Eclairs Recipe - My Gorgeous Recipes (2024)

FAQs

What's the difference between an eclair and a French eclair? ›

Other than form and name, they are continents apart in taste. An American eclair is made from frozen ingredients such as frozen pre-separated egg whites and yolks and frozen pre-made cream. A French eclair is fresh: freshly separated eggs, freshly stirred creme, freshly picked or ground ingredients.

Why are my eclairs soggy? Answer: This can happen if your choux pastry wasn't thick enough, and too runny. It's important to make sure each egg is fully incorporated before adding the next one. It is also important not to open your oven and peak.

Make-Ahead Eclairs

The eclair shells can be made several days ahead, or even kept frozen for several months. Likewise, the pastry cream will keep for several days in the fridge. When you're ready to assemble your eclairs, make the chocolate glaze, put everything together, and serve.

Once cool, the pastry is filled with custard (crème pâtissière), whipped cream or chiboust cream, then iced with fondant icing. Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée.

French, literally, "lightning" Word Origin. The English word éclair comes directly from a French word whose chief meaning is "lightning" or "flash of lightning." No one is sure why a pastry was named after lightning.

When piping choux pastry into eclairs, using a French star nozzle (as pictured here) will reduce the amount of cracking in the pastry as well as help to retain a neater, more consistent eclair shape as it bakes. If you don't have a French star nozzle, an open star nozzle is the next best option.

Bake the eclairs until they are dark golden brown without any light spots showing. The shells should be firm to the touch and crisp. They shouldn't have areas that are soft or white/yellow in color otherwise they will buckle and deflate.

Choux pastry, or pâte à choux (French: [pɑt a ʃu]), is a delicate pastry dough used in many pastries. The essential ingredients are butter, water, flour and eggs.

This is a problem if the recipes calls for too many eggs. The solution is make another batch with one less eggs to see if that fixed the problem. Also, if the puffs do not bake long enough, then they may taste slightly eggy because the insides haven't cooked long enough.

The word "éclair" made its appearance in the 1860s, describing the pastry previously called petite duch*esse in France. It may have been created by French chef Antonin Carême, who is responsible for other desserts including the Charlotte and Napolean cake.

Why do eclairs fail to rise? ›

Another reason your eclairs may not have risen is because there is too much moisture in the dough. Once you have melted the butter, remove the pan from heat, add all the flour at once and stir, then place the pan back on the heat and mix quickly until the mixture forms a dry ball that comes away from the pan.

Of course, every oven is different, so you will have to experiment with the temperatures, and then you can determine what works the best for your oven. Well baked éclairs should be puffed, golden brown, and dry inside. If you are not sure they are done, you can break one and check if it's wet and soggy inside.

You can either use a piping bag with a metal nozzle to push through the base of the puff and inject it with filling, or you can cut them in half and fill with a spoon. The first way is trickier but obviously gives a neater finished product, whereas the second way is easier but not as 'perfect'.

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.

Chocolate Eclairs (éclairs au chocolat)

In the 19th century, Antonin Carême, a famous pastry chef for French royalty, had the idea of removing the almonds, garnishing them with chocolate or coffee custard, and covering it with fondant sugar. The éclair was born! Eclair means “lightning” in French.

Chouquettes are a famous French pastry made from choux dough. They are small, hollow puffs filled with cream or custard and topped with chocolate sauce. They are also known as cream puffs, eclairs, and profiteroles. The ingredients for making chouquettes only need water, butter, flour, sugar, eggs, and vanilla extract.

In France the éclair is revered and you will find a version in every patisserie. Filled with chocolate cream or fresh cream and topped with chocolate icing is how many like their éclair but you'll also find designer versions with unusual fillings and toppings.