Eclair Recipe

This eclair recipe is a simple classic French dessert that balances sweet, rich, soft, and crunchy all in one gorgeous bite! They are slightly crisp on the exterior, coated in shiny dark chocolate, and filled with sweet, rich pastry cream. The dark chocolate glaze gives an elegant shine and balanced flavor. 

The foundation of the perfect chocolate eclair is a light and airy classic French dough. Pâte à choux is a basic recipe that is the base for many delicious French pastries: cream puffs, savory gougères, churros, cruller donuts, beignets, gnocchi, profiteroles, and more. Homemade eclairs are the best because you get to enjoy them immediately while they’re still crisp, you will never buy one from the store again! 

Eclair Ingredients

Butter: European butter will result in better pastries and flavor because it has a higher fat content (83%) than American butters. More fat, less water equals more flavor and better baking results. Regular grocery stores usually carry one brand or another of European butter, even some of your more common American brands will have a line of butter that has a higher fat content, those are usually labeled “European style”, just check the back of the package for the fat percentage. In this recipe Chef Christophe prefers to use Plugra brand European butter.

Vanilla Bean: Scraping a fresh vanilla bean will give your pastry cream a fragrant strong authentic vanilla flavor, plus the small seeds add a gorgeous look to the smooth pastry cream. If you don't have a bean, that is okay, and vanilla extract or vanilla bean paste will work as well.

Chocolate: The high-quality chocolate and dark (64%) flavor contribute to the shiny finish of the dessert and the balance of flavor. The slight bitterness of the chocolate goes well in contrast to the sweet pastry cream filling.

Salt: Even the smallest pinch of salt can set your pastry apart from the rest. It enhances all flavors and highlights the sweetness of a pastry. 

Eggs: Use large, fresh eggs. Eggs are the backbone of this dough, without them, they won’t “puff”. 

How to Make Eclairs

You first want to make and chill the pastry cream, then make the eclair shells and let them cool. The shells cool fairly quickly and then you can begin filling the eclairs with pastry cream. The chocolate ganache glaze comes together easily and it does need to still be slightly warm for dipping consistency, so it works best to have the eclairs filled and ready to glaze as soon as the glaze is finished.

Making the Pâte a Choux

1. Preheat the oven to 360°F and prepare two sheet pans with parchment paper or a "silpain" baking mat.
2. Add the milk, water, salt, sugar, and butter to a medium saucepan and bring it to a boil. It is important to make sure that the butter is melting at the same rate the milk is heating so that the milk doesn't boil before the butter is melted. Slowly moving it around with a wooden spoon helps distribute the heat evenly. 
3. Once the mixture has come to a boil, turn off the heat and sift in the flour.
4. Begin stirring immediately with a wooden spoon, and continue to stir for 1 minute until the flour is fully incorporated, it will look a lot like mashed potatoes. 
5. Turn the heat back on medium-high and continue to stir and keep it moving to dry out the dough.
6. Once you see a browning layer on the bottom of your saucepan, the dough is dry enough and you can remove it from the heat.  This is important, as it will help your eclairs “puff” and ensure that they have a hollow center for the cream filling.
7. Put the dough immediately into the bowl of a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and begin to mix to cool it down, this should take about 30 seconds. When you can place your hand on the side of the bowl without it feeling too hot, it’s done.
8. Add the eggs one at a time, letting each egg incorporate fully before the next. The dough should be fully combined with no spots of dry flour, and stiff enough to hold its shape but pull to a soft peak when picking up the spoon. 
9. Prepare a piping bag with a large star or large round tip. Fill the piping bag with the dough. I prefer a star tip for pretty lines on top of my eclairs.
10. Pipe the pâte à choux in equal-length tubes, onto a lined baking sheet, about 3-4” long, and 2” apart. Pro-Tip: Use a cake smoother or a ruler to pipe your eclairs uniformly.
11. Gently smooth the top of the eclair with a damp fingertip.
12. Bake the eclair shells at 360°F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown. 
13. Cool the eclair shells completely on a wire rack for about 30 minutes.

Making the Vanilla Pastry Cream

1. Place your milk, scraped vanilla bean seeds, vanilla bean pod, and half of your sugar in a medium-sized pot over medium heat and bring it to a boil.
2. Add your egg yolks, the other half of the sugar, and the cornstarch to a separate large bowl.
3. Whisk your yolk mixture together to form a ribbon texture.
4. Once your milk mixture comes to a boil, pour half of the mixture into the yolk mixture and whisk together. This is called tempering your yolks. 
5. Pour the rest of the milk mixture into the egg yolks and whisk together. 
6. Pour the entire mixture back into the pot through a strainer to remove the vanilla fibers, and boil everything for about 1 minute, whisking constantly.
7. Pour your pastry cream into a bowl and cover it with plastic wrap touching the cream to avoid forming a skin. Refrigerate it for at least 30 minutes before using it to let everything set up.

Making the Chocolate Ganache Glaze

1. Heat the glucose in the microwave for about 15 seconds until it is very liquid.
2. Add the glucose and cream to a small saucepan over the stove, stir with a spatula and bring it to a simmer over medium heat.
3. Fill a large measuring cup with the chocolate and pour the cream mixture over the top in 2 portions, mixing after each. 
4. Blend the chocolate glaze with a whisk, if it is separated or “broken” you can use an immersion blender to bring it back together. 
5. At a temperature of around 100°F or 38°C the chocolate glaze is ready to go. 

Filling and Glazing the Eclairs

1. Fill a pastry bag with the prepared pastry cream. Christophe used a special tip designed to fill pastries, but any piping tip with a narrow round tip will work. 
2. Poke a hole in each end of the eclair shell and insert the piping tip, fill slowly on each side until the pastry cream begins to push back out the hole. This ensures the shell is full. If you are using a regular piping tip you can poke small holes in the bottom of the pastry shell and fill it from there.
3. Check the temperature of the ganache. At around 100°F or 38°C it is a good consistency to coat the top of the eclair without being too thick or too thin and running off the eclair. 
4. Carefully dip the top of the filled eclair evenly in the chocolate, about to the middle of the eclair, set aside on a pan for the glaze to set while you dip the rest of your eclairs.

Storing the Eclairs

Eclairs are meant to be eaten the same day as they are made. The moisture of the filling will cause the choux to soften and lose its crunch. So the sooner you can serve the eclairs, the better. If you have leftover filled eclairs, store them in an airtight container in the fridge, they will be soft, but still delicious. 

If you need to store the baked eclair shells, once they have fully cooled, wrap them well in plastic wrap and store at room temperature, unfilled. They can also be frozen if you do not plan to use them in the next day or so. If your eclair shells have softened they can be crisped up in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes. 

Another option if you don’t plan to serve your eclairs the same day is to pipe and freeze the pate a choux dough to be baked and filled as needed. Just place them on a baking sheet and let them thaw slightly and bake as directed.

Tips for Baking From Scratch

*This post may contain affiliate links which means if you click on them I might get a few pennies.

I suggest purchasing a kitchen scale if you don’t already have one to make the best scratch recipes. One cup of flour can vary from scoop to scoop depending on how packed the flour is, its humidity, and the type of flour, which can ruin your recipe. All of Chef Christophe's recipes are measured in grams, and a scale is necessary.

Practice Mise en Place (everything in its place) which means you measure everything before you start mixing so you don’t accidentally forget something or add any ingredients out of order. I use a set of medium and small pyrex glass bowls I got from goodwill for this and it makes things SO much easier.

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