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Dessert

Chocolate Eclairs

A pastry filled with chocolate cream and topped with chocolate glaze.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 11 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Chocolate Eclairs

Ingredients

Directions

Make the eclairs

  1. Make a batter as for Cream Cakes and drop it onto a greased baking sheet in 4‑inch long and 1.5‑inch wide shapes, leaving space between them.

  2. Bake until golden and let cool.

  3. Make an opening in one side of each eclair.

Make the cream

  1. To make the cream, dissolve the chocolate in boiling water over a double boiler.

  2. Gradually add the milk and let it scald.

  3. Beat the egg, then mix in the sugar and corn‑starch.

  4. Stir in the scalding milk and return to the double boiler, stirring until thickened.

  5. Add a pinch of salt and vanilla.

Fill and top

  1. Fill each eclair with cold cream.

  2. For the chocolate topping, melt the sweetened chocolate with boiling water over low heat.

  3. Mix in the sugar and add water if the surface looks rough.

  4. Cover the top of each eclair with the chocolate mixture using a knife.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Egg thickens the cream as it cooks and adds richness to the filling.
Cornstarch (in the method)
Starch thickens the milk custard so it sets into a smooth, spreadable cream.
Milk
Liquid base of the cream that cooks with starch and egg into a custard.
Chocolate
Provides chocolate flavour and body to the cream and the glossy topping.

The step that matters

Stirring the cream until thickened. Egg and starch must be stirred over gentle heat while the milk is added; too much heat or too little stirring can scramble the egg or leave lumps, so the custard may not thicken smoothly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

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