Raspberry Almond Eclairs | Orison Orchards

Heart-shaped almond-raspberry eclairs

We made this particular batch heart-shaped because Valentine’s Day is coming up, but you can make them look like regular eclairs by piping a straight line of dough, about 2″ wide by 4″long.

Pastry Shells:

2 c. water

1 c. butter

1/2 tsp. salt

2 1/2 c. flour

8 eggs

Bring the water, butter and salt to a boil, then take it off the heat and stir in the flour. Add the eggs, one at a time, and fully incorporate them. It will look like this:

eclair pastry shells — Add one egg at a time

When finished, the batter looks like this:

Load the batter into a pastry bag and pipe it into this shape, using your very largest round tip. Mine is 3/4″” diameter. If you don’t have a large round tip, just use the bag without a tip.

Bake at 425 degrees until they are golden brown and feel crisp

raw batter, just pipe two lines at angles to each other to create the heart shape

Pastry Filling:

2 c. Heavy whipping cream

8 oz. cream cheese

1/2 c. powdered sugar

1 T. almond extract (or use vanilla extract if you prefer, but we love the almond filling with raspberry sauce on top)

This is my all-time favorite pastry filling–I use it for everything.

Whip together until it forms stiff peaks.

Fill a bag with a long, narrow tip with the pastry filling. Insert the tip into the pastry shell at each end, trying to keep your holes as unobtrusive as possible. Fill the shells completely–you will be able to feel the change in weight when it’s sufficiently full.