A Better Chocolate Eclair Cake Recipe - Food.com (2024)

2

Submitted by NanciY

"This is the classic potluck dessert, but from scratch - SOOOOO much better! I got this from Cook's Country mag. I make the custard the night before, assemble in the morning and by afternoon, bliss..."

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A Better Chocolate Eclair Cake Recipe - Food.com (2) A Better Chocolate Eclair Cake Recipe - Food.com (3)

Ready In:
8hrs 10mins

Ingredients:
12
Serves:

15

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ingredients

  • 1 14 cups sugar
  • 6 tablespoons cornstarch
  • 1 teaspoon salt
  • 5 cups whole milk
  • 4 tablespoons butter, cut into 4 pieces
  • 5 teaspoons vanilla
  • 2 tablespoons water
  • 1 14 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
  • 2 34 cups heavy cream, chilled, divided
  • 14 ounces graham crackers
  • 2 cups chocolate chips
  • 5 tablespoons corn syrup

directions

  • Combine sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large saucepan. Whisk milk in until smooth and bring to a boil, scraping the bottom with a rubber spatula over medium high heat. Immediately reduce heat to medium low and cook, continuing to scrape bottom, until thick and large bubbles appear on the surface, 4-6 minutes. Off heat, whisk in butter and vanilla. Transfer pudding to a large bowl and place plastic wrap directly on the surface. Refrigerate until cool, about 2 hours or overnight.
  • Stir water and gelatin together in a bowl and let sit until gelatin softens, about 5 minutes. Microwave until mixture is bubbling around the edges and gelatin dissolves, 15-30 seconds. Using a stand mixer fitted with a whisk, whip 2 cups cream on medium low speed until foamy, about a minute. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Add gelatin mixture and whip until stiff peaks form, about a minute more.
  • Whisk one-third whipped cream into chilled pudding, then gently fold in remaining whipped cream, one scoop at a time until combined. Cover the bottom of a 13 X 9 inch baking dish with a layer of graham crackers, breaking the crackers as necessary to line the bottom of the pan. Top with half of the pudding mixture and another layer of graham crackers. Repeat with remaining pudding mixture and remaining graham crackers.
  • Microwave chocolate chips, remaining 3/4 cup cream and corn syrup in a bowl, stirring occasionally until smooth, 1-2 minutes. Cool glaze to room temp, about 10 minutes.Cover graham crackers with glaze and refrigerate cake for 6 - 24 hours.

Questions & Replies

A Better Chocolate Eclair Cake Recipe - Food.com (4)

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Reviews

  1. Very good but not really what I expected.. I may or may not make again. The entire process was pretty simple and I have been wanting to make it since seeing the episode of Cook's Country where they made it. I think everything turned out the way it was, I'm just not sure of the flavor. Good though. Creamy with a nice ganache topping, maybe it was the grahams I used? Not sure.

    Cakes2006

  2. I wasn't sure if I should really rate this recipe because I never feel like its fair if you "change" it to rate it, but I trust Cooks Illustrated Recipes and when I was looking for a recipe that didn't use cool whip in the making of this cake I found this one. I did NOT make the custard but used the usual 2 pkgs of french vanilla pudding (and 4 cups of milk rather than the 3 most call for). But I did use the recipe part for the stabilized whipped cream (unflavored gelatin and whipping cream) instructions and used the topping. I thought the topping really was yucky and really ruined the whole cake. I used semisweet chocolate chips as I read the original (on the site) recipe and it used semisweet chocoate. It definitely was NOT what I had tasted in other eclair cakes. It looked pretty (i.e. glossy) but just to me ruined the cake's "eclair" taste. Milk chocolate chips might work better and I will try that the next time.

    NancyLeeIL

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RECIPE SUBMITTED BY

NanciY

Middletown, Ohio

  • 2 Followers
  • 21 Recipes

Hi! My name is Nanci. I have lived in the Cincinnati, Ohio area for my entire life and love it here. I worked for nearly 27 years as a pet groomer and am now a receptionist in an awesome little grooming shop. I live with my boyfriend of 10 years and our 4 cats. I have 3 kids and 7 grandkids whom I adore. I make special occasion cakes as a hobby. My favorite cooking story is from when I catered my niece's wedding in North Carolina. I had finished displaying the 5 tier cake with 7 minute frosting and was in the kitchen finishing the food when we heard a huge crash in the reception room. The cake had collapsed from the heat and humidity! I quickly made up a new batch of frosting and put it back together before the guests arrived. The bride didn't even notice the difference!</p>

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A Better Chocolate Eclair Cake Recipe  - Food.com (2024)

FAQs

What is eclairs in bakery? ›

An éclair is a long French pastry made from choux pastry, filled with pastry cream or custard and dipped in fondant icing. The most popular éclair is probably the chocolate éclair, which is topped with chocolate fondant and filled with chocolate custard or pastry cream.

What to do with botched cake? ›

Here are a few way to make the best of a broken situation:
  1. Trifle It. Like that layered dessert I mentioned above, it's easy to turn a broken cake into trifle. ...
  2. Crystalize It. If your cake only cracked on one side, you can take advantage of trends and make a geode cake. ...
  3. Fill It With Cream. ...
  4. Toast It. ...
  5. Saturate It.
Sep 30, 2019

What does éclair mean in English? ›

French, literally, "lightning" Word Origin. The English word éclair comes directly from a French word whose chief meaning is "lightning" or "flash of lightning." No one is sure why a pastry was named after lightning.

What is the filling of an éclair called? ›

Once cool, the pastry is filled with custard (crème pâtissière), whipped cream or chiboust cream, then iced with fondant icing. Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée.

Why does my cake fall apart when I take it out of the pan? ›

Turning a warm or hot cake out of a baking pan too quickly, will crack and fall apart. Cake layers that cool in the pan too long will stick unless lined with parchment paper. If your cake has cooled in pan and was greased with shortening & flour, this will cause the cake layers to stick in cake pans.

Can you Rebake a cake after it has cooled? ›

Unfortunately once a cake has cooled it is not possible to re-bake it. The cake would have to heat all the way through again and the outside parts of the cake would become too dry. Also if the cake has sunk in the centre from being underbaked it will not rise again as the raising agents in the recipe will have expired.

Why is my cake crumbly but moist? ›

I have found that my cake crumbles from lack of adequate mixing. When you think two minutes have passed, the time might actually be a minute. Use a timer to mix adequately. Since it is cake flour, there is not much protein to harden the cake.

What is éclair filling made of? ›

Assembling the Éclairs

Chantilly cream (French whipped cream for éclairs) – Simply beat together cream, vanilla, icing sugar (powdered sugar) and, if using the stabilised cream option which I highly recommend (see below), mascarpone as well until firm peaks form.

Is éclair same as cream puff? ›

The main differences between the three include the shape and serving method. Eclairs: Oblong choux pastry filled with cream and topped with a glaze or icing. Cream Puffs: Round choux pastry puffs filled with pastry cream and topped with icing or dusted with powdered sugar.

Are eclairs sweets or chocolate? ›

Classic Cadbury chocolate eclairs – chewy caramels with a chocolate coating. These classic chewy sweets are often the last ones left in the Christmas tin..

Is éclair same as Doughnut? ›

An éclair is a long and thin individual cake made out of choux pastry. This fabulous dessert is topped with milk chocolate and filled with cream *queue drooling*. A donut is a fried dessert of sweet dough and is traditionally in the shape of a ring or ball. YUM.

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