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Cream Puffs and Eclairs

A pastry made from a butter and water dough, baked into puffs or eclairs, filled with a sweet cream.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 12 ingredients
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Why it works: Butter and milk are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 7% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 81,283 recipes. Both carry (z)-4-heptenal, which smells biscuit, cream. The science ↓

Cream Puffs and Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA hot oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a hot oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Make the dough

  1. Combine the butter and boiling water in a saucepan and stir until the butter melts.

  2. Add the flour and salt all at once, stirring quickly until the mixture is firm, about 1–2 minutes, then remove from heat.

  3. Let the mixture cool slightly, then beat in the eggs one at a time until light and smooth.

Shape and bake

  1. Drop tablespoonfuls of the mixture onto buttered baking sheets, spaced apart.

  2. Bake in a preheated oven at 400 °F (200 °C) for 30 minutes.

  3. Once cool, split the puffs and fill with whipped cream or pastry cream.

  4. For eclairs, shape the mixture into strips 4 inches long and 1 inch wide on the baking sheets.

  5. Bake as directed, then fill with cream and cover with chocolate or frosting.

Make the filling

  1. For the filling, mix the salt, sugar, and flour together, then wet with a little cold milk.

  2. Stir this mixture into the hot scalded milk and cook for 10 minutes.

  3. Add the beaten eggs and cook for an additional 5 minutes, then remove from heat and flavor to taste.

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

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

  2. Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together124,287 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  3. Flour + milktop 14% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together78,219 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

  4. Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together92,116 recipes

    Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).

  5. Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together106,462 recipes

    Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).

Butter and flour barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 124,287 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
Its starch gelatinizes with heat and sets the paste into a firm structure that holds its shape.
Eggs
Their proteins set during baking and their moisture turns to steam, helping the puffs rise hollow.
Butter
Adds fat for tenderness and richness, and melts into the boiling water to start the paste.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard filling, adding moisture and a creamy texture.
Sugar
Adds sweetness to the filling and helps the custard taste balanced.

The step that matters

Beating in the eggs. Add the eggs gradually and only after the paste has cooled slightly, so they blend smoothly without scrambling. Stop when the paste is glossy and holds its shape, since too much egg makes it runny and it will not puff well.

“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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