This Eclair Recipe is deliciously perfect
These mini chocolate eclairs for two positively melt my heart. I want to dunk them in my coffee in the morning, snack on them in the afternoon, and eat them for dessert after dinner. The good news in that scenario is that this recipe only makes 6 mini two-bite eclairs. If you share these with someone you love, you’re almost guaranteed to not eat the whole batch yourself…almost. For some divine reason, pâté à choux dough is easy to scale down. Of all the things I thought would cause me to reach for the cork screw before 5:00, pâté à choux is not one of them. (By the way, Cabernet is my favorite problem solver ever). Cookies, on the other hand, give me loads of trouble when scaling down. Switch out just 1 teaspoon of something-or-other, and the cookies spread across the entire sheet and crisp to black in no time. But delicate French pastry filled with rich cream and topped with chocolate? A cinch. Maybe a little too easy (says my waistline).
What are Eclairs?
Eclairs are a French pastry that consists of a delicate not-very-sweet pastry shell that is then stuffed with rich, which pastry cream, closed and dipped in chocolate. The pastry is a choux pastry, and it is known for baking up hollow, leaving plenty of space for stuffing with all sorts of creams and fillings.
What you’ll need for Mini Eclairs
For the pastry cream:
Heavy Cream. The base of pastry cream is thick, double cream. Sugar. Granulated sugar to sweeten the pastry cream. Flour. Two tablespoons of all-purpose flour for thickening the mixture. Egg Yolks. We only need the egg yolks, not the whole eggs for this recipe. Reserve the egg whites for another recipe. Vanilla. You can use vanilla extract or scrape half of the vanilla bean into the mixture.
For the eclairs:
Butter. We’ll combine unsalted butter and water to form the base of the choux pastry dough. Flour. Regular, all-purpose bleached flour. Sugar. A very small amount of sugar (½ teaspoon) to help the pastry brown in the oven. Egg. One large egg. Chocolate. For topping the eclairs, melt ½ cup of semisweet chocolate chips or chopped chocolate. Coconut Oil. Add a small amount of coconut oil to the chocolate when you melt it so that the chocolate hardens and sets on top of the eclair.
Chocolate Eclair Recipe Tips
I used my Cream Puffs for two recipe, but I discovered something important worth mentioning–now that I’m cooking on a gas stove, I find that the pan doesn’t hold as much heat once turned off. So, if you’re cooking on a gas stove, instead of turning the heat entirely off to incorporate the flour, just turn it to low. If you’re cooking on a glass cooktop, turn it off–those things hold enough heat to burn you 6 hours later. Yes, this is exactly what I’m eating in those photos on my About page. Sorry to tease you for so long, but here they are! I took a few photos to help you along the way. When I say ‘cook the flour until the dough pulls away from the edges of the pan,’ this is exactly what that looks like: The dough clings to the spoon and become hard to stir. This is also what I’m referring to when I say if you have a gas stove, turn the heat to low; if you have a glass cooktop, turn the heat completely off. If the dough does not clump around the spoon after 1 minute, turn the heat up slightly and continue to stir.
How to make Eclairs
- As soon as the dough clumps together, move it to a mixing bowl, and begin beating it with an electric mixer until it is warm to the touch, about 1-2 minutes.
- Once the dough has cooled, add the egg and continue beating.
- Beat until the dough falls off the beaters in sheets, and is pale yellow.
- Notice the color change from photo three to four? Perfection! Now, go on! Make delicate French pastries and dunk them in black coffee because you deserve it!
How to fill Eclairs
Since these are homemade eclairs and we’re not running a bakery, I just slice these in half and fill the insides with the pastry cream with a spoon. If you want to be fancy, you can put the pastry cream in a pastry bag with a sharp round tip, and fill the eclairs that way. To do this, flip the eclair over, and press the tip into the eclair on one side, about half-way. Be careful not to push all the way through. Gently squeeze the pastry cream into the pastry until you feel a bit of resistance so that it doesn’t pop out. Repeat on the other side. Since these are mini eclairs, two points should be enough, but larger eclairs usually require 3 holes to fill.
How to store Mini Eclairs
It’s best to store eclairs chilled in the fridge. This is because the pastry cream contains dairy, so it cannot be left at room temperature. Line a food storage container with parchment paper or cupcake liners. Place the eclairs, not touching, in a single row, and refrigerate for up to 2 days. Be sure the container is air-tight. It’s best to remove the eclairs from the fridge for about 20 minutes before serving so they’re not too cold.
Eclair Recipe freezing instructions
You can freeze the choux pastry shells after cooling for up to 3 months if you wrap them tightly in plastic wrap, freezer foil, and plate in a freezer safe bag. I don’t recommend freezing eclairs that have been stuffed with pastry cream. It’s best to stuff these just before serving.
Recommended tools for making Chocolate Eclairs
I used my silicone mat when baking these chocolate eclairs, and I highly recommend using one when baking. Looking for more French desserts? Try these CREPES FOR TWO: Or, this APPLE TARTE TATIN FOR TWO: Pastry cream recipe adapted from TheKitchn.
