Paula Dean stole my recipe. Thief. I happened to turn on Paula’s Home Cooking tonight and the episode that recorded was her “Sweet Endings” episode. And what was Mrs. Paula making tonight? Eclair Cake. She “tweaked” it a little…added an extra row of graham crackers and made her own chocolate topping instead of using the prepared frosting, but it was the same thing. Now everyone will know my go to dessert recipe secret. Oh well. Guess I may as well share my version of this recipe here. See? I told you I would post some recipes!
Eclair Cake
2 small boxes (or 1 big box) french vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
graham crackers
1 small tub whipped topping, thawed
1 container chocolate frosting
Line a 13×9 pan with a layer of graham crackers. Mix pudding and milk together and stir well to combine. Mix in the whipped topping. Pour over graham crackers. Add a second layer of graham crackers. Melt chocolate frosting in microwave until just melted. Pour in an even layer over the crackers. Put in the refrigerator to set. I think the best way to make this is to do it the night before so it gives the crackers a chance to soak up the extra milk from the pudding.
Tips: I tend to make this dish to take to parties, but usually do not want to leave my 13×9 pan. I buy the foil pans and “line” my glass dish with the pan. This way, the pan will be sturdy enough to take to the party without worrying about messing up the dessert, but you can easily remove the foil pan later that night and take the glass dish with you.
Also, this recipe is available on allrecipes.com and one poster suggested dipping the graham crackers in milk briefly so you wouldn’t have to wait overnight for them to get all nice and mushy. That sounds gross, but I promise it’s good.
I have never tried to change the recipe up, but you could do so many things with this recipe. You could make a banana cream eclair cake, you could do some sort of version using the cinnamon grahams, the list goes on and on.
