Eclairs - 10 recipes for cooking at home

Eclairs are a delicacy familiar to everyone since childhood. They are oblong-shaped cakes filled with cream and sprinkled with icing. The dough for this dessert needs custard, prepared on the basis of butter or margarine, eggs, water and flour. But with the fillings, you can experiment and use different compositions, depending on personal preferences. Consider the most common recipes for eclairs with different fillers.

In the classic version, eclairs are made with custard filling.

To prepare treats you will need:

For test:

• 4 eggs;
• half a pack of fatty oil;
• 0.25 l of water;
• 150 g of good quality flour;
• 5 g of granulated sugar;
• 2 g salt.

For filler:

• a carton of milk;
• a couple of eggs;
• 200 g of granulated sugar;
• 150 g flour;
• a piece of butter 40 grams;
• a little bit of vanilla.

For glaze:

• half a lemon;
• 20 ml of water;
• 50-70 g of powdered sugar.

Operating procedure:

1. First you need to prepare the custard for eclairs. When it's time to fill the cakes, it should already be cold. First of all, you need to boil 2/3 of the above volume of milk.
2. Then combine the rest of the milk with eggs, add flour and vanillin. Mix the whole mass well.
3. Pour boiled milk in a thin stream into the resulting composition, without stopping stirring. Bring the mass to a boil over low heat.
4. As soon as the first bubbles appear, remove the container from the burner and put a piece of fatty oil into it.
5. While the cream is cooling, prepare the choux pastry for the eclairs. Fill a saucepan with water, add sugar and a little salt. Put butter cut into pieces here (you can also use high-quality margarine) and send it to the stove.
6. When the mass becomes homogeneous, slowly add flour with a spoon, stir the base with a spatula, and then let it cool.
7. Place the eggs one at a time into the base. Each subsequent can be added only when the dough completely "eats" the previous one.
8. Send the creamy base inside a pastry bag with a star-shaped nozzle and squeeze strips of dough up to 7 cm long into a mold covered with tracing paper. It is important that they are spacious, because the cakes will grow significantly during the baking process.
9. Place the baking sheet in the oven, bake the eclairs and let them cool down a bit. After, fill them with cream using a syringe.
10. When the portions are ready, make the icing for the eclairs: squeeze the juice from half a lemon, add water and powdered sugar, mix until smooth and pour over the portions.

Important! To make the cakes lush, you can put the baking sheet in the oven compartment only after it warms up to 180-200 degrees.

Traditional french eclairs

Since France is considered the birthplace of eclairs, one cannot ignore the method of preparing cream for such a dessert, which is used by the confectioners of this country.

In the process of work you will need:

• custard dough;
• 6 egg yolks;
• 2 tablespoons of starch;
• 400 ml of milk;
• 100–120 g of sugar;
• vanilla.

Work sequence:

1. Bake the cakes and leave to cool on a tray.
2. Mix the yolks with starch, then add 100 ml of milk and beat the mass with a whisk.
3. Pour the remaining milk into a saucepan, add sugar and vanilla, boil.
4. Carefully pour the boiling milk into the prepared egg-starch mixture, stirring constantly. Place on stove, bring to a boil, then remove from heat.
5. Cool the composition, transfer to a bag and fill the pre-baked eclairs.

Cakes prepared with this filling will not lose their freshness and airiness for 36 hours.

Ideal choux pastry for eclairs

What is the perfect dough for eclairs? Each culinary specialist understands this in his own way, but in this section we will consider the recipe for the base, which even an inexperienced hostess can handle. In addition, this composition does not contain eggs and people who, for one reason or another, are forbidden to use this product, will be able to enjoy such a dessert.

To create the base you will need:

• 400 ml of milk;
• a pack of butter or margarine;
• 60 g sugar;
• 3-4 cups flour;
• 10 g of pressed yeast;
• 5 g baking soda.

Work sequence:

1. Heat milk in a saucepan until the first bubbles appear, and then add butter or margarine and granulated sugar to it. Continue cooking until ingredients dissolve.
2. Cool the mixture, and then mix with a glass of flour until smooth.
3. In a separate bowl, combine pressed yeast with a small amount of milk and wait a quarter of an hour until a light foam appears.
4. Mix the yeast with the cooled base, add soda, knead and leave to rise for half an hour. The dough should not stick to your hands.

When the base is ready, it remains only to lay out portions on a baking sheet covered with tracing paper and send it to a hot oven to bake.

Eclairs with condensed milk

Another popular filling for eclairs is condensed milk.

• base for cakes;
• a can of boiled condensed milk;
• 80–110 g butter;
• a teaspoon of cognac or liqueur.

Work process:

1. Prepare the eclairs, carefully transfer to a dish and leave to cool.
2. Cut the butter into pieces and place in a warm place to melt.
3. Transfer the condensed milk to the blender bowl, add the fatty composition, cognac or liquor and beat until the mass becomes homogeneous.
4. Fill a pastry syringe with cream and inject the filling into the cakes.

If the dessert is prepared for children, it is better not to use alcohol, but to make a cream only from condensed milk and butter.

Dessert with buttercream

You can prepare butter cream for eclairs in different ways by adding fruit or berry puree, condensed milk, cocoa, cottage cheese or soft cheese to the main ingredient. Consider a dessert recipe with butter and cheese filling.

