Éclair (pastry)
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An éclair is a long, thin pastry made with choux pastry filled with a cream and topped with icing.
The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry then is filled with a coffee- or chocolate-flavoured[1] pastry cream (crème pâtissière), custard or whipped cream, and topped with fondant icing of the same flavour as the filling.[2] Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée.
In some parts of the United States, long johns are marketed under the name éclairs, though the two are not identical. A long john uses donut pastry and is typically filled with vanilla pudding, making it a simpler and inexpensive alternative to the éclair.
The Cadburys chocolate and confectionery company also sells a chocolate-filled candy by the name [1] in certain parts of the world.
[edit] Origin of the éclair
The éclair probably originated in France during the nineteenth century. The word is first attested both in English and in French in the 1860's.[3] Some food historians speculate that éclairs were first made by Antonin Carême(1784-1833), the famous French chef.[citation needed] The first known English-language recipe for éclairs appears in the Boston Cooking School Cook Book by Mrs. D.A. Lincoln, published in 1884.
"Éclair" is French for "lightning," though the connection is obscure.
[edit] Notes
- ^ Montagné, Prosper, Larousse gastronomique : the new American edition of the world's greatest culinary encyclopedia, Jenifer Harvey Lang, ed., New York: Crown Publishers, 1988, p. 401 ISBN 9780517570326
- ^ Ibid.
- ^ Oxford English Dictionary, 1861. Petit Larousse, 1863.
