We were thrilled this week to get an exclusive peek into the kitchen of Maison Kayser in Manhattan. Parisian baker Eric Kayser already had 80 locations around the globe, but it wasn’t until last year that he decided to open up his first bakery in America. Lucky for us, he picked a location on the Upper East Side, just a block away from our studio. Since then, we’ve been spoiled with Parisian breads, financiers, and the most flakey chocolate almond croissants one can bite into. My husband, kids and I often indulge in their chocolate, pistachio and coffee eclairs. With National Eclair Day this weekend, we asked Executive Pastry Chef Nicolas Chevrieux if we could join him for an eclair lesson from the expert. We were welcomed with open arms {and the most delicious pastry!} by Chef Nicolas and his team. He handed us our aprons and we jumped right into our eclair lesson. See the video above and scroll down for the photos, recipe, and Chef Nicolas’ tips!

Also, Maison Kayser will have 10 varieties of eclairs on National Eclair Day (this Saturday – June 22). Their flavors will include Dark Chocolate, Milk Chocolate, Espresso, Coffee, Vanilla Bourbon, Yuzu, Salted Caramel, Raspberry, Pistachio, and Mint. For every three eclairs that you purchase, the fourth one is FREE! No time like this weekend for an Eclair party!

It is très chic inside of the restaurant. It’s a little piece of Paris on the Upper East Side. They have a wonderful menu, too.

A glimpse of the pastry shelves. There is always a line outside the door!

They make the most insane bread…

Chef Nicolas is not only the nicest chef in town, but he also runs a meticulous kitchen. He works with such precision. I joked with him that a career in surgery would have been a good fall-back career for him.

First we made the chocolate custard to fill the eclairs. Pouring in the cream…

The custard should be creamy and pale yellow before mixing it with the chocolate.

We made pâte à choux and I have to admit, I was a little intimidated. I have a pate a choux recipe in my book, but this is Maison Kayser’s pâte à choux!

He really pushed us to understand the pâte à choux dough. His test for seeing if thepâte à choux dough is good? Run your finger through the dough to form a line. If the dough starts to fall within the line, then it is ready. If not, keep adding eggs and do the test again. I loved this tip.

Ready to go in a pastry bag to pipe …

Piping the pâte à choux dough…

Our team joined in for an impromptu pâte à choux eclair piping contest! Make sure to watch the video to see it!

Another great tip is to put your egg wash in a spray bottle to spray the pâte à choux dough before going into the oven.

Into the oven for 45 minutes they go…

When they came out and were cool, we used a pastry tip to puncture holes into the eclair. Next up was piping the chocolate custard into the holes.

Another great trick that Chef Nicolas had was to hold the eclair firmly on the sides while piping the custard into the holes. This will allow you to feel the eclair filling up so you don’t overstuff it with the custard. You don’t want too much coming out of the bottom!

On to the glaze…We first cooked up a simple syrup. It should be boiling like below before adding the cocoa and cream.

Chef Nicolas cooking up a batch of his chocolate glaze icing. He does this with such ease.

On to the glaze dipping…dip the eclair upside down into the icing and then swipe the sides with your finger to take off the excess chocolate.

Lisa mastered it here…

Oh my goodness…these were delicious!

You need to visit Maison Kayser. So fun!!!

Here are the eclairs that are usually in Maison Kayser.

Here are the eclairs that they’ll have in the store only this Saturday! Ten flavors so go grab ’em!

A huge thank you to Chef Nicolas and the Maison Kayser team. PS – We were also invited into their bread kitchen. Stay tuned for another post about their bread down the road. Until then, enjoy their eclair Recipe!