Chocolate Eclair Cake

This sounds soooooo good! I think I will make it for a family dinner we are having Sunday at noon. A blog reader from Memphis, TN, has been telling me about this dessert she makes and made for her family at Thanksgiving. I hope you will try it soon....that is if your New Year's resolution didn't include cutting out desserts :). I stopped sweets this week, but can have a taste, I think! Thanks, Marsha!

Chocolate Eclair Cake

Ingredients...
Crust:
1 cup water
1/2 cup butter
1 cup all-purpose flour
4 large eggs

Filling:
1 (8 ounce) package cream cheese, softened
1 large box (5.1 ounces) vanilla instant pudding
3 cups milk

Topping:
1 - 8 ounce container cool whip (just enough for a thin layer. I don't use the whole container) or one batch of homemade whipped cream
chocolate syrup or homemade chocolate sauce

1. Instructions:
2. Preheat oven to 400. Lightly grease a 9"X13" glass baking pan.
   
   
3. For the Eclair Crust: 
   In a medium saucepan, melt butter in water and bring to a boil. Remove from heat. Stir in flour. Mix in one egg at a time, mixing completely before adding another egg. Spread mixture into pan, covering the bottom and sides evenly. Mixture will be very wet. *If the sides of your pan are too greased you won't be able to get the mixture to stay up the sides so make sure to just lightly grease. (No big deal but I like the crust to go up the sides a bit.) Bake for 30-40 minutes or until golden brown (Mine only took 25 minutes.) You may want to check it occasionally-you don't want to overcook the crust, it will ruin the cake! Remove from oven and let cool (don't touch or push bubbles down).
   
   
4. For the Filling: 
   Whip cream cheese in a medium bowl. In separate bowl make vanilla pudding by beating the pudding mix and the milk for 3 minutes and put in the fridge until set. Make sure pudding is thick before mixing in with cream cheese. Slowly add pudding to cream cheese, mixing until there are no lumps. Let cool in fridge. When the crust is completely cooled, pour filling in. 
   
   
   Top with layer of cool whip however thick you want it. Serve with a drizzle of chocolate syrup. ***If you want to make this even better use homemade whipped cream.
   
   Ingredients

• 1 cup heavy cream
• 3 tablespoons white sugar or 1/3 cup powdered sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract or other flavoring

Instructions

1. Place cream and sugar in a chilled mixing bowl and mix on high for 1-2 minutes. Add the vanilla and beat for an additional 1-2 minutes or until soft peaks have formed. Don't whip too much or you will end up will cottage cheese looking whipped cream.

Chocolate Sauce Topping

Yield: 1 cup sauce

Ingredients

• 1/4 cup cocoa
• 1 cup granulated sugar
• 3/4 cup evaporated milk
• 1/4 cup butter
• 1/8 teaspoon salt
• 1/2 teaspoon vanilla

Instructions

1. Stir cocoa and sugar together well. In a saucepan combine milk, butter, salt, and vanilla. Stir in dry mix. Heat, stirring until it reaches a boil and is thick. You want it to coat the back of a spoon. If you want it to be thicker, for a crepe filling for example, boil it a little longer. I boiled mine for two minutes whisking constantly. It will still be thin once you are done with this step. Don't worry once you let it cool down a bit it will thicken. It will thicken a lot when chilled.
2. Makes around 1 cup of sauce.