Gluten Free Choux Pastry & Eclairs {Dairy Free Option}
These gluten free eclairs taste identical to the original and they are surprisingly easy to make! Try this recipe for your next get together or event, your guest will be begging you for the recipe!
If you’ve been gluten free for awhile , chances are you haven’t had a good eclair in years. When I first introduced this recipe to my local gluten free community at an event I was part of they sold out within an hour. I heard so many people comment how amazing they were and how impossible it is to find good gluten free pastries so I knew I had to publish this recipe for all of you to enjoy at home.
The process behind making eclairs can seem intimidating at first but I assure you as long as you follow the directions carefully they will turn out perfect every time. Let’s get into the kitchen and whip up some delicious eclairs! As always let us know in the comments what you think, we LOVE hearing from you!
Jump to Recipe
Pâte à Choux (choux pastry) Ingredients
- gluten free flour (I used Bob’s Red Mill 1:1)
- xanthan gum
- unsalted butter (vegan butter for dairy free version)
- water
- large eggs
- salt
Whip Cream Filling Ingredients
- heavy cream or heavy whipping cream (use a heavy whipping cream alternative or coconut cream for dairy free version)
- powdered sugar
- vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache Ingredients
- semi sweet chocolate bar or chocolate chips (use dairy free chocolate chips for dairy free version)
- heavy cream or heavy whipping cream (use a heavy whipping cream alternative or milk alternative for dairy free version)
What Is Choux Pastry?
Choux Pastry, or Pâte à Choux, is a delicate pastry dough used for many classic French and German pastries such as eclairs, profiteroles, windbutels, and Religieus. The dough uses very basic ingredients usually including just flour, water, butter, eggs, and salt. Choux pastry doesn’t use any leavening agents but instead relies on the high moisture content of the dough to create steam while baking to puff up the pastry and create a hollow center. This hollow center is then usually filled with a cream depending on what pastry you are making.
What Do I Fill My Eclairs With?
For this recipe I suggest using a pastry cream like this one or whipped cream to fill the center of the pastries. If you are making this recipe dairy free you can use coconut cream or a dairy free heavy cream to make a deliciously light whip cream that works perfectly in these eclairs. Our Allergy Friendly Pastry Cream is my personal favorite and includes a dairy free option as well but I will include how to make the whipped cream filling in the recipe.
What Kind Of Flour Should I Use
I’ve seen other posts out there that swear the only way to get good results for gluten free eclairs is to use their special flour blends. While the results might be good with those blends they aren’t always practical for everyone. We are all busy, I get it, which is why we’ve formulated this recipe using a commercially available flour blend you can find at most grocery stores. Bob’s Red Mill 1:1 is what we use because it’s widely available and works for most of our recipes, including this one!
If you can’t find this flour blend at your local grocery store you can always order it online or take your chances with a different flour blend. Keep in mind I made this recipe using Bob’s so I can’t guarantee it will work with other flour blends. That being said if you use a different blend make sure it is rice based and if it doesn’t contain xanthan gum be sure to add an extra 1/4 teaspoon to get similar results.
Use A Kitchen Scale
This recipe relies on exact measurements to achieve perfect results. You’ll notice I use gram and milliliter measurements for some of the ingredients, this is because using volume measurements like cups and teaspoons won’t always get you an exact measurement. For this recipe break out the kitchen scale to make sure you’re getting every measurement correct.
If you don’t have a kitchen scale you might want to pick on up. They are available at many grocery stores, places like Walmart, or get one from amazon like this one. They are inexpensive and can be extremely useful in the kitchen so pick one up today.
How To Successfully Make Eclairs
1. Make the Choux Pastry Dough
To make the choux pastry dough first whisk together the gluten free flour, xanthan gum, and salt in a medium mixing bowl and set aside. Next melt the butter in a small to medium size saucepan. When the butter has fully melted add the water and bring to a boil. As soon as your water and butter boil take them off the heat and immediately pour the dry ingredients into the sauce pan. Vigorously mix in the dry ingredients with a rubber spatula until a smooth elastic dough forms with no clumps.
Allow the dough to cool in the pan until just warm to the touch (about 5 minutes). It is really important to make sure your dough has cooled, you don’t want the eggs to scramble. If using a stand mixer transfer the dough to your mixing bowl and use a paddle to start mixing the dough on low speed. Crack the room temperature eggs into a small bowl and beat them with a fork until the yolks and whites are well combined. Slowly add a bit of egg at a time waiting to add more until it has fully mixed in. The mixture will look separated at first but will mix together forming a smooth dough. If not using a stand mixer follow the same procedure mixing in the eggs with your rubber spatula in the saucepan until a smooth dough forms.
2. Pipe The Eclairs
Fill a piping bag with your dough fitted with an open star tip or a 1/2″ open round tip (if you don’t have a piping tip simply cut a 1/2″ opening at the tip of the bag). Pipe onto a parchment lined baking tray with a gap between each eclair. Pipe them about 5 inches long and make them as even and consistent as possible.
3. Bake
Place onto the center oven rack of your preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at 425 F. Do not open the oven during this 20 minutes, holding a consistent temperature is very important to make sure they don’t deflate while baking. After the 20 minutes turn the oven down to 300 F and open the door for about 30 seconds to let some of the heat escape. Bake at 300 F for another 8 minutes. Remove them from the oven and using a toothpick poke 3 holes along the top of the eclairs to allow steam to escape. Leave them on the tray to cool completely before filling them.
