administratorToday I’m sharing a real treat: exquisite French eclairs filled with crème pâtissière — a custard similar to our traditional pudding, but infinitely better. This cream is commonly used in French and francophone pastry-making. The recipe I tried comes from my beloved culinary book Pâtisserie! by Christophe Felder.
The eclairs are divine, and the cream… well, you could eat it by the spoonful 😉. Unfortunately, it isn’t suitable for long-term storage because it’s made with raw egg yolks. Make only as much as you need for your pastries. And a little tip: I stored the eclairs in the fridge, and they remained crisp the next day! The pastry doesn’t soak up the cream. I also used this crème pâtissière for making Butterkuchen, a German buttery cake, which turned out delicious.
Ingredients (makes 20–25 eclairs)
Eclairs:
125 g water
1/2 tsp sugar
1/4 tsp salt
55 g butter
70 g flour
3 small eggs
Crème pâtissière:
500 ml whole milk (important!)
1 vanilla bean
120 g egg yolks (~6 yolks)
120 g sugar
50 g cornstarch
50 g butter
1 1/2 tbsp instant coffee
3 tbsp water
Icing:
1 cup powdered sugar
Water
1 tbsp instant coffee
Eclairs
In a medium saucepan, combine water, sugar, salt, and butter cut into small pieces. Heat over medium heat.
When the liquid boils and small bubbles appear, remove from heat. Gradually add the flour, stirring vigorously with a whisk for about 30 seconds until the dough starts to pull away from the pan edges.
Return the pan to heat and stir vigorously for about 2 minutes until the dough is smooth and glossy. Remove from heat.
Add eggs one at a time, mixing well after each addition.
Fit a pastry bag with a large star tip and place it in a cup to act as a stand. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Fill the pastry bag with the dough and pipe 10 cm long eclairs, leaving 2 cm gaps between them.
Bake in a preheated oven at 180°C (top–bottom heat, no fan) for 25–30 minutes until golden brown. Do not open the oven during baking, or the eclairs will collapse. Remove and cool on a wire rack.
Crème pâtissière
Pour milk into a medium saucepan. Split the vanilla bean lengthwise and scrape out the seeds. Add both the bean and seeds to the milk and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. After 10 minutes, remove the vanilla pods.
Whisk together the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch (do not overbeat).
Reheat the milk. Pour one-third of the hot milk into the yolk mixture, whisking vigorously (I used a mixer with a whisk attachment). Add the remaining milk while continuing to whisk.
Strain the mixture into a saucepan. Cook over high heat, stirring constantly with a whisk, until thickened to a pudding-like consistency. Remove from heat, then stir in butter. Immediately transfer to a container lined with cling film, making sure the cream is fully covered to prevent air exposure. Chill in the fridge.
Assembling the Eclairs
Slice the cooled eclairs horizontally with a sharp knife to create a pocket.
Whisk the chilled crème pâtissière in a large bowl until smooth and creamy. Divide into two portions.
Dissolve instant coffee in water and mix into one portion of the cream.
Fill a pastry bag with a large tip, and pipe the vanilla cream into half of the eclairs and coffee cream into the other half. Hold the eclair in one hand while filling with cream.
Icing
For the regular icing, place half the powdered sugar in a cup and add a little water at a time, stirring until thick but pourable.
For the coffee icing, mix the instant coffee with a little water, then gradually add to the powdered sugar until the desired consistency is reached.
To ice, place a large spoonful of icing above the eclair and slowly let it fall over the top while supporting the eclair underneath.
Crispy pastry, luscious cream, and a delicate icing — classic French eclairs that will impress any sweet tooth.
