French chocolate éclairs
Get ready to dive into the world of French pastries with our homemade Chocolate Éclair recipe!
These delightful pastries are a must-try and are found in every Parisian bakery. As a dessert lover, I've always wanted to master the art of making the perfect eclair. Thanks to my time at Ladurée, a famous French pâtisserie, I learned the secrets straight from the experts.
Now, I'm excited to share a simple recipe that lets you recreate these delicious treats at home. No need to be a pastry expert – just follow along, and soon you'll be enjoying your own batch of heavenly chocolate éclairs that can teleport you straight to the café in Paris!
Allez-y let's go!
Ingredients
| Cream puff dough | |
| Milk | 125ml |
| Water | 125ml |
| Unsalted butter | 125g |
| Caster sugar | 5g |
| Salt | 5g |
| Flour | 146g |
| Whole eggs | 230g (4 and half pcs) |
| Chocolate pastry cream | |
| Milk | 270ml |
| Whole eggs | 72g (~1 and half pcs) |
| Sugar | 40g |
| Cornstarch | 30g |
| Unsalted butter | 30g |
| 80% bittersweet chocolate | 80g |
| Whipping cream | 40ml |
| Decoration | |
| Chocolate fondant | One container |
| Cacao nibs | 200g |
Step 1
Making of puff paste
Make the cream puff paste with standard portion.
Refer to my Howdos post on "How to bake the best cream puff!" to view the complete recipe and process to create the dough.
Step 2
Piping of éclair dough
Using a French Star pastry tip, pipe the dough straight in line as the photo.
Step 3
Bake the éclairs
Preheat the oven to 160 degree Celsius and bake the éclairs for 30 minutes.
Please take note that you DO NOT want to open the oven door during this period. If you do, the steam will escape from the oven and cause your pastry to collapse, resulting in flat, sad looking éclairs.
After 30 minutes when the pastries have puffed up significantly with a pleasant golden color, turn the heat down to 140 degree Celsius and bake for another 30 minutes to dry out any excess moisture.
Step 4
Making of pastry cream
In a clean bowl, mix the whole eggs with sugar and cornstarch until they are well combined.
Step 5
Boil the milk
On a separate pot, boil the milk.
Step 6
Temper the milk with the egg mixture
When the milk has reached boiling point, turn the heat off and slowly pour the milk into the egg mixture to temper the eggs, and then pour all the mixture back into the pot, turn on the heat and continue cooking.
Step 7
Cooking the custard
With medium heat, whisk the mixture constantly until it boils and thickens to a custard consistency. Add in the unsalted butter at the end of cooking process.
Step 8
Adding the chocolate
While the custard is still hot, add your chocolate and cold cream.
Step 9
Cool the chocolate cream
Your chocolate custard should be smooth and shiny. Transfer the chocolate cream into a clean container, cover with cling wrap and store in the fridge until cool.
Step 10
Piping the cream
Once the chocolate cream has completely cool down, whisk the cream till it is smooth and transfer into a pastry bag.
Make four small holes at the bottom of the éclair shells using small round pastry tip, and pipe the chocolate cream into the holes.
Step 11
Dip the éclair!
Melt the chocolate fondant over double boiler or in microwave, dip the top of the éclair into the melted fondant.
Step 12
Sprinkle cacao nibs on top of éclair
When the fondant is still soft, sprinkle some cacao nibs over the top of the éclair.
Step 13
Et voilà !
There you have it!
You have made your own perfect classic chocolate éclair that looks exactly the ones that you can find in pâtisseries on the street of Paris.
If you do not plan to finish the éclairs right away, you can keep them in the fridge for up to 5 days.
The process might seems a bit daunting to some novice bakers, but trust me the result is well worth the effort. Enjoy!
Comments (0)