Chocolate Eclair Day

What the day is

Chocolate Eclair Day is observed on June 22. An eclair is choux pastry, filled and glazed, and choux behaves unlike any other pastry in the kitchen.

Origin and background

Choux is the only common pastry that is cooked twice, once before it goes anywhere near the oven. Flour is beaten into boiling water and butter on the stove and cooked into a thick paste, which gelatinizes the starch and lets it absorb far more liquid than raw flour could. Eggs are then beaten into that paste once it has cooled enough not to scramble them, and the result is closer to a heavy batter than a dough.

There is no baking powder, no yeast and no folded butter. The rise is steam and nothing else. The paste holds a great deal of water, and in a hot oven that water turns to vapor and expands violently, inflating the soft batter from the inside and blowing out the hollow that will later be filled. While that is happening the egg proteins set and the gelatinized starch firms, so the shell hardens around the cavity the steam made.

The two halves of that process have to finish in the right order, which is the whole difficulty. Open the oven early and the temperature drops, the steam condenses, and the shell collapses before it has set. Take them out while the walls are still pale and damp and they will sag on the rack as they cool. The remedy is to bake until genuinely dry and firm, and to pierce each one so the trapped steam can escape.

The name means lightning in French, and the usual explanation is that they are eaten quickly, which is at least plausible.

Filled too far ahead, an eclair goes soft, because moisture from the cream moves into the shell.

How to take part

• Cook the paste properly on the stove before adding any egg.
• Add the last egg gradually. The consistency matters more than the count.
• Do not open the oven, whatever you think is happening in there.
• Pierce them as they come out so the steam can get away.
• Fill them as late as possible before serving.