Chocolate Eclairs
Chocolate Eclairs!! Crisp pastry shells filled with light and airy chocolate cream and topped with pure semi-sweet chocolate. A classic!
Hey, let’s have another chocolate treat to celebrate the first official “Chocolate Month” at Baking Sense. This one is a beauty!
Remember when I said that Pate a Choux and Pastry Cream are “essential recipes”? Well, this recipe for Chocolate Eclairs perfectly illustrates exactly why those two recipes are “essential”.
Take the same batter and pipe it into a different shape. Take the same cream filling and flavor it with chocolate. Now you have a new pastry from exactly the same two recipes used to create classic Cream Puffs.
For this chocolate eclair filling, and for the vanilla filling I pipe into Cream Puffs, I like to lighten the Pastry Cream with whipped cream.
If you prefer a more custardy filling you can use straight pastry cream to fill the pate a choux shells. It will take a double-batch of pastry cream to fill 24 eclairs or 24 cream puffs.
Chocolate Eclairs
Ingredients
- 1 recipe Pate a Choux
- 8 ounces heavy cream (1 cup)
- 1 ounce powdered sugar (¼ cup, plus more for sprinkling)
- 1 Recipe Chocolate Pastry Cream (chilled)
- 6 ounces semi sweet chocolate (chopped)
Instructions
Make the Eclairs
- Preheat the oven to 375°F. Make 1 recipe Pate a Choux batter. Line two 1/2 sheet pans with parchment paper or silpat. If using parchment paper, put a dab of batter in each corner to glue the paper to the sheet.
- Use a piping bag fitted with a 1/2" star tip to pipe 4" long eclairs. Use a sifter to sprinkle a light layer of powdered sugar over the piped eclairs.
- Bake until well puffed, crisp and golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove the eclairs from the oven and turn off the heat.
- Use a paring knife or skewer to poke a small hole in both ends of each eclair. Return the tray to the still warm (but turned off) oven and allow the eclairs to dry for 30 minutes.
- Cool to room temperature before filling (see note).
Filling
- Make 1 Recipe Chocolate Pastry Cream and let it cool completely. Whip 8 ounces heavy cream with the 1 ounce powdered sugar. Fold the whipped cream into the chocolate pastry cream in two batches.
- Scoop the cream into a pastry bag fitted with a small, plain tip. Pipe the filling into the eclairs from both ends to make sure each eclair is completely filled.
- Melt 6 ounces semi sweet chocolate in a small bowl. Dip the top of each eclair into the chocolate
- Refrigerate until serving.
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