These Ras Malai Eclairs are the perfect balancing act between crisp eclairs and traditional Indian ras malai. Make these for a special occasion or just to elevate your meals with a beautiful, delicious Indian fusion dessert recipe.
When I went to Monaco, I think I ate all of the eclairs the entire country had to offer. I am not exaggerating when I say that every bite felt like a divine, out-of-body experience. People in Europe really know how to make those eclairs, y’all!
With such a memorable experience, I wanted to create something similar to what I had in Europe, but with the added twist of a fusion filling. (Are you even surprised?)
And so, I give you these delicious Ras Malai Eclairs. This Indian fusion dessert recipe is just the thing for you if you like contrasting textures and rich flavors. Perfect for Valentine’s Day – or really, any day at all – these eclairs feature a flaky, crispy eclair with a smooth, spongey, ras malai filling. In other words, you’ll be doing a happy dance all day long with this beauty.
An eclair is pretty much a log-shaped donut. It has a soft, pillow-like donut texture mixed with the flakiness of a croissant. Of course, no donut would be complete without a glazed exterior! My favorite was caramel, but the choice is yours if you ever travel to Monaco, because the choices were endless.
Ras malai is a traditional Indian dessert made with spongy cheese disks soaked in sweet milk. It is a light, refreshing dessert that is often served at weddings or special occasions. If that sounds good to you, you’ll definitely also love my Ras Malai Ice Cream recipe.
I love both ras malai and eclairs because they are so satisfying, especially after a big or spicy meal, like pasta, noodle, and rice dishes or Indian entrees. If I haven’t convinced you enough yet, this recipe is so simple and takes about 30 minutes (baking aside).
The Table of Spice Kitchen Hacks
Whether you make these Ras Malai Eclairs for a gathering like Diwali or you just want something special to add to a meal, this dessert recipe is truly a crowd-pleaser.
Of course, with pleasing a crowd comes chaos and scrambling to get your meal together on top of the laundry list of other things you probably have to do. Here are my top tips to help make your life easier:
- Making any type of dough can be difficult because texture is everything! Eclair dough looks a lot like churro dough, so it won’t be completely dry (like bread dough). Instead, it may be slightly wet, but that’s how you’ll be able to achieve the shape you need after baking. Keep that in mind while you cook!
- The key to making great Ras Malai Eclairs is to make them the night before or the morning of. You want to let them sit for a bit because you can’t fill an eclair when it’s hot. The sitting time helps tremendously because it will help to keep its shape and allows you to fill the eclair properly.
- If you don’t have a piping bag or tip, don’t fret! Just use a large Ziploc bag and cut a generous amount of the corner off to get a natural piping tip.
- I personally love to make the filling the night before assembling the eclairs. I make the filling and have it ready to go in the Ziploc bag and refrigerate it so that it makes the next day’s filling process such a breeze.
- I know it’s tempting to peek in your oven and see how your eclairs are baking, but do not keep opening the oven when the eclairs are in there. The constant decrease in oven temperature will result in flat eclairs. Instead, just keep your oven lights on!
- You can use a buttercream frosting recipe and different piping tips to create the elevated look I have in the pictures. My only note is that buttercream can lean a bit too sweet, whereas the glaze in the recipe is perfect as it is.
- You don’t have to make ras malai from scratch! I used Nanak’s ras malai, which can be found at any Indian grocery store, and even your local Costco in the freezer aisle.
Long story short: these Ras Malai Eclairs are out-of-this-world addicting. So, watch out, they’ll be cleaned off your plate a lot faster than it took to make them!
Ras Malai Eclairs
Ingredients
Elcair Dough
- 1 cup water
- 1 cup all purpose flour
- 5 tbsp butter
- 4 eggs
- 2 green cardamom pods powder form, or finely crushed
- ¼ tsp salt
Eclair Filling
- 4-5 ras malai I used nayak brand, can be found in freezer aisle of indian store or costco.
- ½ cup ras malai milk
- 2 cups heavy whipping cream
- 1 tbsp cornstarch
- 1 tbsp rosewater
White pistachio’s Glaze
- 1 cup powdered sugar
- 1 tbsp heavy whipping cream
- ¼ cup Pistachios silvered or crushed
Instructions
Eclairs Dough
- In a medium non-stick pot combine water and salt and the butter and bring to a boil. Add the flour and whisk vigorously until you have no lumps remaining and the batter starts to thicken. Remove pot from the heat and let the batter cool for 5 minute.
- Next whisk in the eggs one at a time, using a wooden spoon until the each egg is fully incorporated into the batter with no white lumps.
- Fill the dough in the pipping bag or ziplock bag, make sure to ensure a snip a hole if using a ziplock bag. Onto the lined baking sheet, pipe fat lengths of dough about 3- 4 inches long on the lined baking sheet, and leave about 1 inch space inbetween. Bake for 15 mins.
- After 15mins, reduce the oven temperature to 340°F and bake for another 15-20 minutes until the eclairs are light golden brown.
Eclairs Filling
- In a small bowl dissolve the cornstarch with ras malai milk. Next in a stand mixer or hand held mixer; add the ras malai milk, rosewater and heavy hipping cream, whip everything together until you have stiff peaks. Next mix in the ras malai carfully and place the whipped cream into the fridge until ready to use.
White Pistachio Glaze
- Whisk the powdered sugar and heavy whipping cream together until you have no lumps and set aside until ready to use.
Assembling
- Use a tip of a small knife and cut 2 small X’s on the bottom or top of each elcair. Fill a ziplock or pipping bag with filling and pipe the pastry cream into the shells through each opening. Drizzle the glaze and sprinkle on crushed pistachios
Notes
- Do not keep opening the oven when elcairs are cooking, the reduction in oven temp will result in flat eclairs and they won’t rise to the fullest.
- You can use a buttercream frosting and different pipping tips to create the look I have in the pictures, but I did notice the buttercream was too sweet for my liking and the glaze was just perfect and easy.
- I used Nanak brand ras malai, which can be found at any Indian grocery store and even Costco in the freezer aisle.