4. Fill Your Eclairs
As mentioned before you can fill your eclairs with a pastry cream or whip cream. Fill a piping bag with your desired filling fitted with a long nozzle tip. using the same 3 holes that you poked in the top of the eclairs earlier insert the tip into these holes and fill each hole until the sides of the eclair start to swell slightly or the filling starts to come out of one of the other holes. Some people fill eclairs from the sides or even the bottom but I prefer to fill from the top because when you cover the top with chocolate ganache you won’t see any filling coming out the sides and it makes for a more neat a beautiful looking eclair.
5. Dip Into Ganache
In a heat poof glass bowl melt the chocolate and cream (dairy free milk and dairy free chocolate chips for dairy free version) in the microwave in 30 second increments until loose and no clumps of chocolate remain. carefully dip the top of the eclairs into the ganache, pull them out and allow and excess to drip off white they are still inverted, then place them right side up onto a tray to allow the ganache to set. If you are in a hurry place the dipped eclairs into the fridge freezer for a few minutes to help the ganache set faster.
Can I Freeze Gluten Free Choux Pastry?
Absolutely! Of course the results are always better if filled and eaten same day but I understand sometimes you have to make them ahead of time. In that case I would bake the shells then place them in a sealed bag or container and freeze them unfilled. When you are ready to fill them place them into the oven for a few minutes to re-crisp them and then fill and ganache them. I have frozen filled and dipped eclairs before but the results aren’t quite as good. They tend to get a bit soggy and loose that nice crisp on the outside. The shells will freeze up to 3 months so if you make these a lot you can make a big batch a simply take them out of the freezer as you need them.
Did You Make This Recipe For Gluten Free Eclairs?
Well there you have it! This has become one of our favorite recipes and we hope you love it too! If you made this recipe we’d love to hear how it went. Leave a comment or take a picture of your final product and tag us on social media (Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest)
Gluten Free Choux Pastry & Eclairs
Equipment
- 1 small to medium size saucepan
- 1 Rubber Spatula
- 2 Mixing Bowls
- 1 stand mixer with paddle attachment optional
- 1 baking sheet
- Parchment Paper
- 2 disposable piping bags
- open star or 1/2" open round piping tip or scissors to cut 1/2" hole in piping bag
- 1 fork
- 1 toothpick
- 1 glass heatproof bowl
Ingredients
Gluten Free Choux Pastry
- 65 grams gluten free flour (I use Bob's Red Mill 1:1)
- 1/2 tsp xanthan gum
- 50 grams unsalted butter (use vegan butter for dairy free option)
- 2 large eggs (should equal roughly 100 grams)
Whipped Cream Filling
- 300 ml heavy whipping cream or heavy cream (Use dairy free heavy cream alternative or coconut cream for dairy free version)
- 1 tbsp powdered sugar
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
Chocolate Ganache
- 5 ounces semi sweet chocolate chopped or use chocolate chips (use dairy free chocolate chips for dairy free version)
- 130 ml heavy cream (Use dairy free heavy cream alternative or coconut cream for dairy free version)
Instructions
Gluten Free Choux Pastry
- Weigh and mix gluten free flour, xanthan gum, and salt into a bowl and set aside. Preheat oven to 425°F and arrange rack to center position.
- Weigh unsalted butter and melt in a small to medium size saucepan. melt the butter over medium heat. Weigh water and add to the melted butter. Allow water and butter to come to a boil then immediately remove from the head and dump the dry ingredients into the saucepan. vigorously mix with a rubber spatula until a smooth elastic dough forms with no clumps. Set aside to cool about 5 minutes.
- In a small bowl crack 2 large eggs and whisk with a fork. When dough has cooled so it is warm to the touch transfer to a stand mixer fitted with a paddle or leave in the sauce pan if you don't have a stand mixer. slowly add the eggs to the dough mixing between each egg until fully incorporated. It will look separated at first but will come together. Keep pouring in the egg until you have used both eggs and a cohesive smooth dough forms.
- Fill a piping bag fitted with an open star tip or a 1/2" open round tip with your dough (if you don't have a piping tip simply cut a 1/2" opening at the tip of the bag). Pipe onto a parchment lined baking tray with a gap between each eclair. Pipe them about 5 inches long and make them as even and consistent as possible.
- Place onto the center oven rack of your preheated oven and bake for 20 minutes at 425°F. Do not open the oven during this 20 minutes, holding a consistent temperature is very important to make sure they don't deflate while baking. After the 20 minutes turn the oven down to 300 F and open the oven door for about 30 seconds to let some of the heat escape. Bake at 300 F for another 8 minutes. Remove them from the oven and using a toothpick poke 3 holes along the top of the eclairs to allow steam to escape. Leave them on the tray to cool completely before filling them.
Whipped Cream Filling
- In a large bowl combine the cream, powdered sugar and vanilla extract.
- Whisk together either by hand or using a stand mixer with a whisk attachment until the cream starts to thicken and hold its shape as soft peaks. Be careful not to over-whisk or your cream will start to curdle.
- Transfer the cream into a piping bag with a long nozzle tip.
- Use the holes in the top of the eclair that you made earlier to insert the piping nozzle. Fill each hole in the eclair with cream until the sides swell slightly. Set aside.
Chocolate Ganache
- Weigh your chopped chocolate chocolate chips and heavy cream or dairy free alternative into a medium sized heat-proof glass bowl.
- place bowl into the microwave and heat for increments of 30 seconds stirring between each until all chocolate has melted and a smooth consistency is achieved. Be sure to not microwave your ganache too long or the chocolate will burn and you'll have to start over.
- Dip the top of each eclair into the ganache and place on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper to set. Place in the fridge to stay cool while they set.