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Dessert

Chocolate Eclairs

Chocolate eclairs are filled with whipped cream and topped with melted chocolate.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 5 ingredients
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Why it works: Milk and butter 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 ↓

Chocolate Eclairs

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

The book says “a moderate oven”. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.

Shape and bake

  1. Shape Queen Fritter batter into pieces 2 inches long and 1 inch wide using a pastry bag.

  2. Place the shaped batter 2 inches apart in buttered tins.

  3. Bake for 25 minutes in a moderate oven at 350°F (175°C).

Cool and fill

  1. Cool the eclairs.

  2. Cut open the eclairs and fill with whipped cream.

Glaze

  1. Melt the chocolate with milk and butter until dissolved.

  2. Dip the top of each eclair in the hot chocolate mixture.

  3. Let the dipped eclairs cool.

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 + buttertop 7% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together81,283 recipes

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

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

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

  3. Chocolate + creamtop 11% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together5,466 recipes

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

  4. Chocolate + milktop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together9,128 recipes

    Shared aroma: gamma-nonanolactone (coconut, sweet).

  5. Chocolate + buttertop 16% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,543 recipes

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

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

What each ingredient does

Queen fritter batter
Forms the hollow pastry shell that puffs in the oven and holds the filling.
Sweet chocolate
Provides the sweet, rich flavour and the glossy topping.
Whipped cream
Adds moisture and a light, creamy filling inside the pastry.
Milk
Thins the melted chocolate so it spreads into a smooth coating.
Butter
Adds fat that keeps the chocolate coating smooth and glossy.

The step that matters

Dip the eclairs while the chocolate is hot. Melted chocolate thickens as it cools and sets quickly, so dipping while it is still fluid gives an even, smooth coat. Once it firms up, the coating turns streaky or lumpy.

“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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