The best dough for eclairs: recipe
This recipe first appeared in the 16th century. Eclairs originated in France; translated from French they mean “lightning”. It is not completely known why this dessert has such a name, but it is assumed that due to its unusual taste it is absorbed instantly. The dessert was popularized by the court chef of Napoleon and Duke IV. French confectioners believe that eclairs should be smooth, the same shape, and a certain size. On average, the length should be 14 cm. Most often, a variety of liquid creams are injected inside. The most popular are vanilla, chocolate or coffee. In different countries, the cake is called differently, in our country it is custard, eclairs. In Germany they are called love bone or hare's foot.
Baking mass
There are several options for preparing the perfect eclair dough. The main task is to make the dough in such a way that during the baking process, voids form inside that can be filled with cream. Initially, when placed in the oven, this dough seems slightly slippery and not at all airy. However, under the influence of temperature it rises strongly with the formation of bubbles and voids. The easiest way to prepare the dough is according to the choux recipe. This is considered to be the simplest method and one of the fastest.
To prepare this test you will need:
- 80 g plums oils
- 150 g wheat flour
- 270 ml in cold water
- Four eggs
- A little sugar and salt
The best dough for eclairs, recipe:
- Please note that practically no sugar is added to the dough. It tastes neutral, without any special accents, that is, almost tasteless. First you need to heat the oil on the stove and melt it. Add a little salt and sugar. After this, you need to take the flour and add it directly to the boiling oil. Mix everything thoroughly until you get one dense lump. Don't be alarmed if the dough is too dense and tight. Leave for about 2-3 minutes and cover with a cloth.
- It is necessary to remove the eggs from the refrigerator in advance; it is advisable that they be at room temperature, but under no circumstances cold.
- After the dough has rested, you need to add the eggs, beating thoroughly with a mixer or blender. It is necessary that this mixture falls into the bowl in a very dense, thick stream.
- Now is the time to transfer the mixture into a pastry bag, or regular stationery files. Cut off a corner and transfer the entire mixture to a bag. Now squeeze out into small strips and bake. The dough mixed in this way turns out to be slightly slippery and dense, but during the cooking process it rises well, forming voids.
Bakery
Classic eclair and its variations
A classic eclair is an elongated cake with custard inside. It is topped with either icing or chocolate.
But there are also varieties of eclairs: shu and profiteroles.
The meaning of the cake has not changed, but in “Shu” they cut off the top, put cream inside, grease the top with cream and cover the cake. And “Profiteroles” are cakes with a diameter of 2-3 centimeters with filling or cream.
French confectioners unanimously claim that the ideal eclair should be 14 centimeters long and perfectly even in shape, filled with vanilla or chocolate cream. The top is covered with icing or fondant.
The best choux pastry for eclairs with milk: recipe
Recipes made with milk are quite popular. These eclairs are more airy, with a rich creamy taste.
To prepare you will need:
- 130 ml full fat cow's milk
- 130 ml water
- 180 g vodka
- 90 g butter
- A little salt, sugar
- 4 eggs
The best choux pastry for milk eclairs, recipe:
- Mix milk and water in a thick-bottomed bowl. Add the butter, cut into pieces. There is no need to take it out of the refrigerator in advance, since the mass is completely warmed up and melted. Wait until the mixture boils until the fat completely dissolves and turns yellow. Now add the sifted flour to this mixture. It is necessary for a lump to form, very dense and tight.
- Place it on the fire and knead for 3 minutes. Thanks to this effect, the dough will dry out slightly and crumble. Don't worry, that's how it should be.
- Leave the dough to cool for a few minutes. Now beat the eggs and mix thoroughly with a spatula. It is best to use kitchen appliances for these purposes, since the custard is very tight and may not mix well with the other ingredients. It is advisable to add eggs one at a time, stirring constantly. Initially, the mixture should turn out very thick, slowly draining from a spoon or spatula. Now you need to use a pastry bag, or a regular stationery file. Fill it with the mixture and squeeze it onto a parchment-covered sheet. Remember that the length of the segment should be 12-14 cm. Do not forget to leave a decent distance between the eclairs, since during the baking process they rise and grow a lot.
For filling
Homemade eclair cake
The main secret of delicious eclairs is properly prepared choux pastry. There is a classic recipe that is basic for profiteroles and eclairs.
It is quite simple, the main thing is to thoroughly stir the introduced ingredients so that they do not have time to “curdle” in the hot mixture. And also, under no circumstances open the oven during baking, so that the delicacy does not settle and turns out quite airy and has a delicate golden hue.
