Wonderful homemade dessert pastry that is much easier than it sounds. Homemade Boston Cream Eclair made with simple pate au choux, filled with homemade vanilla bean custard and topped with rich chocolate ganache.
This probably won’t make much sense to you but Boston Cream is always synonymous with my husband and Father’s Day in my head.
There is actually an easy explanation for that. My husband’s favorite dessert is Boston Cream Pie. I made “butchered” it for his first or second birthday that we were together. Don’t worry, I’ve gotten pretty good at it since. Plus, it was the sponge cake that use to give me so much trouble when I had to make it by hand and without my stand up mixer. (I’m still handicapped at sponge cake without my stand up mixer.)
Little man and I also made him Boston Cream Cupcakes for Father’s day a few years back. It was actually the first Father’s Day we celebrated at home because the year before, we took him to a Yankees game. (I never did want to know which was better because I’m afraid that cupcakes will loose to Yankees every time.)
So this Father’s Day, I decided to make yet another Boston Cream treat. I really wanted to make Boston Cream Cheesecake but I haven’t quite worked out the recipe to the point where I want to share it. It’s not as easy as it sounds, not the way I have it pictures in my head. I’m stubborn and I will figure out the way to make it the way I want to, without cutting any corners.
So, I quickly changed my idea to making an eclair and they turned out fabulous!
Just like I planned…a little too good…okay, someone needs to come and take them away from me! I should send them to work with him because they are too delicious to keep in the fridge all day long.
Homemade Boston Cream Eclair
Ingredients
- For Custard:
- 1 cup of whole milk
- 2/3 cup of heavy whipping cream
- 1/2 cup granulated sugar
- Pinch of salt
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1/2 cup flour
- 4 tablespoons cold unsalted butter
- 1 vanilla bean
- Choux pastry:
- 1 cup of water
- ½ cup unsalted butter
- 1 Tbsp white granulated sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
- 1 1/4 cup flour
- 4 large eggs
- Ganache:
- 4 oz semi-sweet baking chocolate
- 1/2 cup heavy whipping cream
Instructions
- Custard: (You will need to prepare that the night before or few hours ahead.)
- In a medium mixing bowl, whisk together egg yolks, salt and sugar until completely combined and a bit frothy.
- Add flour, whisk very well and set aside while heating the milk.
- Heat milk, heavy cream, butter and vanilla bean until simmering. Take off heat when the mixture starts to simmer. Cut vanilla bean open and scrape out the seeds. Whisk vanilla seeds back into milk mixture.
- Slowly add heated milk mixture into the egg yolk mixture stirring constantly. Whisk well slowly.
- Return the mixture into the pot and bring to simmer stirring slowly and constantly. The mixture will thicken within a few minutes. Take off heat once it's thickened.
- Cool to room temperature and transfer into a bowl with lid to be refrigerated. Refrigerate for about 4 hours or overnight.
- Choux pastry:
- Preheat the oven to 400 and line a large baking sheet with parchment paper. Grease lightly.
- In a small sauce pot, over medium heat, add butter, sugar, vanilla extract and water. Bring to simmer and stir in flour with a wooden spoon until all combined and coming off the walls of the pot easily.
- Transfer into the bowl of an electric mixer and start adding eggs with speed set to medium-low, one at a time, making sure that each egg is mixed into the batter before adding the next.
- Transfer batter into a piping bag and pipe thick lines of pastry that are about 1 1/2 inches in width and 3 inches in length. Don't make them flat, they should be almost an inch high. (Choux pastry is very easy to manipulate in shape and design too, you can play around with that if you want.)
- Bake for 25-28 minutes, until nicely golden-brown. Cool a little before filling so they are easy to handle.
- Ganache:
- Chop baking chocolate and add it to a small mixing bowl.
- Bring heavy cream to simmer, be careful not to let it actually boil or it will raise.
- Pour the boiling cream over the chopped chocolate and stir with a whisk until melted and smooth.
- Eclairs:
- Fill a piping bag, fitted with a long, narrow tip, with prepared cold custard. Gently insert the tip into the slightly cooled pastry and squeeze desired amount of cream into it. (Try not to overfill or it will be difficult to eat.) You should have enough custard to fill all the pastry.
- Spread or drizzle some ganache over each filled pastry.
- (Keep refrigerated.)
Notes
Check out these great recipes from other bloggers:
Boston Cream Doughnuts from Shugary Sweets
Boston Cream Poke Cake from The Country Cook
Boston Cream Pancakes from Wanna Be A Country Cleaver
Boston Cream Pie Bites from House Of Yumm
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Meghan says
Oh Deart God! I must make these!!!
lyuba says
Thank you, Meghan! I hope you will 🙂
June @ How to Philosophize with Cake says
Those look amazing! Traditional eclairs are great, but this variation sounds amazing 🙂
lyuba says
Awe, thank you so much, June!
Marisa Franca @ All Our Way says
Your desserts look fabulous — who are the lucky ones who get to taste the goodies?? When my hubby and I were first married — we couldn’t afford to buy gifts for the relatives so I’d bake. I loved making chocolate eclairs and cream puffs for my father-in-law. He always said those were his favorite gifts :-). He was a real sweetheart. My gifts didn’t look quite as beautiful as yours — your photos are outstanding — like usual.
lyuba says
Hi Marisa!
Yeap, hubs took a few to work with him. They loved it 🙂
I would love it if someone made me some cream puffs as a gift. Sounds like great presents! I make my in-laws baked goods for birthdays too.
Thank you!
Falt Fee MLS says
Oh my, definitely no more store bought for us.
lyuba says
Haha, that’s right!! I hope you’ll like them 🙂
Thank you!
Joan Hayes says
Eclairs are one of my favorite desserts, and these are beautiful! I love that you used real vanilla bean in custard. Just wish I had one right now!
lyuba says
Thank you so much, Joan!
I wish that I could send you a batch 😉
Hala says
Outstanding… Nice photos…
lyuba says
Thank you so much!
carleen says
I had always thought the cram you call boston cream as light white fluffy and yellow custard as Bavarian cream. Do you have a recipe for that fluffy white stuff. It is my husbands favorite.
lyuba says
Hi there!
You might be thinking of custard and Boston cream, those two are pretty much the same. Bavarian cream is usually made with gelatin. That’s at least as I’ve known it 🙂
As far as the white fluffy one, I’m not sure which cream you are referring to but I do have a recipe for a white fluffy filling in a Nepoleon Cake you can try. You can see it in this post: https://www.willcookforsmiles.com/2014/02/napoleon-cake.html
Hope this helped!
Tim says
I love this recipe. I use it often; with a small alteration, I shrink them down and freeze them after. They are amazing. Thanks!
lyuba says
Oh, great idea! I’m definitely doing it next time. May be we won’t eat them so fast 🙂
Thank you so much, Tim!
Brenda Marcopoulos says
Hi Lyuba! Just found your site on Pinterest as I was looking for eclairs. Have you ever doubled the recipe?
Thanks, Brenda
Lyuba says
Welcome, Brenda! I never have, but that shouldn’t stop you from trying it!