Learn to make a cream filled chocolate eclairs at home that taste just like the ones they sell at the French bakeries.
Tessa has been home for the holiday weekend so we decided to channel our inner French pastry chef and give the recipes a try at home to see if we could do it. Making French pastries is not hard it just takes time and lots of butter, cream and sugar!
The main differences between the three include the shape and serving method. Eclairs: Oblong choux pastry filled with cream and topped with a glaze or icing. Cream Puffs: Round choux pastry puffs filled with pastry cream and topped with icing or dusted with powdered sugar.
How to Make Pastry Cream for Eclairs
- Put milk in pan and bring to a boil.
- Whisk sugar and yolks together until the mixture whitens.
- Add in cornstarch/flour to sugar and eggs
- Pour a third of the hot milk into egg mixture and stirring as you add it.
- Pour the mixture back into the sauce pan and bring to a boil while whisking vigorously.
- Transfer to bowl and add vanilla and butter. Cool.
- Put pastry cream into a pastry bag.
- Poke two holes into the bottom of each eclair.
- Pipe custard into the bottom of the eclairs through two holes you have made with the end of a wooden spoon. Fill the shell 3/4 full of cream.
- Over low heat, melt chocolate and butter in a sauce pan stirring constantly.
- Add in sugar and enough milk to make it a nice spreading consistency.
- Cover the top of each eclair with melted chocolate
How to Make Pate a Choux
The first step in the process of making an eclair as is to make the Pate a Choux which is the “dough.”
- Combine butter, salt and water in a sauce pan and bring to a boil.
- Remove from heat and add the sifted flour.
- Beat the dough with a wooden spoon.
- Put back on heat and beat the dough for one minute or until it pulls away from the sides of the pan and doesn’t stick to the spoon.
- Transfer the dough to a mixing bowl and add the eggs one at a time while stirring. The dough will be smooth and slightly loose.
- Put the dough into a large pastry bag. Use a 1/2 inch plain tip in the bag and then pipe your dough onto a parchment covered cookie sheet. See photo below for the correct texture. The dough should be not too stiff yet soft enough so that it slides off the spoon when tilted.
- Pipe eclairs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. The eclairs should be 4-5 inches long but you could make them any size you want.
- Bake at 400 degrees F for about 20 minutes. The trick to making eclairs so that they don’t sink is to open the oven a few times through out the baking process to release the steam. I opened the oven 10 minutes into the process to release steam and then at 15-20 minutes I turned the oven down to 350 and stuck a wooden spoon in the door to keep it ajar and continue baking until they are golden brown.
While they are baking you can make your pastry cream or custard which is what you will fill the eclairs with.
- Milk. I use whole milk.
- Sugar
- Eggs
- Flour
- Cornstarch
- Butter
- Vanilla
everything you need to know about cream puffs
FAQ
What’s the difference between an eclair and a French eclair?
What is the difference between choux pastry and eclair justify your answer in at least 100 words?
What is the filling of an eclair called?
What is the difference between a cream stick and an eclair?
What is the difference between Eclairs and cream puffs?
Eclairs and cream puffs are both made from the same choux pastry dough, but the difference is the shape and the filling. Eclairs have a long, rectangular shape and are filled with pastry cream and topped with a chocolate glaze. Cream puffs are round and can be filled on the inside or sliced in half and filled.
How do you make cream puffs & éclairs?
For cream puffs: Using a generously filled tablespoon cookie scoop, or a level muffin scoop, drop the thick batter onto the prepared baking sheets in 3- to 4-tablespoon mounds. Space the mounds about 3″ apart, to allow for expansion. For éclairs: Using a pastry bag, pipe the batter into 5″ logs about 1/2″ to 3/4″ in diameter.
How do you make Eclairs with pastry cream?
First, use a small pastry tip to make 3 holes on the bottom of each eclair shell. Then fill a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip that is 5mm to 10mm in diameter with the vanilla custard. Now, fill the eclair shells with the pastry cream through the little holes that you just made. Then wipe off any excess cream.
What is a cream puff?
This cream puff recipe is a simple classic French dessert that balances sweet, rich, soft, and crunchy all in one fluffy little bite! They are slightly crisp on the exterior, soft and chewy on the inside, and filled with a sweet light vanilla bean whipped cream or pastry cream.