Not available in stores: Francisco Migoya's eclair

Eclairs: delicious fancy French pastry or dressed up creme puff?

Eclairs represent an odd segment of the dessert category in the US.  Even though the best ones are coveted by pastry enthusiasts and sold in the fanciest French patisseries, they are also found along with their cousin, the cream puff, in the frozen section in supermarkets and even in Walmart (!)I’m going to assume that if you’re reading a dessert blog, you’re probably more interested in learning about the eclair as a “fancy French pastry”.  But before reading about my favorites, I thought it would be useful to get some professional guidance.

So what makes a great eclair?   I posed that question to Francisco Migoya, Associate Professor of Baking and Pastry Arts at the CIA and former Executive Pastry Chef for the French Laundry Group and here’s what he said “A great eclair is evenly tubular, hollow (before filling), crisp on the outside, heavy with filling and uniformly glazed. That’s it.”

With that guidance in mind–here are four of my favorites:

Special addition black and white eclair with dual fillings

Dominique Ansel Bakery – Notes: Their black and white eclair actually has two kinds of pastry creme inside–half chocolate and half vanilla; the choux crust is very light, airy and fresh but not crispy.  The pastry creme itself is also very light and less “custardy”.  Ansel might have received an “A” from professor Migoya since his was the most uniformly tubular. $5.50

Francois Payard's (special July 4th) eclair

Francois Payard Bakery and Francois Chocolate Bar – Notes:  The thinnest and lightest crust out of this group, an almost runny, custard-based pastry creme.  The eclair pictured below had tart raspberries and passionfruit inside along with a white chocolate American flag on top. $4.00 at FPB.  I’d imagine the professor would have overlooked the flatter and less cigar-like shape since the choux was so expertly executed.

Payard's delicious "custardy" filling

Eclair from Epicerie Boulud

Epicerie Boulud – Notes:  A thicker and a slightly tougher choux dough than the others.  The filling is also much thicker and heavier–even at room temperature.  The filling has a deep, rich, chocolaty taste.  The frosting has a matte finish as opposed to the glacage-style, mirror finish of Chikalicious and DAB eclairs. $5.00.  I’m guessing a straight “A” for Boulud since it’s uniformly tubular and heavy with filling like the professor outlines.

The inside of the Epicerie Boulud eclair

Interesting fact: Though the word “eclair” means “flash of lightning” in French, nobody seems to know exactly why this pastry was named after that meteorological event.

One variation of the Chikalicious eclair

Chikalicious Dessert Club – Notes:  Officially known as a “chocolate cookie eclair”– it has a distinct, crispy, cookie-like outer shell and is filled with pastry creme that has the consistency of chocolate pudding.  Hand-glazed to order with dark chocolate. The most unique eclair of the group.  Chikalicious also sells this eclair with ice cream inside. Tough to guess what grade Migoya would have given Chikalicious–it has the weight and the uniform glaze–but it’s also crunchy like a cookie and flat-ish in shape. $5.95

More coverage of Francisco Migoya’s desserts on DessertBuzz.

Francois Payard Bakery is located on 116 West Houston St.  Francois Chocolate Bar is located on 1 West 58 th Street.  Their website is here. See also Photo gallery of  Payard Pastries

Dominique Ansel Bakery is located on 189 Spring Street (Sullivan).  Their website is here More coverage of DAB on Dessertbuzz.

Epicerie Boulud is located at 1900 Broadway (64 St.).  Their website is here.

Dessert Club Chikalicious is located on 204 East 10th Street (at 2nd Ave).  Their website is here.  More coverage of Chikalicious is here.

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A few weeks ago I published  a review of some macarons sent in by guest contributor  ”Elle”.  Today, Elle checks in again with a review of  the macarons from one of DessertBuzz’s favorite shops, Dessert Club Chikalicious.

