Eclairs with mascarpone and strawberries: a recipe for choux pastry and cream

Hi guys!

Who doesn't love eclairs? I don't think there are any fools. Everyone loves these ingenious custard cakes with a thin shell, airy cream and chocolate icing.

In the classic version, French eclairs are filled with custard.

And I'm still trying to remember what we sold those iconic custards with: I think they were mostly Charlotte buttercream, right?

But I remember for sure that I always had this filling too much and too fat. Most of all I liked the shell itself. I’ll say even more, now I’m more than happy to “clean up” pacifiers immediately from the baking sheet than ready-made eclairs with filling.

Therefore, today I will offer you to prepare a modernized and lightweight version of eclairs: with mascarpone, cream and strawberries.

It tastes very similar to those Soviet custards, but these are much lighter and more airy.

But the filling is a matter of taste, of course. The main thing is we let's look at it in great detail how to prepare the perfect choux pastry for eclairs, and also learn all the nuances of baking and filling eclairs.

In general, today's article is a gem! Here the whole process of making eclairs is brought together from A to Z: starting with choux pastry and ending with two main types of coating. Meanwhile, I will give you as many as 3 toppings to choose from.

Now eclairs, along with, are experiencing their second youth. All the confectioners of the world compete like crazy for the smoothest, most hollow and most original eclairs. How and with what they are just not decorated now.

Here is the smallest part of the examples from the confectioner Tal Spiegel, obsessed with desserts and shoes:

So where to start?

Choux pastry recipe

First, let's write down the list of ingredients for the choux pastry. Despite its sophistication and genius, the composition of choux pastry for eclairs is incredibly simple and short.

Required products:

• water - 200 ml
• butter - 100 gr.
• sugar - 5 gr.
• salt - 1 pinch
• flour - 130 gr.
• eggs, room temperature - 210 gr. (≈4 pcs.)

Cooking method:

In the meantime, the eclairs are cooling down, I will tell you about the mascarpone cream and give you a couple more recipes for my favorite eclair fillings.

3 cream recipes for eclairs

Cream with mascarpone

Take these products:

• fat cream 33-35%, cold - 200 gr.
• mascarpone cheese, cold - 200 gr.
• powdered sugar - 80 gr.
• vanilla extract - 1 tsp

additionally:

• any fruit or berry puree - 70 gr.

Recipe:

1. Chill the mixer bowl and beaters for 2-3 minutes. This will make the cream whip faster.
2. Whip the cream to firm peaks.
   

   Be careful not to over-whip the cream, otherwise it will separate. Stop the mixer periodically and look at the consistency: if the cream holds its shape and does not fall off, then the whipped cream is ready.

3. Separately, thoroughly mix the mascarpone with powdered sugar and vanilla until smooth (+ fruit puree if desired).
4. We shift the cream in mascarpone and gently mix the two masses with a spatula, folding movements from the bottom up.
   

   Do not stir too long or the cream may curdle.

5. We transfer the finished cream into a pastry bag with the thinnest nozzle you have, and fill the eclairs on both sides, making holes on the sides or bottom of the eclair with the same nozzle or the back of a teaspoon.

If you don't want to mess around with piping bags, you can just make custard "sandwiches," as my husband says. To do this, cut the eclairs along approximately to the middle and fill the cakes with cream with a regular spoon.

vanilla custard

For him we need:

• milk - 500 gr.
• sugar - 120 gr.
• natural vanilla - 1 pod or vanilla extract - 1 tsp
• eggs - 50 gr. (≈1 piece)
• yolk - 40 gr. (≈2 pcs.)
• corn starch - 60 gr.

optional (for more airy cream):

• fat cream 33-36%, cold - 150 gr.

1. Pour milk into a saucepan and add ½ part of sugar (60 gr.) (The sugar will keep the milk from burning). Cut the vanilla pod in half lengthwise and scrape out the seeds with a knife. We send the vanilla pod along with the seeds to a saucepan with milk and put it on a moderate heat. Bring the milk to a boil.
2. While the milk is heating, in a separate bowl, whisk the egg, yolks, the remaining 60 gr. sugar and starch until a homogeneous mass is formed.
3. When the milk begins to boil, reduce the heat to low and remove the pan from the heat. Remove the vanilla stick, pour about 1/3 of the milk into the bowl with the egg mixture, stirring vigorously.
4. Pour the resulting mixture back into the pan with milk and quickly mix with a whisk.
5. We return the pan to low heat and cook until a thick homogeneous cream without lumps is formed. It will take 1-2 minutes, no more.
6. After the cream has thickened, remove the pan from the heat, cover with cling film so that the film is close to the surface of the cream (otherwise an unpleasant crust will form) and leave to cool completely.
7. Before stuffing the eclairs with custard, you need to mix it well with a whisk.
8. For a more airy option, we introduce whipped cream into the cooled custard, after mixing it (I told how to whip cream in the previous recipe for cream with mascarpone).

Chocolate custard for eclairs

Modern eclairs are often prepared with chocolate cream. Let's cook it too.

Ingredients:

• custard - 500 gr. (recipe above⇑)
• dark chocolate - 150 gr.

Cooking:

1. Cooking custard according to the recipe above (do not add vanilla).
2. Add finely chopped chocolate to the freshly prepared cream and mix thoroughly with a whisk until the chocolate is completely dissolved.
3. Cool the chocolate cream, covering it tightly with cling film.
4. Stir with a whisk before use.

Whipped cream can also be mixed into chocolate cream, as in the previous recipe. It is with this cream that the eclair is filled in the next photo.

glaze recipe

Previously, we prepared icing for eclairs from ordinary sugar fudge with cocoa. This was spectacular. When bitten off, the icing crunched slightly and had a unique grainy structure. I really liked her.

But we will not cook lipstick. With such a wide selection of quality chocolate, it is no longer relevant.

We will prepare the simplest glaze of cream and chocolate.

For the glaze, prepare:

• heavy cream, 33-36% - 100 gr.
• dark chocolate - 100 gr.

Cooking:

1. Bring cream to a boil over moderate heat.
2. Cut the chocolate into small pieces and pour over hot cream.
3. Mix thoroughly with a spatula until a homogeneous glossy glaze is obtained.
4. Allow glaze to cool slightly before application.
5. Dip the stuffed eclairs in the icing to the middle and leave to harden.

As you can see, this time I have eclairs without icing. I garnished them on top with the same mascarpone cream as inside, added strawberry slices and caramelized nuts.

It turned out incredibly tasty.

And finally, so that you are already fully warned and armed, I will give you another, now fashionable, eclair coating recipe, called craquelin.

It is widely used by confectioners all over the world. It cooks quickly, looks spectacular, and you can always have a spare in the freezer. So, the recipe.

Craquelin for covering eclairs

Required products:

• butter - 100 gr.
• flour - 120 gr.
• sugar (white or brown) - 120 gr.

1. We mix all the ingredients in a mixer or blender for literally 30 seconds.
2. We quickly collect the resulting dough into a ball and roll it into a thin layer 1-2 mm thick between two sheets of parchment paper.
3. We send the dough to the freezer for 30 minutes.
4. We cut out rectangles from the dough corresponding to the size of the eclairs. Before baking, cover each eclair with such a strip of craquelin and bake.

These eclairs no longer need to be glazed, they are amazing in and of themselves.

For chocolate craquelin subtract 20 gr. flour and replace them with 20 gr. cocoa.

And by adding food coloring, you can get an even more interesting result))

I leave on this.

Cook eclairs and don't forget to share your impressions in the comments.

Thanks to all!

Good luck, love and patience.