Eclairs
Serves 12 Difficulty 4/5 Ingredients 10 Steps 19
These long, puffy buns are filled with cream and topped with rich chocolate icing. The buns are made with choux pastry, which is made by bringing butter and water to the boil, tipping in the flour and then beating in the eggs.
Ingredients
Choux pastry
- 75 g (2½ oz / ⅔ stick) butter, diced
- 200 ml (7 fl oz / ¾ cup) water
- Salt
- 100 g (4 oz / ¾ cup) strong plain flour
- 3 eggs, beaten
Cream filling
- 250 ml (9 fl oz / 1 cup) double or whipping cream
Chocolate icing
- 100 g (4 oz / ½ cup) caster sugar
- 100 ml (3½ oz / ⅜ cup) water
- 50 g (2 oz) dark chocolate
- 25 g (1 oz / ¼ stick) unsalted butter
Steps
Choux pastry
- Heat oven to 200°C / 400°F / Gas 6.
- Place butter, water and pinch of salt in medium saucepan over low heat. Stir occasionally until butter melts. Meanwhile, sift flour into small bowl.
- When butter has melted, turn up heat. Bring to boil. Switch off heat. Quickly tip in flour. Beat immediately with wooden spoon until mixture swells into smooth dough that leaves sides of pan; a few seconds.
- Cool 3–4 minutes. Beat in beaten egg a little at a time until dough is thick, smooth, shiny and holds its shape. Large eggs may not need the last two or three tablespoonfuls.
- Spoon mixture into large freezer bag or piping bag, scraping out pan with flexible spatula. Fold down top. Squeeze dough to bottom. Snip off one bottom corner to make hole about 1 cm long.
- Line two flat baking sheets with baking parchment. Pipe chipolata-sized sausage shapes on parchment, about 4 cm apart (they at least double in size). Makes about 12.
- Bake in preheated oven about 30 minutes, until puffed up, golden brown all over and hard when poked with knife.
- Immediately remove each éclair from sheet, wearing oven gloves. Gently slit side with knife point to release steam.
- Cool and dry on wire rack.
Cream filling
- Whip cream in small bowl until just thick enough to hold shape.
- Refrigerate whipped cream while making icing.
Chocolate icing
- Place sugar and water in small saucepan over low heat. Stir with wooden spoon until sugar dissolves.
- Bring to boil. Boil fast 3 minutes. Switch off heat. Cool syrup a few minutes (dip pan base in cold water to speed up).
- Break up chocolate. Cut butter into chunks.
- When syrup is very warm, not very hot, add chocolate and butter. Stir until melted into smooth, glossy sauce.
- Cool, stirring occasionally, until sauce starts to thicken.
- When buns are cool, fill each éclair with whipped cream using teaspoon or piping bag. Enlarge slit if needed.
- Smear chocolate icing generously over each éclair with a different teaspoon.
- Leave éclairs on wire rack until icing sets. Refrigerate for a few hours if not eating straight away.
Source. Adapted from “Cookbook:Eclairs” by Wikibooks contributors, revision of 2025-10-26, licensed under CC BY-SA 4.0.
Changes. Steps rewritten into short commands. Introduction shortened. Wiki formatting removed. This adapted recipe is shared under CC BY-SA 4.0.