Ann Reardon

Chocolate Eclair Recipe

chocolate eclair recipe

Chocolate eclairs are a delightful combination of choux pastry filled with a pastry cream and topped with chocolate. If you have never made choux pastry before relax it is easy to make and most people get it right first time.

Profiteroles are made in the exact same way as eclairs but piped in a different shape – the video covers both. You can make some of each in the same batch. Choux pastry is best consumed on the day it is made, now you have an excuse to eat them all.

Choux Pastry Chocolate Eclair Recipe Ingredients
This recipe makes enough to makes approximately 50 profiteroles or 30 medium sized eclairs. The exact number of eclairs will depends on the size that you pipe them.

For the Choux Pastry Recipe
250mL (8.45 fluid ounces) or 1 cup Water
75g (2.65 ounces) or 1/3 cup Butter
160g (5.64 ounces) or 1 cup Plain Flour
4 Eggs

croquembouche recipe easy

Put the water and butter into a pan and heat until the butter is melted. Add the flour all at once and stir until it thickens and leaves the sides of the pan, continue to stir and heat for another minute until it forms a really stiff ball.
Add in the eggs one at a time mixing really well after each addition.

Place into a piping bag and pipe dollops onto the baking tray.
Bake at 428°F (220 degrees Celsius) (220°C (428 degrees Fahrenheit)) for 20 minutes or until crisp.

 

Pastry Cream Recipe

500mL (16.91 fluid ounces) or 2 cups milk (4%)
4 egg yolks or 60g (2.12 ounces) (you could use the whites for macaroons or pavlova)
3/4 cup or 164g (5.78 ounces) sugar
30g (1.06 ounces) or 3 Tbsp flour
Whip the egg yolks and sugar until pale, whisk in the flour. Heat the milk, you can infuse it with flavour while it is heating, see the video for more help with this. Add a little hot milk at a time to the yolks mixture whisking as you do. Return to the pan and stir until well thickened.

Top your profiteroles and eclairs with melted chocolate or buttercream in a flavour of your choice.

by Ann Reardon How To Cook That

My Cookbook

ann reardon crazy sweet creations cookbook
Stores that sell my book listed by country: http://bit.ly/ARcookbook
All recipe quantities in the book are in grams, ounces and cups.

74 Comments View Comments

  1. Rating: 4

    Great recipe, but after some attempts where they came out too soft and collapsed, I lowered the baking temperature to 180c and baked for 30 minutes.
    This way they came out more crispy and stable and it was easier filling them.

  2. Rating: 5

    Hi Ann, I cannot wait to try this, this weekend. I am going to put a cookie like thing on top of the profiteroles so it looks prettier. Anyway thanks for the recipe.

  3. Rating: 4.5

    Hi Ann, quick question about the profiteroles – I left them outside for 4 hours before putting them in a bag and refrigerating them. So even though they were crispy when they came out of oven by the time I kept them they were soft. Can I rebake them before piping them and serving? If so what temp and time do you recommend?

  4. Hi Ann. I love your videos so much. They always inspire me to test my baking expertise. I’m in eighth grade and I have already made five of your recipes. I can’t wait to try this one for my class. I love you so much. Thank you for being so inspirational!❤️❤️

    • Thanks for watching and commenting Phaedra. All the best with your education and baking!

  5. Is this magic?! First time with this recipe and it came out perfect! Thank you so much and have a happy New Year!

    • That is great to hear Gil.

  6. First time doing choux pastry and it was successful! However, the pastry cream I made did not thicken to that consistency of the one in your video, even though I followed the recipe. I thought I did not heat it enough but when heating again, it turned slightly overcooked.

  7. On my first try they turned out perfect, they were light and crispy and tasted very nice

    • That is great to hear. Thanks Rosie.

  8. Hi there! I don’t really need 30 medium sized eclairs, is it possible to halve this recipe?

    • Hi Caitlin, You can halve the recipe but let me tell you they always get eaten very quickly.

