Wednesday, December 30, 2009

Ellen's Eclair Ring

Inspiration:
My sister Ellen made this for us over the holidays using the recipe of a family friend.


Ingredients:

Dough
  • 1 cup water
  • 1/2 cup butter
  • 1 cup flour
  • 4 eggs
Filling
  • 2 3-oz packages instant French vanilla pudding
  • 1 9-oz Cool Whip
  • 1 t vanilla
  • 2.5 cups milk
Topping
  • 2 squares semi-sweet chocolate (melted)
  • 2 T butter
  • 2 T milk
  • 1 c powdered sugar
  • 1 t vanilla

Instructions:
  1. Make dough-- heat butter and water to rolling boil. Stir in flour at once over low heat. Beat until ball is formed, and take off heat. Beat in eggs one at a time with mixer. Spoon onto a cool pizza pan to form circular shape with a hole in the middle. Bake at 400 degrees for 45-50 minutes. Cool away from drafts.
  2. When cool, split horizontally and fill with filling. Place top layer on filling and spread with topping.

Notes: This is an impressive dessert for parties, and it isn't too hard to make. (Easy for me to say... I didn't make it this time!)

I'd love to figure out a way to make a vanilla custard filling that doesn't use pudding mix or Cool Whip. I'll be working on it, but if you figure it out, let me know!

Ellen and I were also discussing adding fresh raspberries to the filling, which would be a nice addition.


Tim's Rating: 9.75/10
Liz's Rating: 9.5/10

7 comments:

Bridget said...

What I've done in the past to replace the instant pudding and Cool Whip combination is make pudding from scratch and mix in whipped cream. Of course, it takes more effort...and it makes the dessert a lot more fattening...but it's definitely tasty!

Lindsay said...

I have a great eclair custard recipe from Tim's grandpa who was a baker. I will pass it along next time I see you!

Kira said...

Wow, that looks nice and rich!

Sarah said...

If had the day off today (or actually got off my butt on workday evenings), I would've been all over making these for New Years! They look so good!

Erin said...

That is an impressive looking dessert! YUM! As for the filling, you need to try some kind of French pastry cream-- they call is cream, but it's really a vanilla custard. I made a tart with pastry cream, and is was amazingly good. Here's the post: http://cookingandeatinginthewindycity.blogspot.com/2008/06/summer-tart.html

This eclair ring already looks amazing, but I bet making the custard from scratch would bring it up to a whole other level!

ashley said...

ohhh yum! looks so tasty!

HaveShoesWillTravel said...

My mom used to make this every Christmas. It looks like one of those recipes that is too time consuming and I've eaten half of it before it's ready.