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| CHOCOLATE
ÉCLAIR |
COOKING
INFORMATION |
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Chocolate
Éclair (French)
An
éclair is a delicate, individual pastry made with choux
paste (choux paste, pâte à choux, cream puff pastry
dough). The dough is piped from a pastry bag in an oblong
or log shape on baking pans, and baked until it is crisp
and hollow inside. It is either filled from a hole made
in one end, or split lengthwise and filled. The filling
is traditionally a vanilla pastry cream (crème pâtissière)
or whipped cream, and usually topped with a chocolate
fondant or confectioners’ glaze. Other fillings include
coffee and rum flavored custard, fruit flavored fillings
or chestnut purée, and the topping is usually flavored
the same as the filling.
As
an English language word, its’ first appearance was
in the 1706 edition of Edward Phillips' New World of
English Words:
'Petits
Choux, a sort of Paste for garnishing, made of fat
Cheese, Flour, Eggs, Salt, etc., bak'd in a Pye_pan,
and Ic'd over with fine Sugar.'
It
did not really come into general use until the late
Nineteenth or early Twentieth century.
I
believe the most accurate definition is to be found
in Chambers English Dictionary (1988). It defines an
éclair as:
'a cake, long in shape but short in duration'
 This
article is from Chef James Ehler of Key West, Florida.
James
is a webmaster, cook, chef, writer and (like me) a self-confessed
computer nerd. He is the former executive chef of Martha's
Steak & Seafood Restaurant and the former Reach Hotel
(both in Key West), the Hilton Hotel in Fayetteville,
Arkansas, and the New Bern Golf and Country Club, North
Carolina.
He
is now webmaster and cook at the Blue Heaven Restaurant
in Key West while he works on his Food Encyclopedia
(five years so far). It is well worth paying a visit
to James' food reference website which is a useful resource
well worth Bookmarking - to visit either website just
click on their title:
The
Food Reference Website
The
Blue Heaven Restaurant, Key West, Florida
©
James T. Ehler, 2001
All rights reserved
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