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Chocolate Mousse Eclairs

These chocolate mousse eclairs are easier to prepare than you may think. It will also help perfect 2 of your essential dessert skills, making choux pastry & chocolate mousse.

Chocolate Mousse Eclairs photo of one eclair cut open to reveal filling

Chocolate Mousse Eclairs

2020 Update. I decided to update the photos and instruction for this recipe from way back in 2007 when Rock Recipes started. The reason was because my son is home from university now and like everyone else has started a few baking projects.

Chocolate Chip Cookies are his usual usual favourite thing to bake. In fact the photo from that recipe online and in my Cookies Cookbook was from a batch of those cookies made by him when he was about 12! 

This week he tried this recipe for the first time. As you can see these look great for a first timer. 

So if you’re a first timer for eclairs too, don’t be afraid to give it  a whirl. You may just surprise yourself.

Original 2007 post:

I might be asking for trouble with this one because I get more hate mail (tongue in cheek, I hope) from posting something chocolate than anything else. I’ll risk it because these Chocolate Mousse Éclairs are near the top of my list for chocolate indulgence.

A definite must-try recipe for chocolate lovers.

I’ve been making choux pastry since I was a kid and have always enjoyed making it. Choux pastry bakes to a hollow shell from a very simple soft, dough.

Chocolate Mousse Eclairs photo of a single uncut eclair on a white plate

Chocolate Mousse Eclairs

It’s mostly used for cream puffs, eclairs and I particularly love using it to make little puff hors d’oeuvres . I make them with different fillings like smoked salmon and cream cheese to a herb and cheese mousse. 

Garlic Thyme heese Puffs is one of my particular favourites.

Anything tastes fantastic in these little pastry flavour carriers. Don’t be intimidated by the choux pastry, it is really easy to make.

The baking time and keeping them in the oven for as long as possible is the real trick to making choux pastry shells. Particularly ones that don’t collapse when they come out of the oven.

Bring water, salt and butter to a boil

Bring water, salt and butter to a boil.

Add in the flour

Add in the flour

Let dough cool down when cooked.

Let dough cool down when cooked.

Add eggs one at a time

Add eggs one at a time

Stir each egg in fully before adding another

Stir each egg in fully before adding another.

The finished choux pastry dough

The finished choux pastry dough.

Pipe dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet

Pipe dough onto a parchment lined baking sheet.

Let the choux pastries cool down

Let the choux pastries cool down.

The Chocolate Mousse.

The chocolate mousse filling is another thing that tends to intimidate people. Chocolate Mousse isn’t nearly as difficult to make as some people think.

Just relax and don’t rush the process and it will turn out perfectly fine.

In the end these are two valuable skills to learn in one recipe and two that impress the kitchen challenged the most. You’ll be a kitchen star with your friends when you present these beautiful eclairs.

Melt the chocolate and butter

Melt the chocolate and butter.

Whisk together the egg yolks sugar and water

Whisk together the egg yolks sugar and water

Whip the yolks, sugar and water until slightly foamy

Whip the yolks, sugar and water until slightly foamy.

Fold the chocolate into the egg yolk mixture

Fold the chocolate into the egg yolk mixture.

Finished chocolate base for the mousse

Finished chocolate base for the mousse before folding in the cream.

Whip cream to soft peaks

Whip cream to soft peaks

Fold cream into the chocolate and egg yolk mixture

Fold cream into the chocolate and egg yolk mixture.

The finished mousse

The finished mousse.

Love chocolate desserts? Be sure to browse this incredible collection of Favourite Chocolate Recipes from the past 10 years on Rock Recipes.

Best Chocolate Dessert Recipes image collage with title text for Pinterest

Originally published on November 11, 2007. Updated April 2020.

Chocolate Mousse Eclairs phto of eclai=rs and a cup of coffee with title text added for Pinterest

Chocolate Mousse Eclairs. Copyright Barry C. Parsons. https://rockrecipes.com/chocolate-mousse-eclairs/

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Chocolate Mousse Eclairs photo with title text added for Pinterest

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Chocolate Mousse Eclairs photo of one eclair cut open to reveal filling
Yield: 15 eclairs

Chocolate Mousse Eclairs

Prep Time: 1 hour
Cook Time: 45 minutes
Total Time: 1 hour 45 minutes

These chocolate mousse eclairs are not nearly as intimidating to prepare as some may think and give the opportunity to hone two essential dessert skills; making choux pastry and chocolate mousse.