For cooking you will need:

• custard base;
• 100 g butter;
• 100 g soft cheese;
• sugar.

Work sequence:

1. Bake the eclairs and put them on a dish to cool.
2. Soften the butter, mix with cheese and granulated sugar, mix until smooth.
3. When the sugar is completely dissolved, transfer the cream to a syringe or pastry bag and fill the servings.

In a similar way, you can make an oil filler with other additives.

Chocolate eclairs

Chocolate is loved not only by children, but also by adults, and therefore cakes with such a filling will not leave anyone indifferent.

To create a dessert you will need:

• custard dough;
• boiled condensed milk;
• 100 g butter;
• a tablespoon of cocoa;
• vanilla.

Procedure:

1. Bake the base for the cakes and cool.
2. Soften the butter, mix with condensed milk and beat with a mixer until smooth.
3. Add cocoa powder, a pinch of vanilla and mix the cream.
4. Using a syringe or pastry bag, inject the filling into the cakes.

Attention! If it was not possible to purchase boiled condensed milk and you had to bring the product to readiness on your own, you need to make sure that the jar is constantly covered with water and add liquid in a timely manner to replace the evaporated one.

Otherwise, the container will explode, and instead of drinking tea with dessert, the hostess will have to clean up the area.

Eclairs with cream at home

Quite often, cream for eclairs is prepared on the basis of cream and the taste of the filler is set off with fruits or berries.

For this dessert you will need:

• custard base;
• 250 ml of heavy cream;
• fruit puree or fresh berries;
• 50 g of powdered sugar.

Cooking order:

1. Bake eclairs, put on a tray and let cool.
2. Whip the cream with a mixer until a stable foam appears.
3. Add fruit puree or berries, pour in powdered sugar and bring the mass until smooth.
4. Transfer the filler to a syringe or bag and fill the finished cakes.

It is worth taking on the preparation of such a dessert only if you have a mixer, since it is rather difficult to manually whip the cream to the desired consistency.

Custard cakes with cottage cheese filling

As mentioned above, the filling for eclairs can be different, and these cakes with cottage cheese cream are especially tasty.

For dessert you will need:

• dough for eclairs;
• cottage cheese;
• fat sour cream;
• sugar;
• a pinch of cinnamon and vanilla.

Operating procedure:

1. Bake the eclairs, put them on a tray and leave to cool.
2. Beat cottage cheese and sour cream with a mixer until smooth. If it is not possible to use special equipment, it is permissible to pass it through a meat grinder or grind it with a sieve.
3. Mix cottage cheese and sour cream with sugar, add cinnamon and vanilla, put the mixture in a pastry bag and fill the finished cakes with it.

Advice. To make the dessert not so high-calorie, it is better to use low-fat cottage cheese, and replace sour cream with kefir.

Cakes with protein cream

Eclairs with protein cream are unusually tender, airy and very tasty.

To create a dessert you need:

• custard dough;
• 5 egg whites;
• 180–220 g of sugar;
• 30 g cream;
• a pinch of vanilla.

Cooking order:

1. Bake the cakes and let them cool.
2. Beat the whites with sugar into a strong foam, leaving 30–40 g of sand.
3. Dissolve the remaining sugar in cream, warmed to room temperature.
4. Mix the prepared parts of the cream, transfer to a syringe and fill the cakes.

Attention! You need to lay the filling in eclairs as soon as it is ready, otherwise the protein mixture will lose its airiness.

Delicacy with caramel filling

Caramel filling will be a great addition to the air dough.

To prepare a dessert, you will need:

• custard base;
• 50 g butter;
• 150–180 ml of milk;
• 180 ml cream with a fat content of at least 30%;
• 120 g of granulated sugar;
• 15-20 gelatin granules;
• 2 tablespoons of water;
• a few drops of lemon juice.

Cooking order:

1. Bake portions of custard dough and cool.
2. Boil milk and water in separate saucepans.
3. Pour sugar into a saucepan with water, add lemon juice and cook over low heat until the sand has melted.
4. Pour the milk in a thin stream into the mass, stirring constantly. Put the butter and gelatin and cook until the latter dissolves.
5. Whip the cream until fluffy, mix with the cooled caramel, and then fill the cakes with a mass.

On a note. You can decorate ready-made eclairs not only with icing prepared according to a traditional recipe, but also sprinkle with powdered sugar or simply pour melted chocolate.

How to fill eclairs with cream with a syringe and without a syringe?

To fill eclairs with cream, it is better to use a syringe. To do this, a small hole is made in the central part at the bottom of each portion, through which the filling is introduced. But some housewives prefer to fill the cakes by making a small incision on top.

But what to do when there was no special device at hand?

In this case, you can start eclairs in the following ways:

1. Use a large medical syringe, removing the needle from it and putting the cream inside.
2. Start dessert with a pastry bag. If it was also not at hand, you can use any empty packaging with a dispenser spout (for example, from under mayonnaise or condensed milk). Cut off the bottom and remove the remnants of the product that was there earlier and wash it thoroughly from the inside.
3. Cut off the top of the cakes, put a teaspoon of cream inside, and then return the “lid” to its place.

To mask the hole through which the filler was introduced, eclairs are generously sprinkled with powdered sugar or icing is used.