Eclair

Description

An éclair is a pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with a flavored icing, milk chocolate or dark chocolate. The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry is filled with custard (crème pâtissière), whipped cream or chilboust cream, then iced with fondant icing or chocolate.

The éclair originated during the nineteenth century in Lyon, France where it was called pain à la Duchesse (‘Duchess-style bread’) or petite duchesse (‘little duchess’) until 1850. The word is first attested both in English and in French in the 1860s.