Gluten Free Chocolate Eclairs Recipe

A couple of months ago I woke up at 3 in the morning and couldn’t go back to sleep. I was in the mood to bake, so I went into the kitchen and whipped up these beauties – gluten free chocolate eclairs. We had company that weekend, but John and I kept this gluten free dessert hidden in the refrigerator because they were just too good to share.

Eclairs are made from pate a choux. Making gluten free pate a choux is really no different than making it with wheat flour, if you use the right gluten free flour mix. Luckily, my Gluten Free All Purpose Flour worked just fine and didn’t need any xanthan gum.

If you’ve never made pate a choux or eclairs – go ahead and try this. It’s one of the easier Gluten Free Dessert Recipes, and it’s fun to make. And….there’s always the added benefit of getting to eat all of the wonderfully delicious gluten free eclairs when you’re done =)

Instructions

• 8 oz. water
• 1 stick butter (or dairy-free baking stick)
• 1/8 tsp. salt
• 1 Tbsp. sugar
• 1 c. (4 oz.) Mary’s Gluten Free All Purpose Flour mix
• 4 large eggs
• 1 c. whipping cream
• 1/4 c. sugar
• Cocoa powder to taste (Yes, I forgot to measure. It was 4 a.m for goodness sake!)

Combine the water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan and bring to a simmer over high heat. Turn the heat back to medium and stir in the flour; be sure to stir rapidly. The liquids and flour will turn into a dough rather quickly; keep stirring over medium heat for 1 to 2 minutes.

Remove the pan from the heat and run cold water over the base of the pan to cool the pan off (don’t get the dough wet). Add one egg at a time, stirring each one into the dough quickly. As you add each egg you’ll probably notice that the dough doesn’t want to accept the egg easily; keep stirring and the egg will work its way into the dough – then add the next egg.

Scoop the paste into a zip-top bag with one corner snipped off. Pipe out 4 – 5 inch logs onto a parchment lined baking sheet. Bake in a preheated 425 F oven for 10 minutes, then turn the heat back to 350 and bake for an additional 20 minutes.

Take the puffs out and let them cool. While they cool, you can whip up the filling. Pour the whipping cream into a chilled bowl. With a whisk or mixer, whip the cream until the cream begins to thicken and lose some of it’s shininess. Then gradually add in the sugar while you continue to beat the cream. Stop beating when you can pull the whisk or beaters straight up out of the cream and the cream forms a small mountain with a bent tip.

Pinch off the tip of the eclairs and pipe in the whipped cream using the same pastry bag technique as before. Depending on who evenly you piped out the dough, the hollows in your eclairs may not go all the way through. This problem can easily be solved by wiggling your finger into the hollow through one or both ends. Eat the eclairs right away, or chill in the refrigerator until it’s time to serve them.

* While this recipe is for chocolate eclairs, feel free to use this as a base recipe for other flavors of gluten free eclairs.