Dessert Club Chikalicious was really nice, the place was also cozy and warm.  I’m glad I went earlier before it got crowded.  Each macaron was $2.50, and I tried the salted caramel and green tea macarons.  The employee went straight back to the kitchen to grab some fresh macarons, not from the display window like other places. The macarons themselves were chewy and just the right amount of filling and shell ratio, although I would have liked slightly more flavors.

Dessert Club Chikalicious in NYC

I really liked the fact that the macaron was not cold (because usually if they come out of the kitchen, they’re being refrigerated…and then you would have to wait for the macarons to cool down to room temperature when you’re dying to eat it soon!!)

Dessert Club Chikalicious is located on 204 East 10th Street (at 2nd Ave).  Their website is here.

More NYC macarons reviews from DessertBuzz.  Follow DessertBuzz on Twitter.  More coverage of DessertClub Chikalicious on DessertBuzz is here.

Quality Meats' Sundae: Photo courtesy Midtown Lunch/Blondie and Brownie

Midtown Lunch did a really cool write-up on Quality Meats’ Ice Cream Cake Sundaes, available for another 4 days only.   I like the sound of the toasted banana s’mores sundae embedded with a mini chocolate bar and freshly toasted marshmallow but you’ll have to read the review and decide which one you want for yourself.

That's a lot of marshmallow goodness for $10.00

I also recommend Serious Eats NY post about  five different marshmallow treats they love.  They mention DessertBuzz favorites Chikalicious, Three tarts and Murray’s Cheese.

pistachio sundae, granola, cherry sorbet - photo courtesy of Donuts4Dinner

Finally, don’t miss Donuts 4 Dinner’s epic post about 11 Madison Park icluding some beautiful photos of every course, including the desserts.

Chikalicious dessert club vanilla bean soft serve is well known and liked

I managed to convince some friends to join me in a second round of desserts at Chikalicious Dessert Club.   I say second round because we had already consumed three fine dessert plates at Soba-ya (review coming soon).  It wasn’t that difficult to get them on board.  Two of the friends are ice cream buffs and are obsessed with making batches of artisanal ice cream with all kinds of cool flavorings and formualtions–so they were easy to convince.  The third friend isn’t so into desserts (?) but we bullied him into it by putting him in a half-nelson and giving him two options: come with us for more dessert or listen to the drum circle in Astor Pl. for an hour.

"situation" cookie at Dessert Club Chikalicious NYC

I have been to Dessert Club more times that I care to admit and am a card-carrying fanboy.  Tonight I wanted to introduce the ice cream couple to Chikalicious’  vanilla bean soft serve.  I am by no means an expert on ice cream (come to think of it I’m not really an expert on anything) but I do know that the soft serve and in particular, the vanilla bean soft serve from Dessert Club is universally well-regarded in the blogoshere.  For soft serve it’s  got an impressively strong vanilla flavor and is thicker and richer than say a Mister Softee.  Needless to say, everybody loved it, even my (deranged) non-dessert-loving friend.

"adult" dark chocolate pudding from Chikalicious dessert club

As luck would have it, while on line, one of the ice cream making people seem to be advocating for another dessert!  (That would be our 5th in case you lost track.)  He was taken in, some would say snookered, by the sign on the counter that says “Today’s special “Adult” chocolate pudding $5.95″.  Anyway–thats’s what we got and everyone agreed it was superb.  It was very dark and chocolaty tasting and not sweet at all.  More like a dark chocolate mousse but even smoother like a, well like a pudding, actually.  At the bottom of the foil tray, below the scoop of pudding was a layer of “crunch” either made from crushed Oreos or stolen from the insides of a dozen Carvel ice cream cakes.

Caramel Macaron from Chikalicious

Highly recommended: “Adult” dark chocolate pudding $5.95, vanilla bean soft serve (large) $4.95.

Dessert Club Chikalicious is located on 204 East 10th Street (at 2nd Ave).  Their website is here.

Dessert Club Chikalicious NYC

On Saturday night, after seeing a rousing and inspiring production of Ameriville at The Public Theater we headed to Spot Dessert Bar to get our sugar on. Unfortunately, Spot had most of the place reserved for a big party and said the wait would be 45 mins!  So we headed East to Dessert Club, Chikalicious.

