Easy Chocolate Eclair Recipe

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While a trip to Paris may not always be a feasible option for satisfying your pastry cravings, this easy chocolate eclair recipe definitely will! Made with a simple pate a choux pastry dough and pastry cream filling, you’ll love how delicious and easy these chocolate eclairs are.

Easy Chocolate Eclair Recipe with Custard Filling

Cream puffs and eclairs are quite possibly some of France’s most popular pastries, excluding the macaron, of course. 

Unlike the crisp macaron cookie, cream puffs and eclairs are pillow-y and soft. I like to think of them as pastry clouds because they truly taste like a dream.

Filled with a silky smooth custard filling, these pastry clouds because a dreamy and indulgent dessert

But don’t let the appearance or fancy French name fool you into thinking that this chocolate eclair recipe is difficult or tricky. Even the pastry cream can be made by novice bakers

French pastry logs filled with pastry cream and topped with chocolate ganache and chopped hazelnuts. 

PREP TIME: 45 minutes

COOK TIME: 20 minutes

TOTAL TIME: 1 hour 5 minutes

Ingredients:

for the pate a choux pastry dough

  • 1/2 cup water
  • 1/4 cup unsalted butter
  • 1/2 tsp granulated sugar
  • 1/4 tsp salt
  • 1/2 cup all-purpose flour
  • 2 eggs

for the pastry cream filling

  • 2 cups whole milk
  • 2 tsp vanilla extract, or 1/2 tsp vanilla bean powder (heads up that the powder will darken the pastry cream a bit)
  • 3 whole eggs
  • 1 egg yolk
  • 2/3 cup sugar
  • 1/4 cup cornstarch
  • 1/4 cup all-purpose flour
  • 1/8 tsp salt

for the topping

  • 4 oz dark or semi-sweet chocolate
  • 1/3 cup heavy cream, heated
  • 1/4 cup hazelnuts, finely chopped (optional)

Instructions:

Crème Pâtissière

  1. To a large bowl, add the eggs, egg yolk, and sugar – whisk together until thick and pale. Add the cornstarch, flour and salt, and whisk again to combine.
  2. Warm the milk in a medium saucepan over low heat. Once the milk is hot and is beginning to barely simmer along the edges (but not boiling!), remove the milk from the heat.
  3. Slowly stream the hot milk into the egg batter in batches, whisking vigorously as you do. This will help temper your eggs so that they don’t curdle into scrambled eggs!
  4. Slowly pour the entire pastry cream batter into a clean, dry saucepan. Warm this mixture over medium-low heat, whisking the mixture the entire time.
  5. After about 5 minutes, you should see the cream really thicken up into a pudding-like consistency.
  6. This happens in the matter of a moment, so be careful and watchful of your pastry cream the entire time.
  7. Once you’ve achieved a pudding-like consistency with your pastry cream, remove the cream from the heat. Don’t fret over small lumps as you can whisk them out off the heat.
  8. The point is to not overcook your pastry cream so that it turns stiff like jello or gets way too lump.
  9. Add in the vanilla extract (or vanilla bean powder) and whisk to combine. If you have any small lumps, just whisk vigorously to remove them.
  10. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly onto the pastry cream to prevent a filmy layer from forming. Refrigerate the pastry cream until chilled.
  11. After it’s chilled, if you feel like it’s thickened up too much, you can stream in a little bit of milk and whisk to thin out the consistency a bit.

Choux Pastry

  1. Preheat the oven to 425°F. Place the butter in a medium saucepan, then follow with the sugar, salt, and water. Heat this mixture over low heat, stirring to help melt the butter.
  2. Add in the flour and stir to combine. Over medium-low heat, stir the dough until it forms a wet sand-like appearance and clumps together.
  3. Continue stirring the dough in the saucepan for another minute to help get rid of some of the moisture in the dough.
  4. The dough should be stirred around in the saucepan without leaving any residue behind along the bottom or sides of the pot – that’s how you’ll know much of the moisture has been eliminated.
  5. Take the saucepan off the heat, and add in 1 egg at a time, stirring the egg in really well before adding another.
  6. You should end up with a sort of paste-like appearance with the dough. Let the dough rest for 5 minutes to slightly cool.
  7. Transfer the dough to a pastry bag that is either fitted with a large, plain tip or no tip at all, and pipe out 1″ wide logs (and about 5 to 6 inches long) onto a baking sheet lined with parchment paper or a silicone mat.
  8. Bake the pastry logs for 10 minutes at 425°F, then without opening the oven door, reduce the heat to 375°F and bake for another 15 to 20 minutes, or until the logs are golden throughout.
  9. Do not open the oven door at all during the baking process, or else your pastries will deflate. Once the logs are golden throughout, then your eclairs are ready.
  10. When they’re done, pierce them with the tip of a sharp knife to let out steam and leave them in the oven with the door slightly open for another 15 min. Then transfer to a wire rack to cool.

For the ganache

  1. Heat the heavy cream in the microwave for about 20 to 30 seconds until hot.
  2. Place the chocolate in a shallow bowl, then pour the hot cream over it. Let this mixture rest for one minute, then stir until the chocolate has melted and is smooth.

Assemble Éclairs

  1. Let the pastry logs cool entirely before filling. Once cool, use either a metal rod or skewer to poke three, spaced-out holes into the bottom of your pastries. Alternatively, you can use a sharp knife to make a horizontal cut along one side of the pastry logs (like a hot dog bun).
  2. Fit a pastry bag with a small plain tip and fill with the pastry cream. Pipe the cream into the pastries: if filling small holes, then fill until it begins to ooze out of each hole; if you made a horizontal cut along the side, then simply fill the pastry with enough cream to fill up the inside of the pastry log (or just use a spoon to scoop the cream into the pastry log opening).
  3. Use a butter knife to spread the chocolate ganache onto the top of the eclairs. If using chopped nuts, sprinkle the chopped hazelnuts onto the ganache-covered eclair.

Notes:

You will end up with extra pastry cream, so just keep refrigerated in an airtight container for use in another recipe, or double the choux pastry ingredients to get more eclairs.

Nutritional Info:

YIELD: 5 SERVING SIZE: 5 Servings

Amount Per Serving: CALORIES: 279

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