Ingredients

For the choux pastry shells

  • 1 cup water
  • ½ cup butter
  • ¼ tsp salt
  • 1 cup flour
  • 4 eggs

For the chocolate mousse filling

  • 1 1/2 cups dark chocolate chips, I use 50% cocoa chips
  • 3 tbsp water
  • 3 tablespoons butter, No substitutions
  • 4 egg yolks (extra large or large, if using smaller eggs addd an extra yolk.)
  • 4 1/2 tablespoons sugar
  • 1 1/2 cup whipping cream

For the chocolate ganache glaze

  • 4 tbsp whipping cream
  • 3/4 cup semi sweet or dark chocolate chips

Instructions

To prepare the choux pastry

  1. Bring the water butter and salt to a slow boil over medium heat.
  2. Add the flour and stir it into the liquid while still over the heat. This will form a dough pretty quickly but continue to cook it for about 3 minutes over medium low flame stirring constantly. If you don’t cook it enough at this stage, then your shells will not puff up enough.
  3. Remove from heat and let the dough cool almost down to room temperature; lukewarm is fine. Stir it every few minutes to help it cool off faster.
  4. Add the eggs one at a time, stirring well until it is completely incorporated and smooth after each egg is added.
  5. Chill the dough in the fridge for a half hour or so. Cold dough works best.
  6. Preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
  7. When chilled, use a piping bag to pipe éclairs about 6 inches long and about 1 inches in diameter on a lightly greased or parchment lined baking sheet. Parchment paper is best because you can actually use a pencil to draw on the 6 inch lines and space them out evenly on the back of a piece the same size as your baking sheet. Just turn the paper over so that you can see the lines through the paper on the opposite side as you pipe out the pastry dough. You should get about 15 éclairs from this recipe. A heavy plastic Ziploc bag with the corner snipped off will also serve as a piping bag if you don't have one.
  8. Bake in a preheated 375 degree F oven for about 35-45 minutes or longer depending upon your oven. You want to bake these until medium dark brown all over and well dried out in the center. Your éclair shells should not collapse when removed from the oven. Cool completely before filling with chocolate mousse.

To prepare the chocolate mousse filling

  1. Whip your cream to soft peaks and chill in refrigerator.
  2. Melt chocolate with butter on low heat, stirring until smooth.
  3. Cool for 15 minutes.
  4. In double boiler, whisk yolks, sugar and water until pale and fluffy.
  5. Cook and stir over boiling water until mixture reaches 170 degrees F.
  6. Remove from heat and whisk in the chocolate mixture.
  7. Place saucepan in a bowl of ice water and stir constantly until chocolate cools to about room temperature.
  8. Fold in the whipped cream. Chill until quite cold before piping into the cooled choux pastry shells.
  9. Use a spoon handle to poke holes in both ends of the éclair shells and move the handle around gently inside the shell to break up any walls that may have occurred while baking. This will make the shells much easier to fill.
  10. Using a piping bag with a large round or star tip, fill the éclairs with the chocolate mousse, filling half of the éclair from each end.If you like, you can also cut the shells in half horizontally and spoon or pipe in the filling on the bottom half before replacing the tops. Glaze with chocolate ganache.

To prepare the Ganache Glaze

  1. Melt the chocolate chips and whipping cream together in a double boiler.
  2. You can pipe the ganache topping onto the éclairs or just spread it on with a small spatula. Chill until serving.

Notes

Because of the need to chill the different elements during the process, the eclairs will probably take a few hours in total to complete.

Nutrition Information

Yield

15

Serving Size

10 -12 eclairs

Amount Per Serving Calories 412Total Fat 30gSaturated Fat 18gTrans Fat 1gUnsaturated Fat 10gCholesterol 155mgSodium 152mgCarbohydrates 29gFiber 2gSugar 18gProtein 6g

The nutritional information provided is automatically calculated by third party software and is meant as a guideline only. Exact accuracy is not guaranteed. For recipes where all ingredients may not be used entirely, such as those with coatings on meats, or with sauces or dressings for example, calorie & nutritional values per serving will likely be somewhat lower than indicated.

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A Cohen

Wednesday 25th of May 2016

This looks amazing and I can't wait to try it. Is this something that can be made a day or two in advance?

Kate

Tuesday 16th of February 2016

This is a great recipe! My boyfriend and I made those for Valentine's day since we both love baking. We made a couple of changes: used a half a cup of milk and a half a cup of water for the pastry dough instead of using just water, and after baking the shells in the oven for 35 minutes, we turned off the oven and left the shells in the oven for an additional 10-15 minutes to ensure there is no extreme change in temperature. I also heard somewhere that under no circumstances one should open the oven door while the shells are baking. You can turn on the oven light and monitor them that way. I was tempted to add some mascarpone in the chocolate mousse, but my boyfriend is one of those people who follow recipes exactly, so he did not let me do that. Nonetheless, the mousse turned out to be perfect! (we used 60% cocoa gourmet chocolate chips) We went with the mini versions of the eclairs and shared some with our friends. They all loved them! Thank you for this wonderful recipe!

Barry C. Parsons

Tuesday 16th of February 2016

So glad they were such a success. It's terrific that you both love baking together.

Tammy B

Sunday 28th of September 2014

This may sound foolish but the whipping cream has to be real whipping cream not the NO Name Whipped topping, right? I tried the chocolate topping on another recipe with the no name topping and the chocolate seized up on me. I'm guessing there's a high water content or something,

Nicole

Sunday 9th of September 2018

Hi Tammy - my chocolate seized too. 3 times. Ha!! The fourth time I just left it out and added it to the chocolate and egg mixture later. It worked! The butter has water in it which causes the chocolate to seize so just adding it later seems to do the trick.

Barry C. Parsons

Monday 29th of September 2014

Oh dear. None of my recipes use anything but real whipping cream. Hope you have good success this time.

Carole

Sunday 30th of June 2013

Magnifique, Barry. Merci beaucoup.

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