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.

Watch the video to see how to make Chocolate Eclairs.

Chocolate Eclairs

Name: Chocolate Eclairs
Prep time: 30 min
Cook time: 20 min
Total time: 1 h 20 min
Yield: 24
Ingredients: 1 recipe Pate a Choux; Powdered sugar for topping; 1 Recipe Chocolate Pastry Cream chilled (see notes section of the Pastry Cream Recipe); 1/4 cup (1 oz, 28g) powdered sugar; 1 cup (8 oz, 236 ml) heavy cream; 6 oz (170g) semi sweet chocolate, chopped

Yield: 24 eclairs

Prep Time: 30 minutes

Bake Time: 20 minutes

Drying Time: 30 minutes

Total Time: 1 hour 20 minutes

Crisp pastry shells filled with light and airy chocolate cream and topped with pure semi-sweet chocolate. A classic!

Ingredients

1 recipe Pate a Choux
Powdered sugar for topping
1 Recipe Chocolate Pastry Cream chilled (see notes section of the Pastry Cream Recipe)
1/4 cup (1 oz, 28g) powdered sugar
1 cup (8 oz, 236 ml) heavy cream
6 oz (170g) semi sweet chocolate, chopped

Instructions

Make the Eclairs

Preheat the oven to 375°F. 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

Whip the cream with the powdered sugar. Fold the cream into the 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 the chocolate in a small bowl. Dip the top of each eclair into the chocolate
Refrigerate until serving.

Notes

The cooled eclairs can be packed into freezer bags (don't overcrowd or crush) and frozen for up to a month. To use, line the frozen eclairs on a sheet pan and heat in a 350°F oven for 5 minutes. Cool and fill.