The Webster-Merriam definitions: a usually chocolate-frosted oblong pastry filled with whipped cream or custard
An Eclair is a long pastry(spelled as éclair in French, left to the english langauge for the rest). Made with special dough, filled with cream and topped with icing. The dough is usually baked into its shape, so it is hollow. When the eclair cools, the cream or custard is placed inside, and it is iced with many flavors. There are many different fillings for the eclair, which by just changing the ingredient icing, it creates another desert such as caramel in an bâton de Jacob.
You can find eclairs across Canada and the U.S. There is another similar dessert in America called a "Long John" in which the dough is created with doughnut dough, rather than the choux dough customarily used. Some foodies saying that the éclairs were created by the famous French chef Antonin Carême (1784–1833).
In French, the word "Éclair" literally means a flash of lighting. Maybe it was referring to the way they disappeared when put out as finger food. I was able to find an eclair recipe in an American cookbook published in 1884 here, Eclairs. You can use any kind of flavorings like lemon, hazelnut, or coffee.
Writing about Eclairs
OK! Morning Eclairs of Tomorrow, readers! This is the first website column I have ever written about eclairs, those beautiful little puffed éclair-type pastries that can be made 100’s of different ways. It makes a difference if you want a German eclair or a French éclair. There is just no set way to produce these choux dough eclairs. Today, I will give you the “lighting” éclair paragraphs
Eclairs are masterfully made with choux paste usually, but there are many different ways to make eclairs. Choux in French translates to cabbage, which is because of its shape. And if the eclair choux dough is not measured precisely, which always seems to be the issue for eclair beginner bakers. If you don’t want problems with your eclairs, take heed and measure the choux dough ahead of time.
Pre-Thinking about Eclairs
Preheat your oven to 350 degrees. You will be watching this process to make sure it doesn’t burn. It takes only 8-10 minutes, but 1 second more than necessary, and the choux dough eclairs will be ruined. If burning keeps happening to your trial eclairs. You may have to tweak and mix more butter with the egg white.
What are the eclair characteristics I am looking for?
When cooking the eclairs, make sure you brown them too hard on the outside for whichever famous éclair topping you have chosen from the web. You can brush the surface of any plain eclair or wait and pipe them full of éclair puffed cream, which is another whole world of éclair heaven.
Platting Eclairs
Thinks about what kind of crowd will you be serving your eclairs to? Is this an eclairs convention where master eclair chefs from all over the world are coming to test your eclairs? Probably not. But it would help if you always went to the éclair convention with some new eclair experimenting to wow the crowd. In the picture above are our super-duper german eclairs because I am nuts.
And remember, after a hard day of weighing out all those éclair-specific ingredients beforehand, you have been able to get those eclairs to the convention table. And it would help if you made sure to test your eclairs and then worry about the plating and éclair flavors you want to add in.