A friend of mine has decided that in June she will try a new thing every day. A pretty impressive thing to attempt – it would be fun I’m sure! She’s learned the ukelele, played mah jong, done aerial yoga and last week she asked me to teach her to make chocolate éclairs.

Of course I was willing to oblige.

I don’t make éclairs very often – or it would be more accurate to say that I didn’t, because I think I am undergoing an éclair renaissance thanks to Clare and her request.

The basic baked item in an éclair is an elongate choux pastry puff. Choux is surprisingly simple to make, provided you are particular with your measurements and know how the mixture is supposed to look. Choux is made with a roux –  a cooked combination of flour, butter and water – to which eggs are added to make a paste. The raw paste puffs up with steam as it bakes, leaving a hollow shell into which items of deliciousness such as creme chantilly or creme patissiere can be piped. A lick of fondant icing, and one has a very addictive combination!

I taught Clare to make classic chocolate éclairs – vanilla creme chantilly (sweetened whipped cream) inside with chocolate fondant. I looked over her shoulder and did a little mixing, but here is what a complete novice managed to achieve!

While tasting her handiwork, Clare pondered the other flavour combinations that an éclair could have, and thought lemon curd would be good. That got me to thinking. Coffee éclairs are quite well known – but what about tiramisu? And surely if chocolate fondant makes an éclair delicious, what would it would be like to use chocolate cream? And what about berry fruit?

The possibilities are endless, but a day or so ago I made a start on my experimentations on flavoured éclairs.

I came up with lemon curd cream, double dark chocolate, strawberry cream and tiramisu éclairs. Here they are!

 

Choux pastry

makes 20-22 eclairs

ingredients

105g plain flour
75g butter
125mL cold water
175g eggs (about 3 1/2), well beaten

mixing

Combine the water and butter in a saucepan over heat, stirring to melt the butter. Bring mixture to the boil and remove from the heat. Add the flour and stir until a very stiff doughy paste forms. Return to the head and cook for 2-3 minutes, stirring to assist even cooking of the roux.

Transfer the cooked roux into a bowl, let cool slightly. Add the eggs in four stages, mixing well after each addition. The paste will be quite stiff until the second to last addition. The last addition should yield a creamy paste which forms soft peaks.

Transfer the mixture into a piping bag fitted with a 10cm round nozzle. Pipe 7cm lengths of choux paste onto a baking sheet lined with baking paper. Leave about 4cm between each piped strip.

Bake at 230 degrees C for 20 minutes; reduce the temperature to 200 degrees C and leave the oven door ajar. Bake for another 20 minutes to completely dry the choux puffs out. They will freeze like this for a month or so, just be sure to pop them back into the oven for a few minutes to dry them out again once they have defrosted.

See the pictures below for how the mixture should look.

flavours

Each recipe below makes enough mixture to fill and frost 6 éclairs, except for the tiramisu one, which will fill and frost 8. Instructions about how to fill and frost the éclairs are after the recipes.

A word about the frosting:

I like to use liquid fondant to frost. You can buy it at speciality food stores like the Essential Ingredient in Melbourne, or from cake decorating stores. I believe that Spotlight also sells it in it’s chocolate making section – though it might be flavoured already. You can also make it if you have a food processor, but its a bit time consuming – Joe Pastry tells you how.

If you don’t want to be bothered with all that, a reasonable substitute is to use icing sugar and simple syrup. A simple syrup is made by combining equal parts water and sugar in a saucepan, bringing to the boil and boiling for one minute. It keeps for ages in a sealed container in the fridge. To make cheat’s fondant, simply take some icing sugar and add enough syrup to form an icing that forms a ribbon when dropped from a spoon. If you overshoot the target thickness, add more icing sugar.

If you’re really really lazy, you can use milk instead of the syrup.

For the recipes below, substitute the same weight of icing sugar as was required for the fondant and add syrup to get the required consistency.

classic chocolate éclairs

vanilla creme chantilly filling

120mL cream
1tbsp sugar
seeds from half a vanilla pod, 1/4 tsp ground vanilla pod or 1/2 tsp good vanilla essence

Combine all ingredients and whip until stiff peaks form.

chocolate fondant frosting

100g liquid fondant
20g 70% cocoa chocolate (I like Lindt), melted
about 1/2 tsp hot water

Heat the fondant until it is just liquid (about 10 seconds in the microwave). Add the melted chocolate to the fondant and stir until smooth. The fondant will stiffen as you mix it. Add the hot water and stir until you have a smooth frosting that forms a thick ribbon when poured from a spoon.

lemon curd éclairs

lemon curd cream filling

100mL cream
4 tbsp lemon curd (home made is best!)