Salted Caramel Macaron from Chikalicious

The “Situation” (pictured)  is a massive $4 cookie that contains tortilla chips, pretzels, marshmallow and chocolate chunks.  You may be thinking “hey this sounds a lot like a Momofuku compost cookie!”  It is similar, but the Situation is much less sweet and has even more “stuff’” inside (bigger pieces of stuff too).  I prefer it to the compost.  There’s also a sister cookie called the Situation Dark which has a dark chocolate cookie base, peanut butter chips and toffee popcorn in addition to everything in the regular.

chocolate Macaron from Chikalicious NYC

The last few months DessertBuzz has been eating a lot of macarons–some good, some not so good.  The not-so-good ones are usually just stale with a “crackly” surface.  I’m happy to say that was not the case with the two really superb macarons we had on Saturday – a salted caramel and a chocolate (both $2).  They both had a perfectly soft outside and a nice flavorful paste inside. The salted caramel had just the right amount of sweetness too.

S'Mores cupcake with Chocolate ganache center

Don’t forget the classic desserts that made Dessert Club Chikalicious famous like the S’Mores cupcake ($2.60) with a chocolate ganache center.  These, super-moist cupcakes are small so you should get a few and share.

Recommended: The Situation cookie, macarons.

Dessert Club Chikalicious is located on 204 East 10th Street (at 2nd Ave).  Their website is here.

In a feature on Grub Street, Gramercy Tavern’s Nancy Olsen rated 15 of New York City’s best cupcakes on and rankedDessertBuzz favorite Chikalicious number one.  She also rated Kyotofu 3rd which is another DessertBuzz recommendation.  Truthfully, whenever I see a list like this, especially one backed with a celebrity name, I always cringe.  I feel like these features usually miss some of the best and are far too easy on the most popular places.  So kudos to Nancy Olsen for telling it like it is on the weighty subject of the best cupcake in New York.

Olsen’s list lines up with mine pretty damn closely.  She is totally spot-on with ButterCup and Billy’s being dry.  I have always wondered if the patrons of these places have any idea what a good cupcake tastes like.  She did get a few things wrong.  I have had the cupcakes at Sugar Sweet Sunshine many times and never found them dry at all so I am not sure where that came from. I have reached out to some of the big cupcakes sites to see what they think.  I’ll report back soon.

Chikalicious Dessert Club: The best cupcake in the city?

Magnolia and Crumbs may get the press but its not exactly news that they aren’t the best cupcake in town.  New York Magazine named Kyotofu the best cupcake over 2 years ago (I agreed).  Since then  there have been other “alternative cupcakes” such as Sugar Sweet Sunshine and Royale Bakery.  I would like to introduce 2 more possible claimants to the cupcake throne:  One is very well known: Chikalicious Dessert Club and one that is off the beaten path (at least for now), Sweet Revenge.

The truth is I don’t really like regular cupcakes.  They’re overly sweet, often dry and the frosting is granular and nasty.  But the triple chocolate cupcake with chocolate ganche filling from Chikalicious Dessert Club is really more than a cupcake.  It’s a dessert (you can’t easily make it at home).  Its got both a unique frosting and filling that differentiate it from its peers.  The Ganache filling isn’t just some over-sweet chocolate colored paste.  It actually tastes like real chocolate.  It’s hard to “one-up” the triple chocolate unless you like marshmallow.  In that case just order the S’mores cupcake with chocolate filling and toasted house made marshmallow topping.  The S’mores cupcake is basically a freshly toasted campfire marshmallow on top of a fresh baked cupcake with chocolate inside.

These cupcakes don’t belong in the same category as the ones from Crumbs or Magnolia.  They are moist, perfectly crafted and have all kinds of textures going on.  The care that goes into these cupcakes is evident in how they look.

Recommended: Any of the cupcakes

Chikalicious Dessert Club’s website is here.