Éclairs

Oh how I love éclairs. I remember the first time I tried one. I was in elementary school and I won a writing award in a school wide competition. My mom wanted to take me out to celebrate. She took me to get an éclair. I was immediately in love and I’ve never looked back. Since then, if I happen upon a bakery that sells éclairs I rarely leave without one.

Éclairs are actually really easy to make at home. I feel like they are a little bit stereotyped as a dessert, though. They are a French pastry so that obviously means they are difficult to make, right? That must be why they are so expensive in bakeries. I guess it’s just like with everything else. It’s as easy or as hard as you want it to be.

This is my really simple way to make homemade éclairs. Of course you can make them a lot more authentic, but I certainly don’t have the time to whip up some from-scratch Bavarian cream. To me, these taste just as good, if not better than bakery éclairs.

Here’s what you need:

First, start with the shells. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees.

Next, put 1 cube of butter and 1 cup of water in a saucepan. {It’s SUPER important that you measure the water accurately. Too much or too little water could cause the shells to not bake right. I promise that is the only tricky part to making these!}.

And bring to a boil.

When the water starts to boil, add 1 cup of flour.

Then stir and cook, and stir and cook…

Until it looks like this:

This process sort of reminds me of making play dough.

Remove from the heat and let the dough cool down for 10 to 15 minutes.

Meanwhile, make the pudding according to the package directions. I prefer the Cook and Serve pudding. The flavor tastes a lot more homemade to me. Sometimes I buy pre-made Bavarian cream from here. You can simplify these even more by doing that!

After you’ve cooked the pudding, pour it into a container and refrigerate it until it is completely cool and thick. One reason I like the cook and serve better is that it gets pretty thick after it’s cooled. Much thicker than the instant pudding.

Now that the pudding is made, the flour mixture should be cooled off enough to finish.

 Grab 4 eggs and one at a time, add them to the flour mix. Stir completely between each egg.

The dough will start to get really thick and sticky.

After all of the eggs are thoroughly combined, it’s time to get these things baking!

To get them on the baking sheet, you can either drop by spoonfuls

Or, if you want to be really fancy, you can pipe them into “log” shapes.

I didn’t have any icing bags on hand, so I just cut the corner off of a Ziploc bag. But, honestly…I’m a little bit lazy and really prefer the spoonful method. The éclairs end up round instead of long, though.

Don’t worry about them looking perfect. They puff up really nice and pretty in the oven all on their own. Pop those babies into the oven and bake for 30 to 35 minutes. I like to check them pretty frequently to make sure they are cooking evenly.

While the shells are baking, it’s time to get the chocolate topping done. If you really want to be simple and lazy, you can just pour some Hershey’s syrup on top, but this topping is really easy to make and tastes so, so good.

Pour 1/2 cup of heavy whipping cream and 1 cup chocolate chips into a sauce pan. I used semi-sweet chocolate chips. I’m a dark chocoholic. But you can also use milk chocolate chips if you like those better.

Stirring constantly, bring the cream and chocolate just barely to a boil. The heat should make the chocolate melt pretty quickly.

Once it’s totally melted and smooth, remove the chocolate from the heat and let it cool down completely.

When the éclair shells are done, remove them from the oven and let them also cool. I usually stop here in the process and come back in a few hours.

Here’s how you assemble them. So easy.

Cut each of the pastries in half. See how they puffed up and hollowed out all on their own?

Once they are all sliced in half, add the cream (okay…pudding) to the middle.

And top with the chocolate.

I like the chocolate to be a little bit runny. That way it drizzles all over the sides. But, if you want thicker icing, just whip up the chocolate in a mixer and it will turn thick and spreadable.

Finally, place all of the éclairs in the fridge to cool and allow the chocolate to harden.

These are a great dessert for entertaining. They can be made a day ahead and refrigerated until you are ready to use them. I actually prefer them a day old. The moisture from the filling sort of softens the shell a little bit and all of the flavors blend beautifully together.

For the PRINTABLE RECIPE, click HERE.