London: House of Coco Magazine-The History of Eclairs and the Ultimate Recipe

We are such fans that a) we wanted to find out about the history of said dessert and b) we wanted to track down a recipe that is bound to get you cooking up a storm in the kitchen. We have teamed up with our friends at The Parisian Restaurant & Wine Bar to get their recipe. Mary Berry eat your heart out…

https://www.houseofcoco.net/the-history-of-eclairs-and-the-ultimate-recipe/

Here at House of Coco it is no secret that we have a sweet tooth, we could eat desserts for days. One of our faves has to be the Éclair for obvious reasons. With its sweet exterior and its creamy interior it’s enough to make us want to make out with it. 

We are such fans that a) we wanted to find out about the history of said dessert and b) we wanted to track down a recipe that is bound to get you cooking up a storm in the kitchen. We have teamed up with our friends at The Parisian Restaurant & Wine Bar to get their recipe. Mary Berry eat your heart out…

The History of Éclairs
A cook book by Massialot, “The Royal and Bourgeois Cook”was the inspiration for the recipes using pastry cream and pate a choux when they created by Chef Popelini in 1535.

He was the chef to the Queen of France, Catherine De Medicis in 1545. Originally, the pastry dough was used for profiteroles.

The first éclairs were sold in Lyon in 1850 and from that time a diversification of the pate a choux appeared in France in the form of glacés and gougéres.

Strawberry Éclair Recipe

Servings: 2 eclairs

Ingredients for the dough:
Pate a Choux
Water – ¼ Liter
Butter- 100 grams
Pinch of Salt
Flour- 200 grams
5 eggs

Directions:

1. Boil water, add salt and butter
2. Take pan off the fire and add flour stirring with wooden spoon or pastry stick
3. Cook 5 minutes non stop at medium heat
4. Put the the cooked paste or dough into a bowl and incorporate the eggs one by one
5. Fill icing bag with nozzle and squirt 6 inch by 2 inch strips onto a baking sheet
6. Cook at 380 degrees Fahrenheit for 20-25 minutes

Remove from oven and let cool

Mousseline Cream filling
Ingredients
Milk- ¾ Liter
Egg Yolks- 8 egg yolks
Sugar- 200 grams
Cornstarch- 100 grams
Butter – 150 grams
1 Vanilla Bean

Directions:

1- Heat the milk on low heat with the vanilla bean until it starts to boil- 1-2 minutes. After removing from the heat, take the vanilla bean out of the milk.
2- Mix egg yolks with sugar and corn starch
3- Take the milk off the heat slowly pour it into the eggs
4- Stirring, cook the egg yolks and milk, sugar and corn starch for 2-3 minutes
5-When it comes to a boil transfer to a bowl and add the butter in small pieces and whip it until smooth.
6- Store in the refrigerator for 1 hour before using. Cream must be cold before using for filling of the eclair.

Strawberry Coulis
Strawberries – 800 grams
Sugar- 250 grams
Water- 0.100 Liter

Directions:

1. Wash and cut the strawberries
2. Cook 30 minutes in a pan with sugar and water
3. mix in a bowl and strain the liquid off for the coulis

Garnish
24 strawberries

Presentation
1 – Cut in half the pate a choux or eclair and stuff with the pastry cream.

2 – Add thinly sliced strawberries on top of the cream, drizzle the coulis over the top of the strawberries and add a design to the plate with the coulis.

PLEASE NOTE: per kitchen and Euro the measurements are in Liters and Grams.