Classical Éclair

Éclairs are most commonly served as a dessert

An éclair is a long, thin pastry made with choux pastry filled with a cream and topped with icing.

The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry then is filled with a coffee- or chocolate-flavoured^[1] pastry cream (crème pâtissière), custard or whipped cream, and topped with fondant icing of the same flavour as the filling.^[2] Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée.

In some parts of the United States, long johns are marketed under the name éclairs, though the two are not identical. A long john uses donut pastry and is typically filled with vanilla pudding, making it a simpler and inexpensive alternative to the éclair.

The Cadburys chocolate and confectionery company also sells a chocolate-filled candy by the name in certain parts of the world. The candy is markedly different to the pastry, being a hard dairy-toffee filled with chocolate.

[edit] Origin of the éclair

The éclair probably originated in France during the nineteenth century. The word is first attested both in English and in French in the 1860s.^[3][4] Some food historians speculate that éclairs were first made by Antonin Carême (1784-1833), the famous French chef.^{[citation needed]} The first known English-language recipe for éclairs appears in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, published in 1884.

Éclair is French for "lightning," though the connection is obscure.

[edit] Notes

[edit] External links

French Wikisource has original text related to this article: Pains à la duchesse (éclair) au café

• A brief éclair history
• Chocolate éclair recipe