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    Home » Recipes » Dessert Recipes

    Salted Caramel Eclairs

    Published: Nov 26, 2022 by Samantha Ferraro · This post may contain affiliate links · 6 Comments

    Jump to Recipe Print Recipe

    Salted caramel eclairs is a delicious twist on the traditional French eclairs. Smooth and creamy pastry cream is piped into homemade pâte à choux and then glazed with a gorgeous salted caramel sauce. These eclairs are a true showstopper!

    Assembled caramel eclairs decorated with edible sprinkles.

    Salted Caramel Eclairs

    Eclairs are a true show stopper and have always been one of my all time favorite desserts.

    Classic eclairs consist of a light pastry dough called pâtè à choux that is filled with a sweet and incredibly silky smooth pastry cream.

    Traditionally, the piped eclairs are coated with a thin layer of chocolate, however my version of eclairs are coated with a thin layer of decadent salted caramel that is irresistible!

    Caramel eclairs is not a quick recipe, so it makes for a fun weekend or holiday baking project.

    Ingredients

    • Flour: All purpose flour is the base for the pastry dough. The flour is cooked with the butter until combined and then eggs are slowly added in, to form the dough.
    • Butter: Unsalted butter is used in both the pastry dough and pastry cream.
    • Eggs: You’ll need 8 eggs for the entire recipe. 4 eggs are used in the pastry dough (pâtè à choux) and 4 egg yolks are used in the pastry cream. Save the leftover egg whites for a frittata.
    • Whole Milk: Used for the pastry cream.
    • Heavy Cream: A bit of heavy cream is added to make the caramel sauce thick and creamy.
    • Corn Starch: This helps thicken the pastry cream so it’s thick enough to pipe into the pastry dough shells.
    • Sugar: Granulated white sugar is used in both the pastry cream and caramel sauce.
    • Vanilla Bean: A whole vanilla bean is steeped in the pastry cream. Flatten the vanilla bean the best you can, then take a sharp knife and cut through it, horizontally, exposing the beans. Use the tip of the knife to scrape the seeds inside the pod and add that to the pastry cream, along with the pod. If you don’t have a vanilla bean, use 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract or 1 teaspoon of vanilla paste.
    • Flakey Sea Salt: One of my favorite flakey salts is Fleur de Sel. There are light salt flakes that works nicely in the sweet caramel sauce.

    How to Make Caramel Eclairs

    There are 3 parts to making the eclairs. The pastry dough, the pastry cream and the caramel sauce.

    Make the Pastry Cream (Make Ahead!)

    1. To a medium pot, add the milk, cornstarch, sugar, egg yolks, pinch of salt and the split vanilla bean and bring up to medium heat.
    2. Whisk the mixture together until smooth and thickened and the cream mixture coats the back of a spoon.
    3. Once thickened, remove mixture from the heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve into another bowl. This will help remove any lumps or eggs that may have scrambled.
    4. Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly over the cream, making sure it touches so no “skin” forms and chill the pastry cream in the refrigerator until completely cool, at least 4 hours. (Note* The longer it sits, the thicker cream will get and easier it is to pipe into pastry).
    Whisk the pastry cream until smooth and thick.
    Pass the thickened pastry cream through a fine mesh sieve for an ultra smooth cream.

    Make the Pâte à Choux (Pastry Dough)

    1. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.
    2. Meanwhile, in a medium pot, melt the butter, water and salt together over medium-low heat.
    3. Add the flour and stir with a spoon until everything is mixed together and forms a dough. Continue to cook the dough for 2 minutes, making sure there is no raw flour left.
    4. Add the eggs in, 1 at a time and continue mixing with a spoon until everything is well incorporated. It may look wet at first, but the dough will come come together and pulls away from the sides of the pot.
    5. Remove the dough from the heat and transfer to a piping bag or resealable plastic bag. Fill the bag 3.4 of the way full and cut a whole in one of the corners.
    6. Pipe logs of pastry cream onto the baking sheet, about 4-5 inches long, you can fit about 10-12 on each baking sheet.
    7. Bake the pâte à choux at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and continue baking for another 20 minutes or until all the pâte à choux is golden brown. When done, remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
    In a medium pot, melt butter, water and salt together. This is the first step in making eclairs.
    Stir the flour into the butter and egg mixture until a dough forms for the pastry dough.
    Stir the flour with the egg mixture until the dough forms into pâte à choux.
    Pipe 2 to 3 inches of the pastry dough onto a a baking sheet.
    Pipe 9 to 10 logs of pastry dough on to a baking sheet.
    Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 250 degrees F and continue baking for another 20 minutes or until all the pate choux is golden brown. When done, remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

