Eclairs can seem like a very intimidating dessert to try and make but they are rather easy! They are just time-consuming! There are many steps but it is so worth it in the end!
Eclairs
Ingredients
Cream Puff Pastry Dough
- 1 cup water
- 1/2 tsp. salt
- 1/2 cup butter sliced
- 1 tsp. sugar
- 1 cup flour sifted
- 4 eggs
- 1 egg white plus more as needed
Pastry Cream
- 4 cups milk
- 2 tsp. vanilla extract
- 1 cup sugar
- 2 egg
- 6 egg yolks
- 1/2 cup cornstarch
Ganache
- 3/4 cup chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy cream
White Chocolate Drizzle
- 1/4 cup white chocolate
Instructions
Cream Puff Pastry Dough
- Combine the water, salt, butter and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat. There's no need to stir. Turn the heat down to medium and add the flour all at once. Stir with a wooden spoon until the mixture combines and starts to form a ball. This usually takes about three minutes. (It comes together very fast but you need to cook it for a bit still.)
- Transfer the mixture to a bowl or stand mixer and mix for about 1 minute to slightly cool it.
- Mix in the eggs, one at a time, until all four are added. Check the consistency of the batter by pulling the a wooden spoon through it. When the groove it makes slowly closes in on itself, you've added enough eggs. (add one egg white at a time, if needed, to reach the right consistency.)
- Preheat oven to 425℉.
- On a sheet of parchment draw 4 1/2 inch lines in 2 rows, 6 lines in each row. Once draw, flip parchment paper over.
- Fit a pastry bag with a 1/2 inch piping tip (2A) and fill with the Cream Puff Pastry Dough. (I usually put the bag into a tall glass and drop the dough into the bag. Makes it easier and less of a chance of things getting messy.)
- Pipe the batter over the drawn lines. (With any extra, I will usually pipe small dollops in the open areas. These don’t spread out much, they just puff up.)
- Turn the oven temperature down to 400℉ and bake eclairs for about 20 minutes, or until browed and puffed.
- Then turn down the oven to 300℉ and bake for about 25 minutes more or until they feel light.
- Let eclairs cool for about 20 minutes.
Pastry Cream
- Bring the milk and vanilla to a simmer over medium heat.
- In a bowl, whisk the sugar, egg, egg yolks, and cornstarch together.
- When the milk comes to a simmer stir half of it into the egg mixture. (Make sure to pour and stir at the same time so that the egg mixture does not curdle.)
- Pour the egg mixture back into the saucepan containing the rest of the milk. Turn to medium heat and whisk until the cream comes to a boil and thickens. (Make sure to get the whisk down into the bottom sides of the pan to make sure nothing burns.)
- Once thickened, transfer mixture to a bowl and cover with plastic warp touching the surface, so a skin doesn’t form.
- Put in fridge to cool down. If it thickens while in fridge just whisk it back up.
Ganache
- Place chocolate in a meadium bowl.
- Heat heavy cream over medium heat and bring to a boil.
- Once boiling, remove from heat and pour over chocolate.
- Stir until all chocolate is melted and let cool.
Eclairs
- You can fill the eclairs many way but I’ll let you know my two favorite tips to use. First one, use a 1/3 inch piping tip and the second one is the Bismark tip. Use either tip to poke two holes in the eclairs. (Normally the holes are poked on the bottom. I like to poke them both on one side because the filling is less likely to fall out.) 9) Fill a pastry bag, fitted with the 1/3 inch wide tip, with the pastry cream and fill the eclairs.
- Once filled, dip the tops of the eclairs into the cooled ganache.
White Chocolate Drizzle (optional)
- Melt white chocolate over a double boiler.
- Once melted let cool for about 5-10 minutes until easier to handle.
- Transfer melted chocolate to a piping bag with just the very end cut off, to make a very tiny hole.
- Drizzle white chocolate over eclairs.