Ingredients:
- Water – 250 ml.
- Flour – 150 gr.
- Butter – 100 gr.
- Boiled condensed milk – 1 can.
- Fresh chicken egg – 4 pcs.
- Fine salt – 1 pinch.
- Powdered sugar - for sprinkling.
Preparation:
1. Take a convenient saucepan or small saucepan with a thick bottom and pour water into it. Add a pinch of salt and a piece of butter there. Place the container on the stove and, stirring occasionally, bring to a boil over low heat until the butter is completely melted.
2. Sift the flour and add it to the hot liquid. To prevent it from “sticking together” into sticky lumps, immediately stir it very well using a spoon or a convenient spatula. You can also speed up the process by combining the ingredients using a mixer or blender.
3. Continuing to stir, heat the resulting choux pastry for another three minutes, and then remove from the stove and place on a heat-resistant stand. The consistency turns out to be quite interesting and we still need to polish it, but first we must cool it to at least 65-70 degrees.
4. We take the chicken eggs out of the refrigerator in advance and let them warm to room temperature. We introduce them one at a time into the still hot dough and immediately very quickly mix each one into the viscous composition so that the protein does not have time to “brew” and the result is a homogeneous consistency.
5. The end result will be a rather soft, thick and slightly sticky choux pastry that can be quite easily transferred into a pastry bag and placed on a baking sheet. If this is not at hand, we roll up a cone from thick paper with a middle hole on a sharp tip and send our workpiece into it.
6. Set the oven to preheat to 180 degrees, and in the meantime cover a baking sheet with baking parchment and squeeze out small oblong sticks of approximately the same size onto it. We put them in a hot oven and forget about them for half an hour. This is quite enough for the cakes to increase in volume, become tender, light, dry, with a beautiful ruddy tint.
7. 5-10 minutes after turning off the oven, take out the finished baked goods and let them cool completely. Only after this, using a culinary syringe, pierce the crust from the end and introduce the filling. This can be ready-made boiled condensed milk or pre-prepared custard.
Whipped cream lovers can fill their brownies with their dairy treat. All that remains is to sprinkle powdered sugar on top or get a little fussed and cover with a glaze of melted chocolate and butter in equal parts.
Bon appetit!
Ideal dough for eclairs: recipe according to GOST
The most popular recipe comes from childhood. It is believed that everything prepared according to GOST is of the highest quality and delicious. However, there is one catch in this recipe - all substances used in preparing the dough must be weighed.
Below you can find a list of products:
- 200 g flour
- 90 g butter
- 170 g water
- 300 g eggs
- Salt
Ideal dough for eclairs, recipe according to GOST:
- In a separate bowl, mix the oil and salt along with the water. Put everything on fire. For these purposes, choose a vessel with a thick bottom so that the paste does not burn. Place over low heat and stir constantly until the butter pieces turn into liquid.
- Add flour when the liquid boils, stir thoroughly with a whisk so that the bulk substance is evenly distributed throughout the mass. It is necessary that the paste is brewed and looks like one solid lump. Set aside on the counter and let cool slightly.
- In a separate bowl you need to beat the eggs. According to the recipe there should be 300 g of them. This is about 5-6 small pieces. It is best to weigh the eggs so that it is exactly 300 g. Pour the eggs into the custard mixture in a thin stream and stir. It is necessary to transfer the mass into a bag or pastry bag. Place pieces approximately 14-13 cm long on a baking sheet. Bake at 210 degrees.
Custard mass
Homemade eclairs with lemon cream in a water bath
Ingredients:
- For the test:
- Egg - 3 pcs.
- Water - 160 ml.
- Butter0 - 80 gr.
- Salt - 2 gr.
- Granulated sugar - 10 gr.
- Flour - 100 gr.
- For cream:
- Granulated sugar - 10 gr.
- Salt - 1/4 teaspoon
- Butter - 120 gr.
- Lemon juice - 150 ml.
- Lemon zest
- Egg - 3 pcs.
- Egg yolk - 3 pcs.
- For the meringue:
- Egg white - 3 pcs.
- Granulated sugar - 100 gr.
Cooking method:
1. First of all, prepare the dough. Pour water into a saucepan, add salt, granulated sugar and butter at room temperature. Cook until the butter melts.
2. The next thing we do is add the pre-sifted flour, mix thoroughly, and do not remove from the heat until the mixture thickens. The dough should form a ball.
3. Remove from the stove, transfer to a deep cup, and cool to approximately body temperature. Add eggs and beat thoroughly.
