Skip to main content
Dessert

Chocolate Eclair

A pastry filled with whipped cream and glazed with melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Vanilla and chocolate are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 10,020 recipes. Both carry sotolon, which smells curry, maple. The science ↓

Chocolate Eclair

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point. The book gives no cooking times either; the times in the steps were added in transcription, so check for doneness rather than trusting the clock.

Make the choux pastry

  1. Bring water and butter to a boil in a saucepan.

  2. Add flour and stir until the mixture forms a ball.

  3. Remove from heat and let cool slightly.

  4. Beat in eggs one at a time until smooth.

  5. Drop spoonfuls onto a baking sheet.

  6. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 20-25 minutes.

  7. Let cool.

Fill and finish

  1. Slice open.

  2. Fill with whipped cream mixed with powdered sugar and vanilla.

  3. Melt chocolate.

  4. Drizzle melted chocolate over the filled eclairs.

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. Vanilla + chocolatetop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  2. Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together41,516 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

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

  4. Cream + sugartop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together43,450 recipes

    Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).

  5. Cream + chocolatetop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

    Shared aroma: delta-decalactone (sweet, creamy).

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

All-purpose flour
Starch that gelatinizes with the boiled water and butter to form the dough's structure.
Eggs
Add moisture and structure, and their proteins set during baking to hold the puffed shell.
Butter
Adds fat and richness, and melts into the boiling water to start the dough.
Heavy cream
Provides fat and a soft, creamy texture when whipped into the filling.
Chocolate
Adds bittersweet flavor and a glossy coating when melted over the eclairs.

The step that matters

Beat in eggs one at a time until smooth. Eggs must be fully incorporated one at a time so the dough becomes smooth and glossy. Adding them too fast can break the emulsion, and the batter may not hold its shape or puff properly in the oven.

“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.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesChocolate CookiesChocolate Cookies76 recipesChocolate FudgeChocolate Fudge55 recipes