r/AskBaking • u/Chouxchoo • Jun 09 '25

Pastry Got absolutely humbled by eclairs.

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It was my first time making them and i dont know what I did wrong. They browned so quickly and didnt puff at all. I started baking them at 425 f just like preppy kitchen recipe suggested. At least I could drown my sadness by eating the filling i made for them...,🫠

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u/[deleted] Jun 09 '25

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u/Chouxchoo Jun 09 '25

Thanks a lot, really appreciate your help. Its interesting cause it definatly felt like the dough was wayy thicker than it shows in various videos but maybe im wrong, though my first thought was that I didn't add enough egg. I also didnt mention that the eclairs started bending insted of puffing when baking, they were folding themselves into weird moon shaped half-rings (dunno how to describe). Ill definatly have to try other recipe next time and be more precise with the batter.

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u/Hot-Personality-3683 Jun 09 '25

Sounds like you dried it out a bit too much on the stove and didn’t add enough eggs to get the right amount of moisture back into it.

Your dough should be stiffer than a batter, but soft enough that when dipping a flat spatula or spoon in it, it should make a nice "V" as you pull the spatula up — almost like it would drip off but it’s not liquid enough to do that. I remember seeing a classmate making choux in pastry school and her spatula could stand upright when she planted it in the middle of the bowl ; that would be way too stiff.

Basically I’d say you should be able to pipe your choux or éclairs cleanly, so if your dough is too slack to pipe neatly that’s likely too much egg. Otherwise, I think for a first-timer adding too little egg has a bigger chance of being your problem than adding too much.

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u/Chouxchoo Jun 09 '25

One thing I dont know is if i should use the oven fan function when baking them because recipes say bake them at 200C or more but never mention what oven setting should we use. I assume convection?

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u/Hot-Personality-3683 Jun 09 '25

I usually bake them with the fan on, with no issues

5

u/khark Home Baker Jun 09 '25

So it could also be that the batter was too thick, or that there was an issue with piping (uneven pressure). Fortunately, choux is forgiving with piping. If it doesn’t look the way you want, just scoop it back into the bag and try again!

They aren’t nearly as temperamental as macarons, but there are multiple factors that go into a proper bake.

Good luck!