These éclairs are filled with a coffee crème pâtissière and glazed with a thin layer of white chocolate fondant icing. My friend Becky suggested the white chocolate topping. She used to make éclairs like this when she worked in a hotel and they were very popular. After making some, I can totally understand why – they are delicious!
Choux pastry
First of all, you will need to make a batch of choux pastry. For my choux pastry recipe, click here.
When piping out the choux on to the baking paper, I used a scraper with a straight edge to measure out éclairs of equal length and it helped to keep the lines straight. If you don’t have a suitable straight-edged scraper, you could always draw lines using a ruler on one side of the paper, an equal distance apart, then turn the paper back over and pipe along the lines.
Bake the choux in a preheated oven at 180℃ for about 30 minutes. The choux should be risen and a deep golden colour.
Remove from the oven and place on a wire rack to cool. Pierce the bottom of each éclair in the middle with a small piping tip to allow steam to escape. Whilst the choux are cooling, make the coffee crème pâtissière.
Coffee Crème Pâtissière
- 300ml milk
- 4 egg yolks
- 60g caster sugar
- 40g cornflour
- 3 tbsp espresso coffee
Gently heat the milk in a large saucepan. Whisk the egg yolks with the sugar in a separate bowl, then add the cornflour and whisk. When the milk is steaming hot, pour a small amount into the egg mixture and whisk quickly. Then pour all the egg mixture into the milk, turn the heat up to max and whisk constantly over the heat. The mixture will start to thicken. Keep whisking until it is thick and glossy, then pour into a clean bowl. Add the espresso and whisk together. Cover with cling film (the cling film needs to be touching the surface of the crème pâtissière) and chill in the fridge.
Once the crème pâtissière is cool, transfer to a piping bag fitted with a small round tip. Make 2 more holes in the bottom of the éclairs with the smaller tip. Then pipe the crème pâtissière into each éclair using the three holes. You will be able to feel the éclairs become heavier as you fill them up.
For the white chocolate glaze, you will need…
- 125g white chocolate
- 200g fondant icing sugar
- 2-3 tbsp water
Melt the white chocolate in a heatproof bowl over a pan of simmering water. In a separate pan, gently heat the fondant icing sugar and the water. Whisk them together until there are no more lumps of the sugar. Pour in the melted white chocolate and whisk together until smooth.
Leave to cool slightly. If you dip the éclairs too quickly in this mix, the glaze will be too hot and just run down the sides of the éclairs. When the glaze has cooled down a bit but is still runny, dip an éclair into the glaze, holding the base carefully. Hold the éclair vertically as you bring it out of the glaze, so any glaze running off, falls off one side. Use your finger to smooth the sides of the glaze, then place back on the wire rack to set. If you fancy, pop some coffee beans on top to finish off, then eat immediately!
