Éclair Cake
A classic French pastry, the invention of the éclair is credited to Marie-Antoine Carême, the same chef known for the croquembouche. Both desserts hinge on pâte à choux—fun fact, choux translates as “cabbage,” which is what the dough looks like when it bakes up, sort of. In the case of éclairs, you pipe a strip of pâte à choux, bake it until puffy, fill with pastry cream (or crème pâtissiere in French), then glaze with icing. Let’s be real: It’s not an easy dessert. As Alice Medrich notes in her guide to éclairs, you have to worry about evenly piping the pâte à choux, whether it’ll puff properly in the oven, and more. The good news: This recipe has all the same components of a chocolate éclair—pastry! custard! ganache!—with way less worry. This idea popped into my head after coming across a recipe claiming to be an éclair cake—but the components were completely different. Graham crackers, vanilla pudding, and chocolate frosting. It had close to nothing to do with an éclair. And so this actual-éclair cake become my new life mission. The result has all the deliciousness of the pastry with less of the fuss. No more individual portions. Instead, you bake big squares of pâte à choux and fill them with pastry cream like a layer cake. Feels rebellious, but it works! And if the choux doesn’t puff up in the oven, guess what? It’ll get covered in pastry cream and melted chocolate, so who cares? The pâte à choux portion of this recipe comes from the wonderful Erin McDowell, Food52’s resident baking BFF—check out her full recipe here.
