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Dessert

Chocolate Eclair

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

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 9 ingredients
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Why it works: Vanilla and milk 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 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 dough

  1. In a saucepan, bring water and butter to a boil.

  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.

Bake and fill

  1. Bake at 400°F (200°C) for 25 minutes until golden.

  2. Cool and slice open to fill with whipped cream.

  3. Melt chocolate with milk and drizzle over 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 + milktop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

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

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

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Butter + milktop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

    Shared aroma: (z)-4-heptenal (biscuit, cream).

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

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

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

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

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
Provides the starch that gelatinizes with the water and butter to form the dough's structure.
Eggs
Add moisture and set during baking, giving the choux its hollow, airy structure.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dough, tenderizing the shell.
Heavy cream
Provides a rich, soft filling that contrasts with the crisp shell.
Chocolate
Adds bittersweet flavor and a glossy coating when melted.

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 stays smooth and cohesive; added too quickly, it can break and fail to 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.

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