A from scratch chocolate eclair pie with a buttery, flaky pastry crust, vanilla bean pastry cream or custard filling, and creamy dark chocolate ganache. This elegant dessert tastes just like a chocolate eclair!
You might also like this chocolate cream pie, banana cream pie, and coconut cream pie.
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Why You’ll Love This Recipe
Everything from Scratch. With homemade pie dough and pastry cream, there’s no weird ingredients or artificial flavors from using store bought pie dough and boxed instant pudding mix. This chocolate eclair pie takes a bit of effort to make each element from scratch, but it’s well worth it!
Not too Sweet. I love a dessert that’s rich and flavorful without being tooth-achingly sweet, and this chocolate eclair pie has a perfect balance of subtly sweet custard, crisp pastry and dark chocolate.
High Altitude Tested. I develop all the recipes on my site for Denver’s altitude of 5,280 feet. If you’re at a lower or higher elevation, please see my FAQs for guidance on adjusting recipes for your altitude. However, today’s recipe will work at any altitude.
See the recipe card at the end of the post for the full ingredients list and instructions.
Ingredients
- Pie Dough. For the crust, you’ll need a single pie crust, or 1/2 of my recipe for flaky, all butter pie dough. The crust will be “blind baked” (baked without the filling), while the custard is cooked on the stove and then added to the baked crust.
- Eggs. For the vanilla pastry cream, you’ll need egg yolks, which add body and richness. You’ll also need an egg white to brush over the crust, which helps to seal it against the moisture of the filling.
- Sugar. Granulated sugar adds sweetness to the filling.
- Corn Starch. This is my preferred thickening agent for pastry cream or custard.
- Salt. Balances the sweetness and enhances flavors.
- Milk. Use whole milk in the filling for a rich, creamy flavor.
- Vanilla. For a delicious vanilla flavor and pretty vanilla bean specks, scrape the seeds from a vanilla bean, or use vanilla bean paste.
- Butter. The custard is finished with a little butter, adding richness and flavor.
- Cream. You’ll need heavy whipping cream for the ganache, which keeps it smooth, rich and creamy.
- Chocolate. For the chocolate ganache, I prefer a darker chocolate around 70% cacao, but if you like sweeter chocolate, use one that’s between 50-55% cacao.
Baker’s Note: When blind baking a pie crust or pastry crust without any filling, the dough needs to be weighed down so that it doesn’t puff up or slide down the sides of the pan. For this reason, the crust is first baked while filled with pie weights or dried beans, then finished baking uncovered so it can brown.
Instructions
Crust
- Prepare 1/2 recipe All-Butter Perfect Pie Dough.
- Once your pie dough is ready to roll out, line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Place a 9-inch round tart pan with removable bottom on the baking sheet.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough thinly, to almost 1/8 inch thick.
- Transfer the dough to the tart pan, and fit it against the bottom and up the sides of the pan, pressing gently against the sides. You don’t want to stretch or pull the dough, but allow enough slack in the dough so you can fit it snugly down into the pan.
- Use a sharp knife or scissors to trim the edge of the dough, allowing about 1/2 inch overhang. Keeping this overhang will allow for shrinkage as it bakes, and then you’ll finish trimming the dough even with the top of the pan after baking the crust.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, and freeze the crust in the pan for 20 minutes while the oven is pre-heating.
- Lightly prick the frozen crust all over with a fork. This is called “docking” the dough, and allows steam to escape to help prevent it from puffing up too much. Place a piece of parchment paper against the frozen crust. Fill the paper with dried beans or pie weights. Lay a piece of foil over the top to cover the edges of the crust. Bake the crust for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven, scoop the beans out of the paper, then remove the paper from the crust.
- Brush the egg white over the bottom and sides of the crust. Return the pan to the oven, and bake, uncovered, for an additional 10-15 minutes, just until the crust is baked through and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven. Immediately use a sharp knife to trim the edge of the crust so it’s perfectly even with the top of the pan. Let cool while you make the custard.
Custard
- In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, corn starch and salt.
- Slowly whisk in about a cup of the milk, whisking smooth any lumps of corn starch, then whisk in the rest of the milk, cream, egg yolks and vanilla bean seeds/paste.
- Over medium heat, cook the custard while whisking constantly, until the custard starts to bubble and thicken; this should take about 8-10 minutes. Once it begins to thicken, continue to cook and whisk for 1 1/2 minutes.
- Remove the custard from the heat and stir in the butter. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer to strain out any bits of cooked egg, into a bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap resting right against the surface of the custard, and refrigerate for 1 hour until no longer hot.
- Loosen up the cooled custard with a spatula, then spread into the cooled crust.
Ganache
- Pour the cream into a saucepan, and heat over medium heat just until it begins to bubble around the edges.
- Finely chop the chocolate. When the cream is hot, add 3 ounces of the chocolate to the cream, stirring with a spatula until you have a smooth ganache.
- Spread the ganache over the custard filling, then sprinkle the ganache with the remaining 1 ounce of chopped chocolate.