    Make the Salted Caramel Sauce

    1. Add the sugar to a small pot and cook on low heat until the sugar gets clumpy.
    2. Use a wooden spoon to break up the sugar, if needed and continue cooking until the sugar melts and is completely smooth and turns a light brown color.
    3. Add butter, vanilla and heavy cream and stir together. Add a pinch of the flaky sea salt and taste for seasoning.
    4. Turn off heat and continue to mixing the caramel sauce until thickened and pourable. The set aside.
    For the caramel sauce, In a small pot, add the sugar and cook on low heat until sugar gets clumpy
    Cook the brown sugar until smooth and there are no clumps.
    Add butter, vanilla and heavy cream to the melted brown sugar and stir until smooth and thickened.

    Assemble the Eclairs

    1. Use a chopstick or skewer and poke holes on each side of the pastry shell, creating a tunnel inside the pastry.
    2. Pipe the chilled pastry cream into the pastry dough, but don’t overfill.
    3. Dip one side of the eclair into the caramel sauce, or you can use a spoon to spoon the caramel sauce over the top.
    4. Garnish the eclair with extra sea salt or edible sprinkles.
    Bake at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes then reduce the heat to 250 degrees F and continue baking for another 20 minutes or until all the pate choux is golden brown. When done, remove from oven and allow to cool completely.
    Assemble eclairs and pipe the pastry cream into the eclair and spread caramel sauce on top.

    A Few Tips

    • Make the pastry cream at least 4 hours in advance. The longer it sits and chills, the thicker and easier it will be to pipe into the eclair pastry shells.
    • Make the caramel sauce ahead of time as well, the longer the caramel sits, the thicker it will be.
    • To re-heat the caramel sauce, place on the stove top in a small pot over low heat and slowly heat until warmed and smooth.
    Can you make eclairs ahead of time?

    You can make the parts of the eclair ahead of time, such as the pastry cream and pastry dough, but don’t assemble ahead of time. As the eclair sits, the cream can make the pastry dough very soggy.

    Salted caramel eclairs are garnished with rose petals for color.

    More Dessert Recipes to Try

    • Meyer Lemon Souffle
    • Plum Cake with Vanilla and Cinnamon
    • Blueberry and Peach Clafoutis
    • Amaretto Tiramisu

    Caramel Eclairs

    Samantha Ferraro

    LittleFerraroKitchen.com

    Salted caramel eclairs is a trendy twist on the French classic. With flaky sea salt and deep caramel sauce.
    4.79 from 14 votes
    Print Recipe Pin Recipe
    Prep Time 20 mins
    Cook Time 30 mins
    Chilling 4 hrs
    Total Time 4 hrs 50 mins
    Course Dessert
    Cuisine French
    Servings 24 eclairs
    Calories 185 kcal

    Equipment

    Silpat

    Ingredients
     
     

    Pate Choux

    • 1 cup flour
    • 1 cup water
    • 8 tablespoons unsalted butter
    • 1/2 teaspoon salt
    • 4 eggs

    Pastry Cream

    • 2 1/4 cups whole milk
    • 1/4 cup corn starch
    • 1/4 cup sugar
    • 4 egg yolks
    • 1 vanilla bean split in half and seeds removed
    • Pinch salt

    Salted Caramel Sauce

    • 1 cup sugar
    • 1/4 cup unsalted butter 4Tb, cut into pieces
    • 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
    • 1/2 cup heavy cream
    • 1/2 teaspoon Flaky sea salt + more, for garnish

    Instructions
     

    Make the Pastry Cream (Make Ahead!)

    • To a medium pot, add the milk, cornstarch, sugar, egg yolks, pinch of salt and the split vanilla bean and bring up to medium heat.
    • Whisk the mixture together until smooth and thickened and the cream mixture coats the back of a spoon.
    • Once thickened, remove mixture from the heat and strain through a fine mesh sieve into another bowl. This will help remove any lumps or eggs that may have scrambled.
    • Place a sheet of plastic wrap directly over the cream, making sure it touches so no “skin” forms and chill the pastry cream in the refrigerator until completely cool, at least 4 hours. (Note* The longer it sits, the thicker cream will get and easier it is to pipe into pastry).