4. Place the dough into a pastry syringe and squeeze it out in lines onto a baking sheet. First, lightly spray the baking sheet and then the eclairs with water. Preheat the oven to 150° and leave the cakes for 40-45 minutes, they should become slightly brown.
5. Meanwhile, prepare the cream. In a bowl, mix egg yolks, granulated sugar, salt and zest.
6. While stirring, pour in lemon juice and cook it all in a water bath, stirring constantly. When the cream becomes thick, add butter and continue stirring. Wrap in cling film and let cool.
7. Fill the eclairs with lemon cream, and cover them with meringue, glaze or cream on top.
A delicious dish is ready for tea. Bon appetit.
Choux pastry for eclairs with margarine
It is believed that you can get delicious eclairs only by using natural butter with a fat content of at least 72-80%. However, many housewives successfully replace this product with a cheaper analogue - margarine. Below you can find an economical recipe that uses margarine instead of butter. This is a cheaper and more accessible option.
Ingredients:
- 180 ml water
- 180 g flour
- 120 g margarine
- 4 eggs 1st category
- A little sugar and salt
Choux pastry for eclairs with margarine, recipe:
- For cooking, choose a pan with thick walls so that the mixture does not burn. Pour water into it, add sugar, salt, and put on fire. As soon as the water boils, add margarine to it and mix thoroughly.
- It is important to ensure that the pieces of margarine turn into liquid. Be sure to add flour, stir and cook for another two minutes. It is necessary that during the cooking process the dough lags behind the walls and bottom of the pan.
- Be sure to transfer to another container and cover with a cloth. The dough must be allowed to cool. Add the eggs one at a time and mix thoroughly. Ideally, you should get a plastic mass. It is laid out in a file or bag, the tip is cut off, and the mixture is deposited in thin strips on parchment paper.
Jigging
Homemade eclairs with whipped cream
Ingredients:
- For the test:
- Flour - 150 gr.
- Butter - 100 gr.
- Water - 250 gr.
- Egg - 5 pcs.
- Salt - a pinch
- For cream:
- Cream - 500 ml.
- Granulated sugar - 100 gr.
- Vanillin pinch.
Cooking method:
1. Prepare the dough the same as in previous recipes. Pour water into a saucepan, put it on fire, add softened butter, a pinch of salt, as soon as everything starts to boil, add all the flour and begin to knead intensively. As soon as it comes together, knead for a couple more minutes and remove from heat.
2. Place in a blender bowl and as soon as it has cooled, add the eggs one at a time and mix.
3. Transfer to a culinary syringe and place the dough in rings on parchment. Place in a preheated oven at 220 degrees for 15 minutes, then reduce to 150 degrees and bake for another 10 minutes.
4. Mix the cream with granulated sugar, beat thoroughly and transfer to a pastry bag.
5. Cut the cake into halves and decorate it as you like, close the second part on top and sprinkle with powdered sugar.
A simple recipe for an incredibly delicious dessert. Bon appetit.
Choux pastry for eclairs with vegetable oil: recipe
Experienced housewives who are used to saving on food use regular vegetable oil instead of standard cow butter. According to reviews, this dish also turns out to be quite tasty and satisfying.
Ingredients:
- 280 ml water
- 4 large chicken eggs
- 150 g flour
- 90 ml vegetable oil
- Salt
Choux pastry for eclairs with vegetable oil, recipe:
- It is necessary to put the mixture on the fire, first mixing water with oil, adding a pinch of salt. As soon as the water boils, add flour and mix thoroughly. Hold the substance while heating it for 2-3 minutes.
- The mass should move away from the walls of the dish. Let cool slightly, and add one egg at a time to the mixture at a temperature of 60-70 degrees, beating thoroughly with a whisk, silicone spatula or mixer.
- Please note that kitchen appliances will allow you to perform manipulations much faster. When you have added all the eggs to the mixture, you need to place it on parchment paper. If you don't want to bother with a piping bag or files, you can just spoon out small mounds. You will get small slides that rise perfectly and are filled with delicious cream.
Bakery
Classic recipe
You will get 32 delicious eclairs using this recipe!
Ingredients for the dough:
- Milk 125 ml
- water 125 ml
- flour 160 gr. (1 glass)
- butter 100 gr.
- a pinch of salt
- pinch of sugar
- eggs 4-5 pieces.
For cream:
- Milk – 500 ml
- sugar – 160 grams
- three yolks
- corn starch 45 gr. or 75 gr. flour.
- heavy cream - 150 grams or butter 50 grams.
- vanillin - 1 pod or 1.5 sachets of vanillin (3 g).
