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Chocolate Eclair Cake




Source of Recipe


Cook's Country June/July 2011


Recipe Introduction


This is that hate to love it pot luck-standby dessert made with instant pudding and melted canned frosting. It tastes good, but a little ersatz. Here, they have done it with a from-scratch custard and chocolate glaze and it is excellent and well worth the bit of extra work. The only change that I would make is to double the amount of graham crackers. Meaning that every time they tell you to put a layer of them in, put in a double layer. The gorgeous ooze of the custard really soaks them and they almost disappear.


List of Ingredients




1 1/4 cups sugar
6 tablespoons cornstarch
1 teaspoon salt
5 cups whole milk
4 tablespoons unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
5 teaspoons vanilla extract
2 tablespoons water
1 1/4 teaspoons unflavored gelatin
2 3/4 cups heavy cream, chilled
14 ounces graham crackers
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips
5 tablespoons light corn syrup


Recipe



Mix the sugar, cornstarch and salt in a large sauce pan. Whisk in the milk very well and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, scraping the bottom of the pan with a spatula. As soon as it comes to a boil, reduce the heat to medium-low and cook, stirring and scraping until thickened and large bubbles come up to the surface – 4 to 6 minutes. Remove from heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla. Pour into a large bowl and place plastic wrap on the surface before refrigerating until completely cooled – about 2 hours.

Mix together the water and gelatin in a bowl and let sit until softened – about 5 minutes. Microwave this mixture 15-30 seconds, until it bubbles around the edges and the gelatin is dissolved. In the bowl of a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, whip 2 cups of the cream on medium-low speed until it is foamy – about 1 minute. Raise the speed to high and whip to soft peaks. Add the gelatin mixture and whip to stiff peaks, about 1 minute. Increase speed to high and whip until soft peaks form, about 2 minutes. Add gelatin mixture and whip until stiff peaks form - about 1 minute.

Whisk 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chilled custard, then fold in the remaining whipped cream, a scoop at a time, until well mixed. Cover the bottom of a 13x9-inch dish with a layer [or two!] of graham crackers, breaking to fit as needed. Cover with half of the custard mixture. Cover this with another layer of graham crackers. Follow with the remainder of the custard mixture and top with another layer of graham crackers.

Microwave the chocolate chips, the remaining 3/4 cup cream and the corn syrup in a bowl until smooth, 1-2 minutes, stirring every 30 seconds. Cool to room temperature – about 10 minutes. Cover the last graham cracker layer with this glaze. Refrigerate the cake for 6 hours to 2 days.

Serves 15.