- Refrigerate the tart for about 2 hours, or until the filling and ganache is well chilled and set.
- Remove the sides of the pan, then cut into slices and serve.
Be sure to read all of my BAKING FAQs where I discuss ingredients, substitutions and common baking questions, so that you can be successful in your own baking!
Frequently Asked Questions
While you can use any type of pie pan, I recommend a metal pie pan or tart pan for today’s recipe. Metal conducts heat more efficiently, and you’ll have better results when blind-baking the pie crust without any filling.
Cover the tart loosely, and refrigerate leftovers for up to 3 days.
I used Lindt 70% Dark Chocolate. It has a rich, dark chocolate flavor that’s not too sweet, and a creamy texture. If you want a sweeter ganache, choose a chocolate that’s around 50-55% cacao.
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Chocolate Eclair Pie
All recipes on Curly Girl Kitchen are developed for high altitude at 5,280 feet. See FAQs for adjusting to higher or lower elevations.
Ingredients
Crust
- ½ recipe All-Butter Perfect Pie Dough
- 1 egg white
Custard
- ⅓ cup granulated sugar
- ¼ cup corn starch
- ¼ tsp coarse Kosher salt (if using table salt, use half the amount)
- 2 cups whole milk
- ⅓ cup heavy whipping cream
- 4 large egg yolks
- 1 vanilla bean, seeds scraped, or 2 tsp vanilla bean paste
- 3 tbsp unsalted butter
Ganache
- 4 oz heavy whipping cream
- 4 oz semi-sweet or dark chocolate (60-70% cacao), finely chopped
Instructions
Crust
- Prepare 1/2 recipe All-Butter Perfect Pie Dough. This recipe will make a thin, flaky pastry crust.
- Once your pie dough is ready to roll out, line a baking sheet with a piece of parchment paper. Place a 9-inch round tart pan with removable bottom on the baking sheet.
- On a floured surface, roll out the dough thinly, to almost 1/8 inch thick.
- Transfer the dough to the tart pan, and fit it against the bottom and up the sides of the pan, pressing gently against the sides. You don't want to stretch or pull the dough, but allow enough slack in the dough so you can fit it snugly down into the pan.
- Use a sharp knife or scissors to trim the edge of the dough, allowing about 1/2 inch overhang. Keeping this overhang will allow for shrinkage as it bakes, and then you'll finish trimming the dough even with the top of the pan after baking the crust.
- Preheat the oven to 400 F, and freeze the crust in the pan for 20 minutes while the oven is pre-heating.
- Lightly prick the frozen crust all over with a fork. This is called "docking" the dough, and allows steam to escape to help prevent it from puffing up too much. Place a piece of parchment paper against the frozen crust. Fill the paper with dried beans or pie weights. Lay a piece of foil over the top to cover the edges of the crust. Bake the crust for 15 minutes.
- Remove the pan from the oven, scoop the beans out of the paper, then remove the paper from the crust.
- Brush the egg white over the bottom and sides of the crust. Return the pan to the oven, and bake, uncovered, for an additional 10-15 minutes, just until the crust is baked through and golden brown.
- Remove from the oven. Immediately use a sharp knife to trim the edge of the crust so it's perfectly even with the top of the pan. Let cool while you make the custard.
Custard
- In a saucepan, whisk together the sugar, corn starch and salt.
- Slowly whisk in about a cup of the milk, whisking smooth any lumps of corn starch, then whisk in the rest of the milk, cream, egg yolks and vanilla bean seeds/paste.
- Over medium heat, cook the custard while whisking constantly, until the custard starts to bubble and thicken; this should take about 8-10 minutes. Once it begins to thicken, continue to cook and whisk for 1 1/2 minutes.
- Remove the custard from the heat and stir in the butter. Pour the custard through a mesh strainer to strain out any bits of cooked egg, into a bowl. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap resting right against the surface of the custard, and refrigerate for 1 hour until no longer hot.
- Loosen up the cooled custard with a spatula, then spread into the cooled crust.
Ganache
- Pour the cream into a saucepan, and heat over medium heat just until it begins to bubble around the edges.
- Finely chop the chocolate. When the cream is hot, add 3 ounces of the chocolate to the cream, stirring with a spatula until you have a smooth ganache.
- Spread the ganache over the custard filling, then sprinkle the ganache with the remaining 1 ounce of chopped chocolate.
- Refrigerate the tart for about 2 hours, or until the filling and ganache is well chilled and set.
- Remove the sides of the pan, then cut into slices and serve.
I have made this several times and it is definitely one of my favorite pies! It turns out beautiful and delicious every time. I altered it to work for my deep dish pie pan by making 1.5x the custard recipe.
C’est Magnifique!! In honor of the Olympics, I wanted to make a French type dessert for Sunday dinner. What a hit! Everyone loved this beautiful pie. The filling and ganache are so silky, you have to stop yourself from taking too many “tastes!” You have done it again, Heather. I give this recipe a gold medal.
Delicious! I made this over Labor day! Gone! no left overs and I will definitely make again,,,i live at sea level! 🙂
I’m so happy to hear that!