Preparation:
1. Pour water with milk into a saucepan, add butter, a pinch of sugar and salt.
2. Place the saucepan over medium heat and, stirring constantly, bring to a boil. The oil should dissolve. Remove from the stove.
3. Add pre-sifted flour. Knead the dough until it becomes homogeneous and forms a lump.
4. Place on the stove with a temperature slightly below average. Constantly stir the main mass for 2-3 minutes, it should dry. Remove from heat.
5. Transfer the workpiece into a bowl, after 5 minutes it will cool down and you can add eggs.
6. Using a spatula or a mixer with a spatula or paddle attachment, mix the workpiece. Add eggs one at a time while kneading (the number of eggs depends on their size). The dough piece should end up slowly flowing from the spatula.
7. Take a pastry bag with a round tip, 10 to 15 mm in size. Fill with choux pastry.
8. Prepare baking paper. At an angle of 45°, with equal force, squeeze out pieces of dough 12-14 cm long.
9. Wet a fork in the egg and make grooves as shown in the photo.
10.Bake in the oven preheated to 180℃ for about 30 minutes. The eclairs should be golden brown. Remove the baked goods from the oven and let cool completely.
1. To prepare the cream, pour milk into a saucepan and add vanillin. Mix the yolks in a bowl. Divide the sugar into two halves, add one to the milk, the other to the yolks.
2. Place a saucepan with milk over medium heat and bring to a boil. Add starch to eggs with sugar and mix.
3. Slowly pour the milk into the eggs, whisking constantly until the sugar is completely dissolved. Pour the mixture into the saucepan and return to medium heat.
4. Stirring constantly, bring the cream until thick. Remove from heat. If you are using butter, add it now.
5. Now you need to cool the cream by covering it with cling film. Place in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or overnight.
6. Whip ice-cold heavy cream and add cooled cream. Mix until smooth. If you did not use cream, you can fill the eclairs with cream after stirring.
7. Place the cream in a pastry bag, using a narrow and long nozzle. Fill the cooled eclairs with cream, making 2 holes in the pastry.
8. Before serving, you can coat the choux pastry with powdered sugar, icing or fondant. Classic eclairs are ready. Bon appetit!
The eclair dough turned out liquid, what should I do?
The main difficulty is that when adding the exact amount of eggs and flour, sometimes the consistency of the dough is not quite suitable. This depends on the amount of gluten in the flour, so I recommend adding one egg to the mixture at a time, rather than all at once. It takes 4, sometimes 5 or even four and a half eggs.
The eclair dough turned out liquid, what to do:
- Therefore, experienced chefs advise cooking the last egg by dividing it in half. If your dough is too thin, don't worry. Many housewives believe that such dough rises very poorly in the oven.
- Don't even try to put the batter in the oven, so as not to ruin the whole process and the products. We recommend doing the following. It is necessary to boil half the water in a separate bowl, adding flour and fat. Initially, prepare the custard, now add it in small portions into the liquid mass that you have obtained.
- As a result, by mixing thick and liquid dough you will be able to achieve the ideal consistency. Place in the refrigerator for about 15 minutes. It is believed that the butter that is part of the mixture will harden, which will help make the dough thicker. However, this may not work as the heat will cause the butter to become soft and runny. The dough will fall and not rise.
With cream
How to form and what to bake eclairs from choux pastry
The easiest way to form eclairs is to use a piping bag. You can use a variety of attachments, especially beautiful eclairs are obtained using “round” or “open star” attachments with a diameter of 10-12 mm.
If you don’t have a cooking bag yet, then you can use a regular plastic bag, cutting off one of its corners to the desired diameter. This method is less convenient, but economical.
Eclairs are placed on a baking sheet covered with cooking paper in a checkerboard pattern, obliquely, diagonally. The preferred length is 10-14 cm. Try to leave enough distance between them, at least 3 cm, because they will increase in size during baking.
To ensure that the eclairs are the same size, you can make some kind of marks on the baking sheet for your convenience using a ruler and flour.
Dough for eclairs without eggs: recipe
You can even make custard without eggs. Of course, this is much more difficult to do, but if all conditions and rules are met, it is quite possible. For this you need the following products:
- 500 ml milk
- 4 tablespoons flour
- 80 g butter
- 150 g sugar
- A little vanilla
Dough for eclairs without eggs, recipe:
- It is necessary to mix milk with sugar and vanilla in a separate bowl. Place the mixture on the fire, heat to a boil.
- Place the oil in a separate bowl with thick walls and heat it until it melts and boils.
