Eclair Recipe

Pâte à choux may sound intimidating, but a classic French eclair is surprisingly easy to make at home! Made with just 5 ingredients, this basic recipe is the perfect next step in choux pastry. Fill the pastry shells with a smooth and rich pastry cream, balanced with a simple chocolate glaze for an impressive dessert.

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Prep Time 40

Cook Time 1

Cooling Time 30

Total Time 2 10

Servings eclairs

Calories 339kcal

Author Elizabeth Marek

Equipment

1 Stand mixer with paddle attachment
1 Piping Bag
1 Round piping tip or star tip

Ingredients

Pâte a Choux

160 grams milk
160 grams water
4 grams salt
6 grams granulated sugar
140 grams unsalted butter European (like Plugra)
180 grams all purpose flour
200 grams eggs

Pastry Cream

750 grams milk
1 whole vanilla bean
300 grams egg yolk
120 grams granulated sugar
60 grams cornstarch

Chocolate Ganache Glaze

200 grams heavy cream
180 grams dark chocolate 64%
40 grams glucose

Instructions

Making the Pâte a Choux

Preheat the oven to 360°F and prepare two sheet pan with parchment paper or a "silpain" baking mat.
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.
Once the mixture has come to a boil, turn off the heat and sift in the flour.
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. Turn the heat back on medium-high and continue to stir and keep it moving to dry out the dough.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
Gently smooth the top of the eclair with a damp fingertip.
Bake the eclair shells at 360°F for 25-30 minutes until golden brown.
Cool the eclair shells completely on a wire rack for about 30 minutes.

Making the Vanilla Pastry Cream

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.
Add your egg yolks, the other half of the sugar, and the cornstarch to a separate large bowl.
Whisk your yolk mixture together to form a ribbon texture.
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.
Pour the rest of the milk mixture into the egg yolks and whisk together.
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.
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

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

Filling and Glazing the Eclairs

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.
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.
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.
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.

Video

Notes

The Pan: It’s best to not use a nonstick pan when making pate a choux. It’s easier to see when the dough has dried enough when it sticks to the bottom of the pan and is brown.
Using a Scale: 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 my cake recipes (except doctored box mixes) use a scale.
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.

Nutrition