Golden brown choux pastry filled with custard and dipped in chocolate, writing this description made me want to eat the best French chocolate eclairs.
Ok, let’s face it, at some point in life we have all got choux pastry that doesn’t puff up? or flat?
There are two reasons why choux pastry goes flat
First reason:
The consistency of the choux bun is wrong; Now it’s hard for anyone to tell how many eggs are needed for the dough because it depends on how much the dough moisture has evaporated. When the milk and water are boiled and flour is added, the dough needs to be cooked on low fire until most of the moisture is evaporated. When the eggs are added, depending on the moisture evaporation, the number of eggs needed for the dough will vary from person to person.
Second reason:
The dough is not cooked long enough; now many people give two temperatures to cook the choux buns, but I am only going to give one temperature and it will come out crispy and not flat.
Can chocolate eclairs be made in advance ?
Eclairs cannot be made in advance, the reason being that when it’s filled with custard it will be soggy.
What is eclairs filled with?
Many people put different creams inside the eclair. Now I will be doing it the classical French way because that’s what I was trained to do when I was studying in institute Paul Bocuse. I carry this recipe from France from my hotel school training days and its a typical French eclair that is filled with crème pâtissière. but this can be also filled with an American buttercream, whipped cream, or a creme diplomat which is a crème pâtissière mixed with whipped cream.
Watch how to make the chocolate eclairs
Watch how to make chocolate eclairs
Classic french chocolate eclairs recipe
Equipment
- Oven
Ingredients
Choux Bun recipe
- 50 g Milk Fresh
- 125 g Water Tap
- 2 g Salt Table salt
- 7 g Sugar White sugar
- 56 g Butter
- 94 g All- purpose flour
- 125 g Eggs
Pastry Cream ( Creme Patisierre)
- 240 g Milk Fresh
- 1 tsp Vanilla Essence
- 3 Egg yolks
- 67 g Sugar White
- 15 g Corn starch
Chocolate Ganache
- 117 g Dark chocolate Chopped
- 1/2 cup Cream Thicken cream, whipped cream
Instructions
Creme patissiere
- Add milk and vanilla to a small pot and place it on a medium fire and let it boil
- In a bowl add the egg yolks, sugar and whisk well until light in colour and fluffy, then add the corn starch and mix well
- When the milk is boiling add 1/4 cup of milk into the egg mixture and whisk well. once incorporated add the rest of the milk and mix well. Then add the whole mixture into the same pot and keep it on a low fire and keep whisking. The mixture will thicken, then take it off the fire ( Note: you need to keep whisking to avoid the eggs from scrambling)
- Cover and refrigerate until completely cooled down
- Pour into a piping bag with a small nozzle
Choux Bun ( Pate a choux)
- Preheat oven to 200C
- Place water, milk, salt, butter and place it on medium heat until butter is melted
- Add in the flour and mix well until it forms a ball. keep it on a low fire until the moisture has evaporated or until the dough forms sort of a ball and pulls away from the sides of the saucepan
- Remove from the heat. Add in the dough onto a stand mixer with the paddle attachment
- Mix on high heat. Add in the eggs little by little, making sure each is combined before adding the next. The Dough should be like a thick paste. (The egg quantity will vary from person to person, therefore you need to make a calculated guess when adding the eggs. If adding the last egg is too much then whisk it and add half of the egg)
- Place dough into a piping bag fitted with a 13 – 15mm round nozzle
- Line a baking tray with baking paper. Pipe long shaped eclairs
- Brush the egg wash on top of the eclairs
- Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes
- Take it out of the oven and let it cool down on a cooling rack
Chocolate ganache
- Microwave the cream until hot, add in the chopped chocolate and mix well
Assembling the eclairs
- Use a smaller nozzle to pierce the choux bun in two places
- Pipe the custard into the holes, you will feel the buns getting heavier
- Dip it in the chocolate ganache and leave aside until the chocolate hardens.
Video
Notes
- If you don’t have a nozzle to pipe the eclairs then just use the piping bag
- if you don’t have a nozzle to pipe the custard into the choux buns then cut the eclairs in half and sandwiches the choux buns with the custard