I had not worked with passion fruit before, though I knew I loved the flavor. If I had to describe the flavor of passion fruit to you, I think I would say it tastes like jumping into a cool pool on the hottest day of summer. It tastes like water after walking in the desert for two days with no provisions. It is sincerely just the most refreshing and light and wonderful flavor ever, and that is what this dessert is attempting to emphasize. The eclair shells are perfectly light and the passion fruit pastry cream takes these passion fruit eclairs to whole new level.

What the heck is Pâte à Choux?

If you watch a lot of baking shows like me (Great British Baking Show anybody?!), then I am sure you have come across the term “choux pastry” before. For you non-native french speakers like me, “choux” sounds phonetically like “shoo”. It is a pastry where the dough is actually cooked over the stove before it is baked. The dough is also very rich in eggs; this recipe calls for four eggs and only 1 cup of flour. The reason the choux pastry is cooked first is to help make the flour gelatinous. Like how a roux thickens over heat with the addition of flour, so will your dough. The hot dough will lose some elasticity because the heat will denature some gluten. Denaturing gluten yields a dough that is light instead of bready. Something I learned as I was doing some research is that Pâte means “paste” and Choux means “cabbage”. So, literally translated, the dough is called cabbage “paste”. This totally makes sense seeing as the dough is actually a paste and the little profiteroles (cream puff shells) do look like tiny heads of cabbages once cooked!

How does Choux pastry rise?

The coolest part about choux pastry is that it’s only leavener is air! When you make the dough, you will be able to see and feel how gelatinous and unique the dough is. As the dough bakes in the very hot oven, the outside cooks very quickly in the first couple of minutes. It is able to cook so quickly due to the high amount of eggs in the dough. This cooked outer shell leaves the inside still very wet and under-cooked. As the cooking continues, the inside begins to release steam and starts to give rise to the dough. The steam gives rise by pushing its way out of the crevices in the dough, puffing the outer shell as it struggles to get free. Since the outside is already basically solid and cooked through, the inside steam and dough has no place to go but to try to push itself outward in an attempt to expand. This outward push leaves the inside of the puff hollow, with all of the dough now making up the sides.

After baking, you are left with an empty profiterole shell. The opportunities are endless, but you have to decide what to put inside. For me, I think these Passion Fruit Eclairs are the way to go. The cream is tangy and light and so dang refreshing! It will make you want to hang on to summer forever. Trust me with this filling, and you won’t be disappointed, I promise.

Print Recipe

5 from 1 vote

Passion Fruit Eclairs

Like a lemonade on a hot summer day, these passion fruit eclairs are the most refreshing thing you'll eat all year! A soft choux pastry shell filled with passion fruit pastry cream, these are a dream come true!

Prep Time20 minutes mins

Cook Time25 minutes mins

Total Time45 minutes mins

Course: Dessert

Cuisine: French

Keyword: choux pastry, cream puff, eclair, french pastry, passion fruit, passion fruit eclair, pastries, pastry, pate a choux, profiterole

Servings: 16 eclairs

Ingredients

For the Eclairs:

• ½ cup Unsalted Butter
• 1 cup Water
• 1 cup All-Purpose Flour
• ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
• 4 Eggs

For the Passion Fruit Pastry Cream:

• 6 Passion Fruit (juiced)
• 5 Egg Yolks
• ⅓ cup Corn Starch
• ¼ teaspoon Kosher Salt
• ⅔ cup Granulated Sugar
• 2 cups Whole Milk
• 1 tablespoon Butter

Instructions

For the Eclairs:

• Preheat oven to 425°F.
• In a large pot on the stove, bring the water and butter to a boil.
• Once boiling, stir in the salt.
• After the salt is stirred in and dissolved, add the flour and stir together with a wooden spoon until it forms a large, gelatinous ball.
• Transfer the hot dough ball to a clean large mixing bowl. Allow to cool for 2 minutes.
• Add your eggs one at a time, stirring by hand with the wooden spoon to fully incorporate the egg into the dough. Once the first egg is completely incorporated, add the second and repeat the stirring process. For the first half of stirring, the dough will look separated and like there is no hope, but keep stirring, and I promise the dough will come together.
• Once all of the eggs have been added in, transfer the dough to a piping bag.
• On a parchment lined baking sheet, pipe 3 inch long tubes of dough.
• Bake the eclairs until golden brown, 20-25 minutes.
• Allow eclairs to cool and then either split them in half and sandwich the filling between the halves (like in my pictures), or use a pastry bag to pipe the filling inside of them.

For the Passion Fruit Pastry Cream:

• Juice the passion fruit using a strainer. Do not let the seeds in your passion fruit juice. Set aside.
• In a large bowl, add the egg yolks, cornstarch, salt, and sugar. Whisk to combine and make sure no chunks of cornstarch remain. Set aside.
• In a large saucepan, add the milk and allow to heat over medium heat until a couple bubbles form and it is steaming. At this point, remove the pot from the stove.
• Use a ladel and gradually add the hot milk mixture to the eggs, MAKE SURE YOU ARE WHISKING THE EGG MIXTURE CONSTANTLY (you don't want to wind up with scrambled eggs). Keep whisking and adding the hot milk one ladel-full at a time until almost all of it is incorporated. At this point, pour the mixture back into the sauce pan and put it over medium heat again.
• Continue whisking, after a couple minutes the mixture begins to bubble and thicken. Once it is thick like pudding, take it off the heat and transfer it to a clean bowl. While the pastry cream is still hot, add in the passion fruit juice and butter. Stir until the butter melts and the pastry cream is entirely combined. Set aside at room temp until it cools down. Once cool, cover with plastic wrap and refridgerate for up to 3 days.
• Once the pastry cream is cool and you are ready to pipe it into your eclairs, transfer the cream to a pastry bag, slice the eclair like a hot dog bun, and fill the inside with cream. Enjoy!

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