Eclairs - Choux Pastries

Homemade eclairs with two fillings: currant custard and buttercream with boiled toffee, topped with classic sugar fondant. The fondant and creams are easy to make ahead - they keep beautifully in the fridge. I recommend making these - enjoy!

Eclairs - Choux Pastries

Choux pastry eclairs with two creams - currant custard and buttercream with toffee - topped with sugar fondant.

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Prep Time 1 hour hr

Cook Time 30 minutes mins

Chilling the custard 1 hour hr 30 minutes mins

Total Time 3 hours hrs

Servings: 20 pastries

Ingredients Method Notes

Ingredients

  

Choux Pastry

• 100 ml milk
• 100 ml water
• 100 g butter
• 140 g flour
• 4-5 eggs
• salt pinch
• sugar pinch

Currant Custard

• 3 egg yolks
• 100 ml heavy cream 33%
• 10 g cornstarch
• 30 g sugar
• 100 g currants
• 3 g gelatin
• 18 ml water

Buttercream with Toffee

• 100 g heavy cream 33%
• 200 g boiled condensed milk toffee

Fondant

• 250 g sugar
• 80 ml water
• 0.5 tsp lemon juice
• cocoa powder
• food coloring

Decor

• hazelnuts
• puffed rice

Method

 

1. Make a sugar syrup: combine the sugar and water in a heavy-bottomed saucepan, stir over medium heat until the sugar dissolves, lower the heat, and cook to the soft-ball stage - about 112-115°C.
2. Remove the syrup from heat, place it over a cold water bath, and cool to 40°C. Work it with a wooden spatula into a white sugar fondant.
3. Make the choux pastry, pipe eclairs from a pastry bag onto a baking tray, and bake at 170-180°C until golden, 20-30 minutes. Let the shells cool completely.
4. For the custard, soak the gelatin in water. Whisk the yolks, sugar, and cornstarch together. Heat the cream, pour it into the yolk mixture, whisk quickly, and return everything to the saucepan.
5. Over medium heat, bring the custard to a gentle boil until thickened, remove from heat, add the gelatin, stir, and pour the hot custard over the currants. Blend until smooth with an immersion blender, cover with plastic wrap pressed directly onto the surface, and chill in the fridge for 1-1.5 hours.
6. For the buttercream, whip the cream until fluffy and gradually add the boiled condensed milk toffee, whipping for another couple of minutes.
7. Fill the pastries with both creams and glaze with the fondant - you can tint part of the fondant with cocoa powder and part with food coloring. Decorate with nuts and puffed rice.
   
8. Let the glaze set before serving: the cross-section shows just how firmly the cream holds its shape.
   

Notes

The fondant is easy to make ahead: it keeps beautifully in the fridge, and before using, just warm it in the microwave or thin it with boiling water.

Tips

• The currant custard is made following Andy Chef's recipe.
• Adjust the number of eggs in the choux dough by consistency: the batter should drip from the spatula in a triangle shape.