Éclair
Ingredients
- For the choux: 125 ml water, 125 ml milk, 110 g butter, 150 g flour, 4 eggs, pinch of salt and sugar
- For the craquelin (optional): 40 g butter, 50 g brown sugar, 50 g flour
- For the pastry cream: 500 ml milk, 4 egg yolks, 100 g sugar, 40 g cornstarch, vanilla, 30 g butter
- For the glaze: dark chocolate, cream
Éclairs are made from choux pastry — a cooked dough of flour, butter, water and eggs — piped into logs and baked until hollow and crisp. Many bakers top the piped dough with a thin disk of craquelin (a butter-sugar-flour paste) before baking, which melts into a crackled, evenly-domed shell. Once baked and cooled, the shells are filled with pastry cream and finished with a chocolate glaze.
Method
Make the craquelin by creaming butter, sugar and flour into a dough, rolling thin, and freezing; cut into disks the size of the piped choux.
Bring water, milk, butter, salt and sugar to a boil; add the flour all at once and stir over heat until the dough pulls away from the pan and forms a film on the bottom.
Transfer to a mixer and beat in the eggs one at a time until the dough is smooth and glossy.
Pipe into logs on a lined tray, top with a craquelin disk if using, and bake at 180-200°C (350-400°F) until deeply golden and firm — resist opening the oven early.
For the pastry cream: whisk egg yolks with sugar and cornstarch; bring milk to a simmer, temper into the yolks, then cook over heat, whisking, until thick. Stir in butter and vanilla, then chill.
Pipe the cooled pastry cream into the cooled choux shells through small holes in the base or ends.
Melt chocolate with cream to make a glaze and dip the tops of the filled éclairs, then let set.
Ingredients
- Craquelin: 40 g soft butter, 50 g flour, 50 g brown sugar, pinch of salt
- Choux pastry: 250 g water, 80 g butter, pinch of salt, 125 g flour, 250 g eggs (4-5 eggs)
- Salted caramel cream: 2 g gelatin, 90 g sugar, 115 g heavy cream, 60 g salted butter, 250 g mascarpone
- Caramel glaze: 300 g white pastry fondant, 50 g sugar, 30 g glucose (optional), 100 g heavy cream, 7 g salted butter
- Caramel shards, for decoration
Christophe Adam, who started at Fauchon before opening L'Éclair de Génie ('a stroke of genius') — a chain now with boutiques worldwide devoted entirely to éclairs — created his salted butter caramel éclair over 30 years ago, and by his own account the caramel recipe hasn't changed since. It draws on his Breton roots (Brittany is France's heartland for salted butter) and remains the brand's best-selling, most iconic flavor: a caramel cream filling, a caramel fondant glaze, and shards of caramel on top, all built on the same craquelin-topped choux base as a classic éclair.
Method
A day or two ahead, make the salted caramel cream: soften the gelatin in cold water, cook the sugar to a dry caramel, carefully whisk in the hot cream, then the salted butter; cool slightly, whisk in the softened gelatin, then fold into the mascarpone once cool. Chill.
Make the craquelin by creaming the butter, flour, sugar and salt into a dough, rolling thin, and freezing; cut into disks the size of the piped choux.
Make the choux pastry: bring the water, butter and salt to a boil, add the flour off the heat and stir until the dough pulls away from the pan, then beat in the eggs one at a time until smooth and glossy.
Pipe into éclair logs, top each with a craquelin disk, and bake at 180-200°C (350-400°F) until deeply golden and firm.
Make the caramel glaze by cooking sugar and glucose to a caramel, carefully whisking in the hot cream, then stirring the caramel into the melted fondant with the salted butter until smooth and pourable.
Once the choux shells are completely cool, fill them with the salted caramel cream through small holes in the base.
Dip the top of each filled éclair into the caramel glaze and top with a shard of caramel before it sets.
