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Dessert

Chocolate Eclairs

Chocolate eclairs are pastry shells 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 like for cream cakes and drop it onto a 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 and fill with cold cream.

Make the cream

  1. Dissolve 1 ounce of chocolate in 3 tablespoons of boiling water over a double boiler.

  2. Gradually add ½ pint of milk and let it scald.

  3. Beat 1 egg.

  4. Mix in ½ cup sugar and 2 tablespoons corn‑starch.

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

  6. Add a small pinch of salt and ½ teaspoon vanilla.

Make the icing and finish

  1. Melt 2 ounces of sweetened chocolate with 2 teaspoons of boiling water over low heat.

  2. Mix in 2 tablespoons of sugar and add more water if the mixture is rough.

  3. Cover the top and sides 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
Beaten egg thickens and enriches the cream as it cooks.
Corn-starch
Starch thickens the milk mixture into a smooth, stable cream.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the cream and adds richness.
Chocolate
Gives the cream and the topping their main flavour and colour.
Sugar
Sweetens the cream and the chocolate topping.

The step that matters

Thickening the cream on the double boiler. Starch thickens only when heated enough, but the egg can scramble if it gets too hot. Stirring constantly over gentle heat keeps the cream smooth and lets the starch set evenly.

“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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