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Chocolate Eclaires

Chocolate eclairs are pastry shells filled with whipped cream and topped with chocolate icing.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 8 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 ↓

Chocolate Eclaires

Oven, in the book's wordsA moderate oven

Ingredients

Directions

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

Make the choux pastry

  1. Combine butter and water in a saucepan.

  2. Bring to a boil.

  3. Add flour and stir until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the saucepan.

  4. Add eggs one at a time, stirring until thoroughly mixed.

  5. Place spoonfuls of the mixture on baking sheets.

  6. Bake in a moderate oven (350°F / 175°C) until set.

Fill and ice

  1. Allow the eclairs to cool, then make a small incision in each.

  2. Fill each eclair with whipped cream.

  3. Melt chocolate with milk and butter in a saucepan over low heat.

  4. Sift in icing sugar and stir until smooth.

  5. Pour the icing over the eclairs and let them sit in a cool place to harden.

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. Chocolate + sugartop 13% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together15,404 recipes

    Shared aroma: guaiacol (smoky, sweet).

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

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

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

Flour
Forms the starch structure that holds the choux dough together as it bakes.
Eggs
Add structure and moisture, and help the dough puff and set as it bakes.
Butter
Adds fat and richness to the dough and gives the icing a smooth, glossy texture.
Chocolate
Provides the main flavour of the icing.
Icing sugar
Sweetens the icing and helps it set smooth and firm.

The step that matters

Stirring in the eggs one at a time. Each egg must be fully incorporated before the next is added, or the dough becomes too loose or lumpy to hold its shape and 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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