumpy and sticky, but will come back together when the egg is fully incorporated. Repeat this step until all the eggs are incorporated and the dough is a thick paste. A hand mixer can be used to incorporate the eggs instead of a wooden spoon.
- Let the dough cool and transfer it to a pastry bag with a 1 inch plain or star piping tip. A plastic bag with a corner cut off and a piping tip inserted can also be used.
- Line a baking tray with parchment paper.
- Make 4 - 5 inch lines of pastry dough on the baking tray.
- Bake the pastry in the oven for 40-45 minutes or until they are deep golden brown and have puffed up. They should sound hollow when tapped.
- Remove the eclair shells from the oven and, using a small paring knife, make small slits at each end to let extra steam escape. These slits will also be used to fill the eclairs.
- Let the eclair pastry cool completely.
- Rough chop the chocolate and place it in a medium bowl.
- Cut the cold butter into small cubes.
- In a saucepan, bring the milk and vanilla (or vanilla bean and seeds) to a simmer.
- In a heat proof glass bowl, whisk the eggs, sugar, flour and cornstarch until the mixture is thoroughly mixed and pale in color.
- If using, remove the bean from the milk and slowly whisk the hot milk into the egg mixture, whisking constantly.
- Place the mixture back into the pot and, stirring constantly, slowly bring the mixture to a boil. Let it boil 1 minute. (It must boil for it to thicken! Don’t worry about making scrambled eggs as the starch and flour will stop this from happening.)
- Remove the pastry cream from the heat, pour the hot pastry cream into a bowl. Stir in the cold butter. Allow the filling to cool stirring occasionally to stop a skin from forming. If there are lumps, push the pastry cream through a fine sieve.
- When the pastry cream is completely cool, transfer it to a pastry bag with a 2 inch pastry filling tip. A plastic bag with a corner cut off and a piping tip inserted can also be used.
- Insert the filling tip into the end of an eclair pastry (through the knife slits) and squeeze to fill with cream. Fill each eclair from both sides to ensure there is cream throughout.
- When the eclairs are filled, make the glaze.
- Chop the chocolate. Place the chopped chocolate, corn syrup and heavy cream in a heatproof bowl. Place the heat proof bowl over a pan of simmering water. Begin to whisk the mixture when the chocolate starts to melt. When the ingredients are all incorporated and the chocolate is fully melted, remove it from the heat. If the glaze tightens, add a tablesspoon or 2 of cream and re-heat, stirring, on the double boiler.
- Dip the tops of each filled eclair in the glaze. If needed, spread the glaze with a butter knife.
- Serve immediately. The eclairs can be held in sealed containers in the refrigerator for a few days.
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How do you make eclairs? Have you made Choux Paste before? Let us know in the comments or on Facebook.
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