Name: Excellent French Eclair
Prep time: 40 min
Cook time: 35 min
Total time: 75 min
Ingredients: ½ cup water; ½ stick (4 tbsp)unsalted butter at room temperature; ½ cup flour; 1 tsp granulated sugar; 1/8 tsp salt; 2 eggs; 17oz whole milk; 3 tbsp cornstarch; 6 tbsp granulated sugar; 1 tsp Vanilla extract; 1 tsp vanilla bean paste; 1/8 ts salt; 4 egg yolks; 4 oz semi sweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped; ½ cup heavy cream (or less); 1 egg yolk beaten with 2 drops water

French Eclairs are one of my favorite pastries.
They are made with Choux pastry, filled with vanilla pastry cream and garnished with chocolate ganache.

French Eclairs are usually served with morning coffee (or tea), or afternoon snack but of course it can be a good treat any time of the day.

For Pastry cream recipe here: https://www.myexcellentdegustations.com/french-pastry-cream/

Excellent French Eclair

Course Dessert, treat

Cuisine French

Keyword French Eclairs, Les eclairs

Prep Time 40 minutes

Cook Time 35 minutes

Total Time 1 hour 15 minutes

Servings 10

Author LDS’s Mom

Ingredients

Choux pastry

½ cup water
½ stick (4 tbsp)unsalted butter at room temperature
½ cup flour
1 tsp granulated sugar
1/8 tsp salt
2 eggs

Vanilla Pastry cream

17oz whole milk
3 tbsp cornstarch
6 tbsp granulated sugar
1 tsp Vanilla extract
1 tsp vanilla bean paste
1/8 ts salt
4 egg yolks

Chocolate ganache

4 oz semi sweet Chocolate, coarsely chopped
½ cup heavy cream (or less)

Egg wash

1 egg yolk beaten with 2 drops water

Instructions

First, prepare the pastry cream. Please see recipe link above.
Second, prepare the Choux pastry: Preheat oven to 400°F.
In a saucepan over medium high heat, put the water, butter, sugar and salt.
Once the mixture starts to boil, take off the heat.
Immediately pour in the flour all at once and mix vigorously until obtain a nice dough.
Put the pan back over medium heat and mix constantly to dry out the dough for about one to two minutes.
Take out the pan from the heat.
Put the hot dough in a bowl.
Beat the eggs, and add them gradually to the dough.
Mix well with a wooden spoon. The mixture may not look nice, but keep mixing.
Mix until you obtain a smooth glossy dough. The dough should be similar to a very thick liquid.
Place the dough in a pastry bag fitted with a large round tip.
Pipe onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.
Make thick line shapes of about 4 inches long, leaving 2 inches of space between them.
Gently brush with egg wash.
Bake at 400°F for 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 350°F and Continue to bake for 20 minutes or until the shells are golden. You may need to place under the broiler in the last 5 minutes of baking.
Prick the pastry shells with a toothpick in two or three places to allow vapor to escape.
Let cool completely.
Prepare the chocolate ganache: In a heatproof bowl, put the chocolate and the heavy cream.
Place the bowl over simmering water (Bain Marie or water bath).
Mix well the ingredients with a wooden spoon until you obtain a nice shiny ganache. Set aside.
To assemble the Eclairs, first put the pastry cream in a pastry bag fitted with a small round tip.
Pipe in each choux pastry shell the pastry cream. You may need to make a little opening in the shells lengthwise.
Dip the top of the shells in the chocolate ganache.
Chill uncovered to set the ganache.
Enjoy.

Excellent French Eclairs