Chocolate Éclair Recipe

A great éclair may be arduous to seek out, however the perfect, like these chocolate éclairs from famed pastry chef Joanne Chang, are completely spectacular. Chang loves the basic French dessert, however lightens the thick crème pâtissière by including whipped cream for an airier consistency. The outcome: the fluffiest éclairs round. 

What’s choux pastry?

Choux pastry (or “pâte à choux”) is a typical French model of pastry dough that is additionally used to make pastries like cream puffs, churros, gougères, and Paris–Brests. The pastry will get its distinctive puff from a novel preparation: The butter and water are delivered to a boil, at which level the baker stirs within the flour till the liquid is absorbed. Eggs are crushed in as soon as the combination cools. The ensuing dough incorporates a variety of moisture, which creates steam when it hits the recent oven — inflating the pastry with out using leavening brokers. Recipes will sometimes have you ever flip the oven down after the preliminary high-heat blast, which lets the dough set (not burn) and preserves the billowy air pockets.

Notes from the Meals & Wine Take a look at Kitchen

• Should you’d somewhat not break up the pastry, you possibly can as a substitute poke holes within the backside (or at both finish) and pipe within the cream utilizing a pastry bag.
• The chocolate glaze should be used heat, so make it proper earlier than you are able to ice your éclairs.