Éclair with Pastry Cream and Chocolate Glaze (French Éclairs au Chocolat)

If you have ever looked in the window of a French Patisserie shop you will almost always see a row of glistening, chocolate covered, cream filled chocolate éclairs. This traditional chocolate éclair recipe uses vanilla pastry cream as a filling and rich, almost ganache-like chocolate glaze. Make this treat using a super simple choux pastry dough for a base and you will have the exact pastry seen in bakery windows worldwide. While there are multiple steps to this recipe, this classic French chocolate eclair dessert is broken down into workable categories to help you better plan for preparation and cooking.

Choux Pastry Dough:
½ cup butter
1 cup water
¼ tsp. sea salt
1 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
4 eggs

Pastry Cream:
1¼ cups whole milk
3 egg yolks
¼ cup granulated sugar
1/8 cup all-purpose flour, unbleached
2 Tbsp. + 2 tsp. cornstarch
1 tsp. pure vanilla extract

Chocolate Glaze:
4 oz semisweet chocolate, chopped
½ cup heavy cream

Make the Choux Dough:
In a medium saucepan, melt the butter in the water.

Add salt and flour, and stir until a sticky batter is formed.

Beat in the eggs, one at a time, until the batter is smooth.

Preheat oven to 425°F (220°C, Gas Mark 7) and lightly grease 1 baking sheet.

Spoon the prepared basic choux pastry dough into a pastry bag fitted with a wide, plain tip and pipe eight 5" lengths onto the baking sheet.

Bake for about 20 minutes, until the éclairs puff up and turn golden brown.

Remove them from the oven and allow to cool on a wire rack for 20 minutes before filling.

Makes enough dough for 8 medium-sized pastries.

Make the Pastry Cream:
In a small saucepan, warm the milk over low heat until it is just hot enough to steam.

While the milk is warming, whisk together the egg yolks, sugar, flour, and cornstarch until the mixture is completely smooth.

Once the milk is steaming, add half of it, whisking constantly, to the egg mixture.

Add the milk and eggs back into the hot milk, continue stirring, and heat it for 1-2 minutes, until the custard reaches 170°F on a digital thermometer and is very thick.

Remove from the heat, stir in the vanilla extract, and chill before filling pastry.

Make the Chocolate Glaze:
While the éclairs are baking and cooling, place the chopped chocolate in a heat-safe bowl and set aside.

In a small saucepan, heat the heavy cream just to boiling over low-medium heat and remove from the heat immediately.

Pour the hot cream over the chopped chocolate and stir until it forms a thin, smooth consistency.

Set the chocolate glaze aside at room temperature for about 15 minutes, stirring occasionally.

Assemble the Éclairs:
Fit a pastry bag with a medium-sized plain tip and fill it with vanilla pastry cream.

Insert the tip of the bag into the end of an éclair and pipe about 2½ Tbsp. of pastry cream into it.

Gently spread 1 Tbsp. of chocolate glaze onto the éclair or carefully dip the top of each filled éclair into the glaze before serving.

Makes 8 servings.

Recipe Variations:
Add a little espresso powder to the pastry cream to create a coffee flavour.

Add cocoa powder to the pastry cream for an overall chocolate taste.