Try This Easy Chocolate Eclairs Recipe

This easy chocolate eclairs recipe makes light, airy eclairs filled with smooth chocolate pastry cream and topped with chocolate ganache. I like that the choux pastry is light and hollow inside, so there’s plenty of room for that rich chocolate filling.

They’re a classic French dessert and are especially good when the pastry is crisp, the filling is creamy, and the ganache is still soft on top. If you like chocolate desserts, you should also try these Chocolate Cream Puffs. Keep reading to see how the pastry cream, choux pastry, and chocolate ganache come together to make these homemade chocolate eclairs.

Jump to:

• Video Instructions
• Try This Chocolate Eclairs Recipe
• Why You’ll Love It
• Ingredients
• How to Make This Easy Chocolate Eclairs Recipe
• Recipe Tips
• What Can You Serve With This?
• FAQs
• Recipe

Video Instructions

Try This Chocolate Eclairs Recipe

If you’ve never made eclairs at home, this recipe is a good one to try, and bakers will agree it has really simple ingredients. The choux pastry is light and airy, the chocolate pastry cream is smooth and rich, and the ganache gives each eclair a simple chocolate topping.

The pastry cream can be made ahead and chilled before you make the pastry, which makes the process a little easier. Once everything is ready, the eclairs are filled and finished with chocolate ganache.

Why You’ll Love It

• Light and airy: The Pâte à Choux bakes into a light pastry with a hollow center that’s perfect for filling.
• Rich chocolate filling: Melted semi-sweet chocolate gives the pastry cream plenty of chocolate flavor.
• Simple chocolate topping: The ganache is made with semi-sweet chocolate and heavy whipping cream.
• Make-ahead friendly: The chocolate pastry cream can be refrigerated for at least 1–2 hours or overnight.

Ingredients

• Egg yolks: These give the chocolate pastry cream a rich, creamy texture. They’re slowly warmed with hot milk before being added to the saucepan.
• Cornstarch: This thickens the pastry cream so it can be piped into the eclairs without being too loose.
• Semi-sweet chocolate: I like semi-sweet chocolate here because it gives both the pastry cream and ganache a rich chocolate flavor without making the filling overly sweet, giving you perfect eclairs every time.
• All-purpose flour: This is the base of the Pâte à Choux. Spoon and level it when measuring so you don’t add too much flour.
• Heavy whipping cream: This makes the chocolate ganache smooth and creamy when combined with the chopped chocolate.

How to Make This Easy Chocolate Eclairs Recipe

1. In a medium bowl, whisk egg yolks, sugar, and cornstarch to combine.

2. Bring milk in a heavy-bottomed saucepan over medium-high heat to a simmer and cook for about 2 minutes, stirring constantly.

3. Slowly stir about ½ cup (120ml) of the hot milk into the egg yolks to slowly warm it. Stir until smooth and fully combined. 

4. Then slowly pour the warmed egg mixture into the saucepan. Whisk constantly.

5. Cook until the filling is thick and looks like pudding, for about 1-2 minutes. Whisk continuously.

6. Remove the pan from the heat and stir in chocolate and salt until smooth and fully combined for about 1-2 minutes.

7. Pour the chocolate cream filling through a 6-inch (15cm) mesh strainer into a bowl and let cool for about 5-10 minutes. Stir occasionally. Add butter and stir to combine. The best is when you cut the butter into a few pieces and add one at a time to the filling.

8. Cover the chocolate cream with plastic wrap to prevent forming a skin. Refrigerate at least 1-2 hours or overnight.

9. In a heavy-bottomed saucepan, bring water, butter, sugar, and salt over medium-high heat to a boil.

10. Once it reaches a boil, add flour and constantly stir with a wooden spoon. Cook for about 2-3 minutes until it starts to form a film on the bottom of the pan. Don't be scared if it looks lumpy when you start stirring the flour into the butter mixture. This is normal; see photo below.

11. After 2-3 minutes of cooking, it will look like in the photo below. The dough is compact and lumpy but sticks mostly together. You can see that there is a film of dough on the bottom of the pan. Don't scratch it off.

12. Transfer to a large mixing bowl and let cool for about 2 minutes. Then add the first egg to the dough and stir to combine. It will be quite hard to whisk, and the dough will separate and be a lumpy mess. Don't panic that is absolutely normal. Just keep whisking until it comes together. 

13. Add the second egg. The dough will separate again; just keep whisking until it comes together. Continue until all eggs are incorporated. The dough will get smoother with every egg.

14. In the end, the dough will be very sticky and firm enough to hold a stiff peak.

15. Transfer the dough to a piping bag fitted with a star tip (I used the Wilton 1M tip). The easiest way to fill the dough into the piping bag with the fitted star tip is to place the pastry bag over a tall glass. Overlap about 4 inches (10 cm) of the piping bag down the outsides of the glass. Then use a spatula and fill the bag about ½ to a maximum ⅔ full so that you can twist the ends and no dough is popping out at the top of the pastry bag while piping.

16. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and stick a bit of dough in all 4 corners to fix the paper. Otherwise, it will move around while piping.

17. Pipe ten about 4-inch long and ½-inch wide (10x1.5cm) strips on the 2 prepared baking sheets with enough space in-between (about 2-3 inches) and spin the tip.

18. Press down the tip with wet fingers so that they don't burn.

19. Lightly brush the tops of the pastry shells with egg wash and bake until golden brown.

20. Let eclair shells cool for 30 minutes, then cut in half horizontally. 

21. Then fill the eclairs using a piping bag.

22. Place chopped chocolate in a large heatproof bowl. Microwave heavy cream until very hot and simmering for about 1-2 minutes. Pour over chocolate and let stand 1-2 minutes. Stir until smooth, and the chocolate is completely melted.

23. For a super glossy chocolate glaze finish, you can add ½ tablespoon of corn syrup to the ganache. The corn syrup is completely optional. Then let stand for about 10 minutes. Place the filled eclairs on a wire rack and carefully spoon the chocolate ganache (about 1 tablespoon of ganache per eclair) on top of the eclairs and let dry.

Recipe Tips

• Make the chocolate pastry cream ahead of time so it has enough time to chill before you fill the eclairs.
• Keep whisking the pastry cream while it cooks so it thickens evenly.
• Strain the pastry cream before chilling it for a smooth filling.
• Add the eggs to the choux dough one at a time and keep stirring until the dough comes together again.
• Don’t open the oven while the eclairs are baking because they can collapse.
• Bake until the eclairs are puffed and golden brown and sound hollow when knocking on the bottom.

What Can You Serve With This?

• Fresh berries
• Fresh fruit
• Coffee
• Tea

FAQs

Recipe