Whip the cream until stiff peaks form. Add the lemon curd, mixing until just marbled.

lemon fondant frosting

100g liquid fondant
rind from one lemon, grated on a ribbon microplane if you have one – the slightly bigger strips look pretty in the fondant
a drop or two of lemon oil

Heat the fondant for 10 seconds in the microwave, stir in lemon zest and oil.

Double chocolate éclairs

chocolate cream filling

100mL cream at room temperature
50g dark chocolate (I used 70% cocoa, but 60% would be a little sweeter), melted and cooled

Whip the cream until soft peaks form. Add the chocolate all at once and fold quickly with a spatula until combined. Try not to over mix. The mixture will get quite stiff.

chocolate fondant frosting

100g liquid fondant (can be purchased from specialist cake making shops)
20g 70% cocoa chocolate (I like Lindt), melted
about 1/2 tsp hot water

Heat the fondant until it is just liquid (about 10 seconds in the microwave). Add the melted chocolate to the fondant and stir until smooth. The fondant will stiffen as you mix it. Add the hot water and stir until you have a smooth frosting that forms a thick ribbon when poured from a spoon.

Strawberry cream éclairs

strawberry cream filling

100mL cream
2tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder (available from speciality cooking stores, the NZ company Fresh As makes a great range of dried fruit powders)

Whip cream until stiff peaks form. Add strawberry powder. Chill for an hour or so for the flavour to come out.

strawberry fondant frosting

120g liquid fondant
1 tbsp freeze dried strawberry powder

Heat the fondant until it is just liquid (about 10 seconds in the microwave). Stir in strawberry powder.

Tiramisu éclairs

marscapone tiramisu filling

1 egg yolk
2 tsp sugar
1/4 cup marsala
125g marscapone

Combine the egg yolk, sugar and marsala in a heatproof bowl over simmering water. Whisk the mixture over heat until foamy. Cool. Fold in marscapone.

coffee fondant frosting

125g liquid fondant
2 tsp very strong espresso (or 1tsp of coffee powder dissolved in 2tsp water)
1 tbsp icing sugar
cocoa powder and chocolate flakes for decorating

Heat the fondant in the microwave for 10 seconds. Stir in cooled coffee. If the mixture is too runny, add the icing sugar. The frosting should be smooth and form a thick ribbon when poured from a spoon.

filling éclairs

There’s two ways to do this. The easiest way is to split the choux puff open and spoon the cream into the centre, then close the lid. The other way to do it is to fit a piping bag with a small round nozzle, and load your filling into it. With a small knife, make a slit at one end of the choux puff, then slide the knife all the way in to break up any internal pastry. This allows the filling to go all the way through the eclair. Next, insert the nozzle into the slit and squeeze gently until the filing just starts to come out of the slit near the nozzle. Wipe any overspill away with a paper towel.

I think the second way is better because the cream can’t ooze out when you bite the éclair, but both ways are pictured below.

 

frosting éclairs

I think the easiest way to do this is to use a teaspoon which is heaped with the still liquid fondant. Starting at one end, let the fondant ooze off the spoon in a ribbon as shown below. Liquid fondant sets beautifully smooth and shiny, so you can spread it out a bit with the spoon once it is on the éclair, and any messy spots will smooth out.

Filled éclairs will keep in the fridge for a day or so, but the fondant will start to melt after a while.

Finishing touches

You don’t need to decorate them any more than the frosting, but for a real patisserie look its fun to play around with some little extras! I just used some bits I had in the cupboard, but obviously the sky is the limit!

For the lemon curd éclairs, I used a little gold dusting powder. Candied lemon slices would be gorgeous.

For the double chocolate éclairs, I used some shaved chocolate and a little black edible glitter.

For the strawberry éclairs, I used pretty heart shaped sprinkles. Finely sliced dried strawberries would be great too.

For the tiramisu éclairs, I doused the coffee fondant in cocoa powder and shaved chocolate.

So there you have it. Ready to have a bite?

Of course, once you start thinking about flavours, you can’t stop! Next batch will include blackcurrant compote and blackcurrant fondant, marshmallow and malt cream with chocolate fondant, saffron cheesecake éclairs, and maybe a little foray into flowing salty caramel centres…

Enjoy! xxx