    Make the Pâte à Choux (Pastry Dough)

    • Pre-heat the oven to 425 degrees Fahrenheit and line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper or a silpat.
    • Meanwhile, in a medium pot, melt the butter, water and salt together over medium-low heat.
    • Add the flour and stir with a spoon until everything is mixed together and forms a dough. Continue to cook the dough for 2 minutes, making sure there is no raw flour left.
    • Add the eggs in, 1 at a time and continue mixing with a spoon until everything is well incorporated. It may look wet at first, but the dough will come come together and pulls away from the sides of the pot.
    • Remove the dough from the heat and transfer to a piping bag or resealable plastic bag. Fill the bag 3.4 of the way full and cut a whole in one of the corners.
    • Pipe logs of pastry cream onto the baking sheet, about 4-5 inches long, you can fit about 10-12 on each baking sheet.
    • Bake the pâte à choux at 425 degrees Fahrenheit for 10 minutes, then reduce the heat to 250 degrees Fahrenheit and continue baking for another 20 minutes or until all the pâte à choux is golden brown. When done, remove from oven and allow to cool completely.

    Make the Salted Caramel Sauce

    • Add the sugar to a small pot and cook on low heat until the sugar gets clumpy.
    • Use a wooden spoon to break up the sugar, if needed and continue cooking until the sugar melts and is completely smooth and turns a light brown color.
    • Add the butter, vanilla and heavy cream and stir together. Add a pinch of the flaky sea salt and taste for seasoning.
    • Turn off heat and continue to mixing the caramel sauce until thickened and pourable. The set aside.

    Assemble the Eclairs

    • Use a chopstick or skewer and poke holes on each side of the pastry shell, creating a tunnel inside the pastry.
    • Pipe the chilled pastry cream into the pastry dough, but don’t overfill.
    • Dip one side of the eclair into the caramel sauce, or you can use a spoon to spoon the caramel sauce over the top.
    • Garnish the eclair with extra sea salt or edible sprinkles.

    Notes

    • Make pastry cream the night before or day in advance so it has time to cool completely and thicken.
    • The longer the caramel sits, the thicker it will become. You can reheat the caramel sauce on the stove top over low heat until warmed through.
     
    Pate choux and pastry cream recipe adapted from Laura in the Kitchen
    Salted caramel sauce recipe by Foodologie

    Nutrition

    Calories: 185kcalCarbohydrates: 18gProtein: 4gFat: 11gSaturated Fat: 6gPolyunsaturated Fat: 1gMonounsaturated Fat: 3gTrans Fat: 0.2gCholesterol: 87mgSodium: 84mgPotassium: 106mgFiber: 0.2gSugar: 13gVitamin A: 419IUVitamin C: 0.03mgCalcium: 80mgIron: 0.5mg
    Keyword caramel eclairs, salted caramel eclairs
    Did you make this recipe?Let us know by leaving a comment and 5 star rating!

    More Dessert Recipes

    • Dessert Charcuterie Board
    • Cherry Pistachio Rugelach
    • Spiced Pumpkin Souffle
    • Mini Pumpkin Swirl Cheesecakes

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    Reader Interactions

    Comments

    1. Liz @ Floating Kitchen says

      October 19, 2014 at 11:07 am

      5 stars
      A salted caramel eclair party basically sounds like the best party ever!!

      Reply
    2. Karla @ Foodologie says

      October 19, 2014 at 3:27 pm

      5 stars
      That was so fun!! When do we get to do this again??? I really think we should bake something magical again 😀

      Thanks for blogging about it! I’ve been a blogging bum as of recent. Help me re-kindle the blogging/baking fire!

      Reply
    3. Aida says

      November 14, 2014 at 4:00 am

      5 stars
      Eclaires and caramel? This looks like a dream! How long did it take from start to finish? (Including the wait times)

      Reply
      • Samantha says

        November 14, 2014 at 7:05 am

        Hi Aida! The pastry took a good 30-4o-minutes all together. You can make the cream fairly quickly in about 10-15 minutes, however it needs a lot of time afterwards to chill, preferably 24 hours! I would make the cream at night and have it set to make the next day. Hope that helps!

        Reply
        • Aida says

          November 14, 2014 at 10:37 am

          5 stars
          Thank you!

          Reply
    4. Mike says

      November 28, 2022 at 3:25 am

      5 stars
      Fantastic… easier than it looks to make. I have made many of the recipes from Little Ferraro Kitchen.

      Reply

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