  9. Hi, Ann when I was making these – when I added the eggs in, my mixture turned very runny. I am wondering if its because I have to let the flour mixture cool before adding the eggs. Please tell me if this is the likely reason or if it may be something else.

    Thanks
    Star

    • Hi Star Jackson, It shouldn’t matter if this mix is warm, but it shouldn’t be super hot. Did you add the eggs one at a time, mixing until blended? Usually the mixture will only go runny when you first add each egg but it will gradually come together as you mix.

  10. Hey! I want to make these but I live alone so I doubt I will finish these all in one sitting, how do you store profiteroles?

    • Hi Erin, If you don’t fill your profiteroles, they will store for a couple of days in an airtight container, but they are definitely best fresh. It would be a great thing to make when you are having friends over for afternoon tea!

  11. My sister is a fan of chocolate flavored things and will absolutely not eat things vanilla flavored, so I want to make the pastry cream chocolate flavored. Do you have any suggestions for how I could go about this? Thank you in advance!

    • Hi Nina, Some people like to make a chocolate custard filling buy sifting a small amount of cocoa powder and the sugar together before adding it to the custard mix. The quantity would depend on how chocolatey you want it. You could use a chocolate ganache filling instead of a custard cream for a really decadent experience.

  12. Eclair is associated with the holidays, maybe it’s because my mom baked it often on that beautiful days. I think it’s my turn to cook it for my beloved ones, and I love profiterole more, it’s one bite sized, especially for children, will make less mess. Thank you for this great recipes.

  13. hi ann, for the pastry cream recipe it’s written 500 ml or 1 cup of milk, but 1 cup is equal with 250 ml, so i use 500 ml or 1 cup? thanks

    • Good spotting risma. It should read 2 cups of milk.

      • Whoa, whoa, get out the way with that good inotnmafior.

  14. is it okay to use salted butter instead of unsalted butter? thank you

    • Hi Risma, It will taste better using unsalted butter.

  15. Hi ann, I love ur recipes. I always watch them. What kind of butter would be best to use for the eclair sort profiteroles. Salted or unsalted

    • Hi Asma, Unsalted butter is best.

  16. Hey Ann,
    I made these and my aunt loved them. She would like to make them, but is on a no sugar diet. She was wondering if she could use stevia or a natural sweeter and substitute a different ingredient for the sugar. I was just wondering if you had any suggestions. Thanks Maggie

    • Hi Maggie, Ann hasn’t tested this, so you will just need to experiment. If you do, let us know how it goes.

  17. nice site

  18. Hello Anne or Admin! I heard that profiteroles are sometimes filled with ice cream. Could I make these and fill them with ice cream and freeze them? Thanks!

    • Hi Maren, you could do that. When you freeze clairs or profiteroles they do tend to be soft. If you want them crisp then they need to be served fresh.

    • Es gilt, WEITER am Ball zu bleiben – zugunsten der erneuer-baren Energien — vor allem für die ZUKUNFT unserer Kinder und Kindeskinder, EGAL, WIE die Buekospelitidnr demnächst entscheiden werden! – – –

  19. Thank you so much for the recipe..will hopefully try this one. I’d like to ask how to exchange the chocolate on top with a coffee flavour or caramel please?

  20. Hi Ann,
    It looks great! You said that it is best if we eat it up on the same day. Is it okay if we eat it another day and how long at most can it be because I like to do more and then make it last longer? What will happen if we don’t eat it up on the same day?
    Thanks a lot for the recipe and please answer back asap.
    Charlene

    • Hi Charlene, The unfilled Eclairs will last a couple of days in an air tight container. Once they are filled they need to be eaten as the pastry will soften.

      • As a long time cream puff consumer, and the worlds biggest cream puff fan, I can tell you with confidence that filled cream puffs are *great* for breakfast the day after you have filled them. Sure, they are a little soft, but that makes for easy digestion. They don’t tend to keep any longer than that, though, as the cream separates too much.

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