Black Forest Heart Eclairs

These Black Forest Heart Eclairs contain big Black Forest flavor. However, they save you the time it makes to create an entire Black Forest cake.

These Black Forest Heart Eclairs consist of Kirsch scented whipped cream between chocolate choux pastry dough topped with Morello cherries. What could be bad about that? For extra flavor, add Kirsch or cherry brandy as well as some of the juice from the cherries jar to the whipped cream. Both create a nice pop of flavor to the whipped cream. However, if you are alcohol averse, leave it out.

Traditional Choux pastry dough make eclairs. Do not be scared off by how fancy sounding it is. The dough is definitely easy to make. It is surprising how little time it takes to make these Black Forest Heart Eclairs.

When the chocolate choux pastry hearts are baked and cooled, slice them in half horizontally. Whip up the cream with powdered sugar. Pipe on the bottom half of the heart. Top with the cherries and the top half of the chocolate choux pastry heart. Additionally, I embellished the top with a dollop of the whipped cream and a cherry.

To fancy up these Black Forest Heart Eclairs for Valentine’s day, I piped the choux pastry into heart shapes. Alternatively, just pipe a log onto the baking sheets before baking. Also, obviously, straight lines are easier to create and the process goes much faster.

This is my last Valentine’s Day post for 2019. However, this dessert has no season. In addition to Valentine’s day, these Black Forest Heart Eclairs are a perfect fit for any time of the year.

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Black Forest Heart Eclairs

Course Dessert

Cuisine French, German

Keyword Eclairs

Prep Time 25 minutes

Cook Time 20 minutes

Total Time 45 minutes

Servings 10 Eclairs

Author Lora Wiley-Lennartz

Ingredients

For the chocolate choux pastry:

• 3/4 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/4 cup cocoa powder
• 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 cup water
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 cup unsalted butter
• 2 teaspoon sugar
• 4 eggs

For the cherry brandy-spiked cream filling:

• 2 cups Heavy cream
• 1/4 cup powdered sugar
• 1 tablespoon cherry brandy
• 1 tablespoon juice from the cherries jar

For Decoration:

• 10 oz cherries in a jar (I used Morellos)

Instructions

Make the chocolate Choux pastry:

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
2. Drain the cherries, reserving the juice.
3. In a small separate bowl, whisk together the flour and cocoa powder. Set aside.
4. In a saucepan, heat the milk, water, salt, butter, and sugar over medium heat until boiling.
5. Remove from heat. Add the dry ingredients. Return the pan to the heat and stir briskly until the mixture pulls away from the sides of the pan.
6. Transfer the pastry dough to a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix for 1-2 minutes.
7. Add the eggs one at a time, making sure each is fully incorporated into the batter before adding the next.
8. Preheat the oven to 350 degrees F.
9. Load the pastry dough into a large piping bag fitted with a large star tip.
10. Pipe out heart shapes onto the prepared baking sheet.
    
11. Place in Oven and bake for 20 minutes.
12. Remove from oven and transfer the pastry sheets to a wire rack to cool completely.

Make the cherry brandy-spiked cream filling:

1. Beat the heavy cream, powdered sugar, cherry brandy and one tablespoon of the reserved cherry liquid together until stiff.

Assemble the pastries:

1. Use a serrated knife to cut the pastry hearts in half horizontally.
2. Arrange the bottom halves on the baking sheet.
3. Fill a piping bag with a star tip attached with the whipped cream mixture.
4. Pipe large stars onto the bottom half of the hearts.
   
5. Arrange a few of the drained cherries on top.
   
6. Cover with the top half of the pastry.
7. Pipe a dollop of the cream mixture onto the top and garnish with a cherry.
8. Plate and refrigerate until serving.

Like these Black Forest Heart Eclairs? Try some of these other Valentine’s inspired sweets: