An éclair is a long, thin French pastry made from light, airy dough that puffs up when baked, creating a hollow center perfect for filling. Bakers pipe sweet cream, custard, or pudding inside, then top the éclair with a smooth glaze, usually chocolate or vanilla. The result is a dessert that's crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside, and wonderfully messy to eat.

The word éclair comes from the French word for “lightning,” possibly because these pastries disappear so quickly when you eat them, or because the shiny glazed top catches the light like a lightning flash. In France, where éclairs were invented in the 1800s, bakeries called pâtisseries display them in neat rows behind glass cases, each one a perfect golden rectangle about as long as your hand.

Making éclairs requires skill: the dough, called choux pastry, must be mixed and baked precisely to achieve that signature hollow center. The same dough is used to make cream puffs and profiteroles, but éclairs have their distinctive elongated shape. When you bite into a well-made éclair, you get the satisfying contrast of a crispy pastry shell and rich, smooth filling in every mouthful.