Month: November 2015

Decadence is Best Served with Chocolate

Margo Sugarman Leave a comment

Whenever I make cream puffs, they get snapped up. I love making them, but they are a little time consuming. So here’s a way to enjoy the decadent taste experience of a cream puff without a lot of the finicky work that’s involved. Behold, the chocolate eclair cake. Looks great, feeds a whole bunch of people and is simple to put together. It also works very well as a parev dessert.

CHOCOLATE ECLAIR CAKE

Ingredients

For the pastry

8 tablespoons unsalted butter or margarine

1 cup water

1 cup flour

4 large eggs

For the cream filling

4 cups milk or soy milk

3 sachets. instant vanilla pudding

1 container cream cheese, softened (225g/8 oz) (for parev you can use one container of Tofutti cream cheese or you can add one more sachet of vanilla pudding)

1 cup sweet cream or non dairy cream

Chocolate topping

300g (12 oz) dark chocolate

100 g (4 oz) butter or margarine

How to do it

  1. Preheat oven to 200°C (400°F)
  2. In a large heavy saucepan, heat butter/margarine and water over medium-high heat until it comes to a boil. Add flour all at once. Reduce heat to low and stir quickly until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the pan (this will take a few seconds only). Make sure all the flour is stirred into the liquid mixture.
  3. Allow the mixture to cool for about 5 minutes. Then beat in eggs, one at a time, combining well after each egg.
  4. On a large oven tray covered with baking paper, spread the dough into a large round shape, creating a lip around the sides. The base will expand in baking, so leave space around the sides. Bake for 35 minutes. Cool completely.

    Dough ready for baking

    Dough ready for baking

  5. To make the filling, beat the cream cheese with a mixer until smooth and add the milk slowly while still beating. Add pudding powder and beat until thickened. Spread over cooled shell and allow to set – at least half an hour in the fridge.
  6. To make the chocolate topping, melt the chocolate and butter/margarine over low heat, stirring constantly until smooth. Very carefully spread over the top of the vanilla pudding, making sure not to mix the chocolate with the vanilla filling.
  7. Keep refrigerated until serving. Serve on the same day.Serves about 20.