Vegan Eclairs Pâte à Choux Recipe - Gretchen's Vegan Bakery (2024)

Any one who knows anything about classic pastry knows that pâte à choux dough is a very egg rich dough, relying heavily on the eggs in the recipe to bake up into those hollow shells of pastry we all love!

I’ve tried several recipes for vegan eclairs and not one has lived up to my standard

My Standard:

Vegan recipes must be ~at the very least~ an 85% match to the original.
Meaning my non vegan friends who taste it must exclaim “there is no way this is vegan!”
So out of all the various recipes from fellow bloggers that I’ve tried over the years, not one was making the grade

In 2018 I made vegan eclairs with great success, until they failed.

BACKSTORY:

The original recipe that I developed back in early 2018 used a combination of aquafaba

And a proprietary blend called Vegan Egg from Follow Your Heart

This Vegan Egg by FYH was developed somewhere around 2014 and was widely sold here in the US by late 2015

It was one of the first vegan egg products ever on the market that mimicked so closely to a real egg.

So naturally I started using it in many of my recipes.

The Vegan Eclair was one.

After months of testing and finally nailing down a perfect rendition of pâte à choux paste

Follow Your Heart almost immediately changed the formula of The Vegan Egg by replacing the algal flour with soy milk powder!

Algal flour seemed to be causing gastrointestinal distress in many people so they discontinued it’s use.

But now my recipe no longer worked and I was gutted.

FAST FORWARD:

It has been almost 5 years since I decided to revisit the vegan eclair issue

Other bloggers and recipe developers had been claiming to have “the perfect vegan eclair”

So I thought, “oh well, who really needs another recipe then?”

But I’ve tried several of those recipes more recently which is why I am back here today

After trying several of what is touted to be “the perfect vegan eclair”

I was left frustrated and re-invigorated.

I promptly decided “someone has to be truthful about having the perfect vegan eclair, and that someone is going to be me.”

What Makes a Perfect Eclair?

Pâte à choux paste is a dough that is made first on the stove by boiling water and/or milk with butter a spot of sugar and a pinch of salt
Flour is mixed into that and a stiff dough is formed
This dough gets transferred to a mixing bowl where the eggs are added one by one while mixing and then this stiff dough is transformed into the beautiful paste that gets piped and then baked at a high temperature
This high temperature converts the liquids and eggs in the recipe to steam causing rapid rising as the steam escapes and evaporates
Leaving behind a hollow center and a delicate yet crispy pastry shell that is ready to be filled with whipped cream lightened pastry cream.
Cream, puffs get a sprinkle of powdered sugar and eclairs get dipped in chocolate

What Makes this one 85% Acceptable?

My recipe for Vegan Eclairs would be 100% acceptable if they did not deflate after baking.

Other than that, it’s a 100% WIN!

Maybe I’m being hard with the 85% tag, since no one but me would know they deflated anyway!
The taste, the crisp outer shell and the slight “eggy” matrix that remains in that otherwise hollow shell
Allowing for a hefty amount of pastry cream filling without making them soggy!

Notes for Success:

The updated recipe below includes 3 ingredients that are perhaps not already in your pantry but are the essential keys to success of this recipe

Chick Pea Flour is the binding ingredient that also helps with the lightness and ultimate rise of the shell

Methocel is a thickener and a stabilizer that is not an essential ingredient here if you do not want to buy it, as I have made this recipe without it with the result being slightly more “bread-like”

But bread-like eclairs is not an 85% pass in my book, so I definitely use it.

Xanthan Gum we rely on xanthan gum to provide elasticity and stickiness in our doughs and batters.
It aids as a binding agent for the flour, helps hold onto some moisture, and helps give the baked good some structure.
I have made this recipe without it with the result being slightly more “bread-like” again,which is not an 85% pass in my book, so I definitely use this as well.

But wait! All this talk about the pâte à choux dough

We must also talk about the pastry cream!

I am using the recipe I always use for everything custard!
However this time I did not fold in the vegan whipped cream as I usually do, which would then make it a Diplomat Cream
You can of course lighten it up with whipped cream if you wish but typically eclairs are straight pastry cream

Notes for Success:

I rarely use the convection setting in my oven, but when I am baking things that need an extra “oomph” I’ll use that setting.
Here I baked at 450°F convection setting for 15 minutes then turned down to 400°F convection setting 24 more minutes
If you are using CONVENTIONAL oven (no fan setting) keep it at 450°F for 24 minutes then turn down to 375°F for the last 12 minutes **this instruction may be different from what I said in the video!
For both methods though: Cool in oven after shutting it off for another 5 minutes

Cornstarch is a very difficult ingredient to measure consistently with a volume spoons measure
So while I list both measures below I cannot stress enough how the grams measure with a scale is going to give you the best results.

By using cake flour instead of all purpose flour this is going to give a lighter puffier outcome to the shells, if you do not have cake flour you can use self rising flour but omit the salt and remove 1 entire teaspoon of the baking powder listed below
Or use all purpose flour and omit the chickpea flour altogether

It is really helpful to watch the video tutorial linked below to see all the subtle details that can only be captured on video versus describing here in written text.

CLICK HERE FOR THE FULL VIDEO TUTORIAL FOR HOW TO MAKE ECLAIRS & CREAM PUFFS

Don’t forget pâte à choux dough makes Cream Puffs too!

With the same custard filling and a rosette of whipped cream!