- It is necessary to pre-fry the flour until golden brown. Now pour the boiled milk into the flour. It is necessary to obtain a homogeneous, plastic mass. You need to start cooking right away.
Introduction of eggs
The best fillings for French cakes
The traditional filling for eclairs is white custard.
However, over time, they began to be filled with various creams. Chocolate, caramel, vanilla - this is just a small part of what the world famous dessert is now filled with.
To make classic custard, you need to take:
- Granulated sugar – ½ cup;
- Starch – 15 grams;
- Butter – 150 grams;
- Water – 150 milliliters.
Stir starch and then sugar in cool water.
Place the container on low heat and very carefully, stirring, bring to a colorless jelly.
Remove from the oven, let cool and add butter.
Beat with a mixer until the desired thickness.
If you love eclairs with chocolate cream, then there is nothing easier than making it yourself.
Have to take:
- Cream or milk – 2 cups;
- Granulated sugar – 100 grams;
- Chocolate – 50 grams.
Whip cold cream together with sugar until required thickness. Having melted the chocolate, add it to the cream and whisk everything together.
You can experiment a little with caramel cream, for example, add nuts or raisins.
Ingredients:
- Honey – 70 grams;
- Butter – 150 grams;
- Granulated sugar – 250 grams;
- Any nut (peanuts, almonds) – 200 grams;
- Cream or milk – 250 grams;
- Ginger – 0.5 tablespoon.
Lightly fry the nuts in a frying pan and then finely chop. Boil the cream and add ginger.
Remove the cream from the stove and let it cool thoroughly for about five minutes. Strain the cream, add salt and honey, bring to a boil.
In an empty saucepan, melt the sugar until caramelized. Slowly pour the creamy mixture into the caramel, stirring constantly, and reduce the temperature.
Add butter to the pan and stir. Remove from the stove. The filling is ready.
We recommend that you familiarize yourself with the recipe for eclairs in the video clip. The cakes are made with buttercream and chocolate fondant.
The best dough for eclairs: reviews
Below you can read reviews from housewives who prepare eclairs.
The best dough for eclairs, reviews:
Marina . I am a fan of homemade baking, so I regularly delight my household with something delicious. It’s worth highlighting the eclairs separately, as they are much easier to prepare than I thought. In my understanding, it was some kind of real sacrament. In fact, it is usually choux pastry that rises well in the oven. I use the classic recipe with butter and water. I didn’t like them with milk; they turned out too soft.
Oksana. I'm vegan, so I don't use eggs or milk. When preparing eclairs I used water and vegetable oil. I am very pleased, the dessert turned out creamy, with a rich taste. I really like filling these eclairs with jam and fruit mousses.
Veronica . I love to cook, so I often delight my loved ones with various pies and pastries. One of the best and most delicious are eclairs. I cook according to the standard recipe, using water and eggs. However, it is not always possible to use expensive butter. I often replace it with margarine. I use water instead of milk. I have a large family, so finances do not always allow me to prepare baked goods from expensive ingredients. Naturally, I replace it with cheap analogues, using margarine or vegetable oil instead of natural cow butter. Despite this, it turns out quite tasty. I don’t really like cooking with milk, the dough is too soft. I love drier versions with a golden brown, crispy crust.
Preparation
We will also tell you how to prepare:
- Grappa drink
- Cake "Potato"
- Eggs Benedict
- Egg scramble
- Cocoa with marshmallows
It is not recommended to add flour to the prepared dough, as it contains the custard part, so the flour must be exposed to high temperature in order to obtain the ideal consistency and a certain amount of gluten.
Video on how to make eclairs with condensed milk and butter
Quite often, I look for some interesting recipes in video format in order to immediately understand all the nuances of cooking and what a dish should look like at one stage or another. The recipe for eclairs with condensed milk and butter is told very clearly and interestingly on the Good Food channel.
Ingredients:
- Boiled condensed milk – 380 ml.
- Water – 250 ml.
- Butter – 100 gr. + 200 gr.
- Wheat flour – 180 gr.
- Fresh chicken egg – 4 pcs.
- Chocolate bar – ½ – 1 pc.
- Salt -1/2 tsp.
Watch the cooking process in the following video:
By the way, I immediately tried the recommendations and can say that I didn’t experience any problems in preparing the dough and the eclairs turned out just wonderful!
The cream is quite simple: condensed milk is mixed with butter. If you only have boiled condensed milk on hand, then it can also be made more tender with melted butter. Well, or use it as is.
And instead of glaze, you can pour the finished eclairs simply with chocolate melted in the microwave.
Bon appetit!