What is an éclair and where does it come from?
An éclair is a pastry dessert with a delightful combination of flavours, made from the simplest of ingredients: flour, sugar, eggs and cream, magic is created. Éclairs all have a similar presentation. They feature a bottom layer of flaky choux pastry, a custard cream middle and a top layer of choux pastry decorated with chocolate glaze.
Along with croissants and chocolate soufflés, éclairs were born in France. These exquisite desserts were created in the 19th century by Marie-Antoine Carême, a chef for the French royalty who also invented profiteroles.
Our chocolate éclair recipe
Discover Venchi's chocolate éclair dessert recipe, which is a must for special occasions. You don't need fancy ingredients to whip up éclairs that everyone will enjoy.
Ingredients
Pastry:
250 ml water
120 g white flour
100 g unsalted butter, cut into cubes
½ teaspoon salt
1 ½ teaspoons white sugar
4 large eggs, at room temperature
Chocolate glaze:
100 g 70% dark chocolate
150 ml cream
2 teaspoons corn syrup
Chocolate filling:
720 ml cream
250 g mascarpone
180 g icing sugar
2 teaspoons cocoa powder
Instructions
Pastry:
Preheat the oven to 350°C and cover baking sheet with parchment paper.
To a saucepan, add the water, butter, salt and sugar, then set on medium heat.
Once it starts boiling, mix the flour with a wooden spoon and leave the pan on the heat. You'll need to mix vigorously.
Once the dough forms a ball and starts to come away from the walls of the pan, remove it from the heat and let it to cool for 10 minutes.
Use an electric mixer to whisk one egg at a time into the cooled dough.
The dough is ready when it's sticky, thick, and holds its shape well.
Scoop the dough into a piping bag and pipe 12 éclairs onto the baking tray, spacing them about 5 cm apart and shaping them roughly 2.5 cm wide and 10 cm long.
Bake in the oven for a total of 45 minutes or until they're puffy and golden. After 35 minutes, open the oven door for a few seconds to let out steam. Then again at 40 minutes. Let them cool completely on the tray.
Chocolate glaze:
Put chopped-up chocolate in a bowl.
In a saucepan, heat cream and corn syrup. Take off the heat just before the mixture starts to boil.
Pour the cream over the chocolate. Mix with a spatula until melted.
Cream filling:
Place cream, mascarpone, sugar, and cocoa powder in a bowl.
Use an electric mix to whisk until stiff peaks form.
Assemble:
Cut the pastries in half lengthwise.
Dip half of the pastries in the chocolate glaze. Leave the chocolate to set.
The other half of the pastries should be filled with the cream.
Put the chocolate-glazed pastries on top and serve.
Nutrition facts
Per éclair
322 calories
18g carbohydrates
4g protein
28g fat
White chocolate éclair: a tasty variant
In the mood for white chocolate éclair? All you'll need to do is swap out the dark chocolate glaze with white chocolate and follow the steps as written.
Take out the chocolate filling and replace it with French custard or Chantilly cream to better complement the delicate creaminess of white chocolate. Finish off with slivered almonds for added crunch.
Discover all sweet chocolate recipes from Venchi
Don't stop at just one chocolate recipe. A classic Affogato with coffee would be the perfect match for these homemade éclairs. Here is some other Venchi chocolate dessert recipes that will be tricky to resist:
Chocolate fridge cake recipe
Guinness chocolate cake