Why it works: Butter and cream are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 8% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 41,516 recipes. Both carry delta-dodecalactone, which smells sweet, creamy. The science ↓
Coffee & Clairs
Ingredients
Directions
The book says “a quick oven”. The 400°F (200°C) in the steps is the modern equivalent, not the book's own figure.
Make the choux dough
Melt the butter with 6 tablespoons of boiling water in a saucepan over medium heat.
Add the flour to the saucepan.
Stir the mixture with a wooden spoon for 3 minutes until it leaves the sides of the pan and is very stiff.
Remove the saucepan from heat.
Add the eggs one at a time, stirring thoroughly after each addition.
Bake and fill
Preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C).
Slightly grease an eclair pan.
Spoon the batter into the pan.
Bake for about 15 minutes, watching carefully to prevent scorching.
Make an incision in the side of each eclair.
Fill the eclairs with sweetened whipped cream flavored with coffee.
Make and apply the icing
Combine the sugar and ⅓ cup of strong coffee in a saucepan.
Boil the mixture until it forms a thread when dropped from a spoon.
Remove the saucepan from heat.
Stir the icing until it thickens slightly.
Coat each eclair with the icing.
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.
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Butter + creamtop 8% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together41,516 recipes
Shared aroma: delta-dodecalactone (sweet, creamy).
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Sugar + creamtop 9% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together43,450 recipes
Shared aroma: 2,3-butanedione (butter, sweet).
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Butter + flourtop 12% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked together124,287 recipes
Shared aroma: isobutyraldehyde (malty, green).
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Flour + sugartop 15% of all pairsSmell alikemoderateCooked together92,116 recipes
Shared aroma: phenylacetaldehyde (hawthorne, honey).
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Flour + eggtop 15% of all pairsSmell alikelowCooked 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
- Flour
- Starch that gelatinises with the butter and water and sets the choux batter into a stiff dough.
- Eggs
- Add structure and moisture, and expand with steam to give the eclairs a hollow interior.
- Butter
- Adds fat for tenderness and richness in the choux dough.
- Sugar
- Sweetens the icing and helps it set into a glossy coating as it cools.
The step that matters
Stirring the eggs into the dough. Eggs must be added gradually and mixed thoroughly so the dough stays smooth and emulsified. If added too quickly, the batter breaks and will not 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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