Last month I started groaning when I read what the latest challenge was. This time my expression changed from one big frown to a slight grin with some enthusiasm. Let me explain. I’ve always steered clear of éclairs, simply because of the huge amount of whipped cream they are filled with. As you should know by now, I’m not a health freak (okay, maybe a bit) who prefers to avoid fatty foods at all costs. No, cream is simply too rich for me, as well as the taste leaves much to desire. In savoury terms, like in sauces, it’s a completely different matter, but I digress. After eyeing the chocolate cream in this recipe, the idea made my mouth water and I got on with it.
Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
My first try at the Cream Puff dough was a catastrophe. It never ceases to amaze me how I learn new things about myself after each baking challenge. This time round I found out I’m the worst piper on planet Earth EVER!!! All went well until I had to spoon the dough into a makeshift pastry bag (ziplock bag with a hole snipped in it) and started squeezing the dough over the lined baking sheets. The dough oozed thickly and just too quickly out of the hole and in a state of panic I worked very fast, ending up with six HUGE éclairs. That’s it. Instead of 24, just SIX. Ugh. Not only that, but my hands were covered with the sticky, fatty dough, since it squirted out at the top too. Bummer. I baked them anyway, and got slight enjoyment as they puffed up. As soon as they left the oven they collapsed faster than you can say flopped soufflé. Slightly wet inside, they tasted like scrambled eggs. Hungry as a horse I made a quick creamy leek sauce and poured it over two of the éclairs (halved). What a delicious brunch it was.
Usually, after a dud like this, I would just give in and tell the Daring Bakers I tried. After a day or two passed, I thought there would be no harm to make another attempt. After all, the cost of the ingredients is not extravagant at all compared to earlier challenges.
Chocolate Pastry Cream
First, I read all the discussions regarding the éclairs on the Daring Bakers forum, which was highly educational. This time I did things differently. A bowl of water was placed at the bottom of the oven to give some moisture to the air, which in turn made the éclairs rise better. Secondly, I decreased the number of eggs by one, i.e. from five to four, which made the dough less sloppy. And lastly, I used my icing bag with a proper nozzle instead, with a tip width of 1cm (½ inch), which made the dough all the more manageable. I even got out 12 éclairs and 12 profiteroles. Ha! My hands still got covered with the tacky dough. Doh!
Chocolate Glaze
Although ecstatic with my success, I got a tad lazy. Looking at all those steps to make the chocolate filling just gave me a déjà vu of the previous challenges with those millions of steps in the recipes. No, there had to be a shortcut. Hmmm, a can of caramel (dulce de leche) in the cupboard and a carton of double cream in the fridge equals caramel cream. The ration I used was 1:2. After chilling the éclairs a bit, it was a treat to eat. Neil still prefers the plain whipped cream ones. As for me I enjoyed the challenge, glad it wasn’t a cake for a change with a gazillion layers and toppings, but my favourite challenge yet is the Apple Danish Braid.
Chocolate Sauce
P.S. By the way, the recipe for chocolate sauce you use to coat the top part of the éclairs yielded way too much for what I baked and I had tons leftover. What’s a girl to do? Here’s an idea. Arrange chicken legs in a baking dish, sprinkle some chili powder over them and bake for 25 minutes in the oven. Pour over as much chocolate sauce as you would like with your chicken and baste thoroughly for another 10 minutes. Done. A main course and dessert served as one dish. Definitely off the beaten track, but so worth a try.
Print📖 Recipe
Chocolate Éclairs filled with Caramel Cream
Ingredients
Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
- Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm
Assembling The éclairs
- Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
- Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)
Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
- ½ cup (125g) whole milk
- ½ cup (125g) water
- 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
- ¼ teaspoon sugar
- ¼ teaspoon salt
- 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
- 4 large eggs, at room temperature
Chocolate Pastry Cream
- 2 cups (500g) whole milk
- 4 large egg yolks
- 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
- 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
- 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
- 2 ½ tbsp (1 ¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature
Chocolate Glaze
- ⅓ cup (80g) heavy cream
- 3 ½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
- 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature
Chocolate Sauce
- 4 ½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
- 1 cup (250 g) water
- ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
- ⅓ cup (70 g) sugar
Instructions
Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
- Preheat your oven to 395 degrees F (200 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.
- Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a ⅔ (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.
- Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.
Assembling The éclairs
- Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.
- The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.
- Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.
Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough
- In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.
- Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.
- Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.
- The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.
Chocolate Pastry Cream
- In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan.
- Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture. Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
- Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.
- Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice-water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.
- Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four instalments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.
Chocolate Glaze
- In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.
- Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.
Chocolate Sauce
- Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.
- It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.
Notes
- The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.
- If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.
- The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.
- Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.
- You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.
- The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.
- In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.
- Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.
- If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.
- It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.
- You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
- This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1 serving
- Calories: 267
- Sugar: 6.73 g
- Sodium: 344 mg
- Fat: 16.01 g
- Saturated Fat: 4.201 g
- Carbohydrates: 24.68 g
- Protein: 6.53 g
- Cholesterol: 130 mg
Sally
Wow these look amazing, and I have plenty of time to make them now!
★★★★★
Sally
These eclairs look so decadent, I need to try to make them since I have so much time now!
Susan from Food Blogga
Chicken with chocolate? I'm intrigued! It reminds me of mole sauce, which is love.
As for the fat content, I'm with you. I try to avoid it, but some things, like these gorgeous eclairs, are worth an extra 30 minutes on the treadmill.
giz
All the eclairs in the blog world are looking so fabulous - yours included. I'm so sorry I missed this month's challenge.
Farina
Those looks yummy! everybody seems to be making eclair this week except me. I have yet to get the courage to make these myself. lol.
Fran Z
MMMMM - love the caramel cream filling!!!
clumbsycookie
Yours came out perfect! Did you do that chicken with chocolate?;)
Jeanne
Oh, Michelle, those look fantastic! But I must admit to falling abotu laughing picturing you with the 6 giant eclairs that tasted like omelettes. You see, I imagine that's pretty much how ALL my baking challenges would turn out, which is why I'm NOT a daring baker like you 🙂
Audax Artifex
Very honest story about your trials and successes. I love the picture they look like tigers filled with caramel. You learn more from bad mistakes then from good results as they said. You have found out that you are resourceful.
Rebecca
Caramel cream would convert me, too. 😉 These look great!