Eclairs

An éclair is an oblong pastry which is made and finished with chocolate icing with a cream-filled choux dough. The dough, which is the same as the one used for propiterol, is usually piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside.

“Lightning.” That is the meaning of éclair in French. How it got its name, no one knows, however people determined that it was named as such because the pastry was meant to be consumed in a flash. During the nineteenth Century in France, éclair was known as “pain à la Duchesse” or “pettite duchesse” which is an oblong, soft bread. The Éclair is we know today is heavily influenced by Marie-Antoine Carême, one of the first celebrity chefs during the eighteenth century. He was the chef who baked Napoloen’s wedding cake, created gastronomic masterpieces for the Prince de Tallyrand at Chateau of Valency and was invited to cook for the Romanovs in St. Petersburg. He was a true master of the French cuisine and an early practitioner of the intricate “Grande Cuisine” – the “High Art” of French cooking.  His creative and innovative touches to the simple and plain bread, “pain à la Duchesse” or “pettite duchesse” gave birth to the Éclair we came to love today. Éclairs in this day and age has become a very famous delicacy. Famous enough that a national day devoted to the most famous Éclair, the ‘Chocolate Éclair’ is being celebrated every 22^nd of June!