Putting it all together, éclair recipe.

Now for the final touch, putting the two ingredients together. First, you made the shells and then you made the pastry cream. Remember, do not put the cream into a hot shell. If you do, eat it right away. Do not refrigerate the éclairs when you are done, the shells will get soft. Best thing is to make the shells and the pastry cream in advance and put them together just before serving.

This is both easier and harder than it looks. If you have a pastry cream injector, it's a piece of cake. If you don't and have to use a pastry bag, it's harder. I use a pastry bag because that's what I have.

First I hole the éclair.

Like so.


Then I take a small tip and fill the éclair until it is all the way full. You can also just cut the éclair in half and pipe the pastry cream into it like a sandwich.

The next step is either to dip the top of the éclair into untempered chocolate or you can make and pipe a ganache. I make a simple one. I just pour heavy cream into hot untempered chocolate until it looks right. I like a dark ganache but don't make it too dark because it will clog the piping back. Here is a ganache recipe. Though that ganache may be too thin. Anyway, just pour in enough cream into some chocolate to give you a very nice, soft ganache.

Like so.


And then you can pipe the ganache onto the éclair. I'm using a closed star tip. Actually, this is a drop flower tip. I would not recommend using that tip unless you are doing flowers though I got a very interesting look with it. Just use a normal open or closed star tip. I like the closed star tip the best.

For how to use a pastry or decorating bag, here's an article. I don't have a coupler. I just drop my tip into a disposable bag. I use one tip until the bag is gone. I'm not decorating cakes. I'm making a lot of éclairs. I also use big pastry tips not decorating tips.

Pâte à choux recipe

This is a very simple recipe. The trick is to heat the dough as you do the final mixing. I like to keep the flame on and stir like crazy until the dough pulls away from the pot.

3/4 cup water
1/4 cup milk
1/4 t salt
1/2 cup unsalted butter
1 1/2 cup of bread flour (high gluten for lots of puffing)
4 large eggs

You can make a milk and egg wash to brush on when baking. For the éclair recipe I will be giving you I do not because I do not do this.

First line a baking sheet with parchment.

Mix water and milk into a sauce pan add salt and heat. Add butter and bring to a rapid boil. Then, when you have a boil, add the flour in all at once and stir until it pulls away from the bottom. Some people turn the heat off, I do not. I leave it on high. The paste should be heated to about 150F. But don't stop stirring.

Then put into a mixer with a paddle and start mixing it. This will cool it down. In 5 to 10 minutes, you'll get it cooled to about 140F. This is very important. At 140F, you can start adding the eggs. Add them one at a time. Don't add them too fast. Let each egg be absorbed into the paste.

For éclairs, I pipe using a #8 plain tip and to about 6 inches. I like fat éclairs. For cream puffs, pipe in a circle.