Ingredients
- For choux: 250 ml water, 100 g unsalted butter, 130 g all-purpose flour, 4 large eggs, 1/4 tsp salt
- For maple pastry cream: 500 ml whole milk, 4 egg yolks, 40 g cornstarch, 160 ml Quebec maple syrup (dark, robust), 30 g unsalted butter
- For maple glaze: 80 ml Quebec maple syrup reduced by half + 100 g icing sugar
Method
- Boil water, butter, and salt; add flour all at once and stir vigorously over heat until dough pulls cleanly from pan. Cool 5 min.
- Beat in eggs one at a time until batter is smooth and falls in a thick ribbon. Pipe 10 cm logs onto lined baking sheets.
- Bake at 200 °C for 25 min, then reduce to 170 °C for 10 min. Pierce ends to release steam; cool completely.
- For cream: whisk yolks, cornstarch, and maple syrup; heat milk to a simmer, temper yolks, return to pot, and cook stirring until thick. Remove from heat, whisk in butter, and chill.
- Fill cooled éclairs with maple pastry cream using a piping bag fitted with a small tip.
- Dip tops in maple glaze (reduced maple syrup whisked with icing sugar); set on a rack 15 min before serving.
Conversion and rationale
Original sweetener (classic version): Pastry cream: 150 g granulated sugar; glaze: 100 g icing sugar + plain water
Conversion used: Pastry cream: replace 150 g sugar with 160 ml dark maple syrup; reduce milk by 30 ml. Glaze: use concentrated maple syrup as the liquid base instead of water for sugar glaze — no other reduction needed. Oven temperature unchanged for choux shell.
Why Quebec maple syrup: Dark maple syrup's robust molasses-like character transforms the neutral pastry cream into a distinctly Quebec product with genuine terroir. Concentrated maple in the glaze adds gloss and aroma without artificial flavouring.
General rule: 1 cup (250 ml) sugar ≈ 3/4 cup (180 ml) maple syrup; reduce liquids by 45–60 ml per cup of syrup and lower oven by 15 °C. Substitution calculator →