No Bake Chocolate Eclair Cake (GF)

Do you enjoy vanilla pudding, graham crackers, and chocolate? You are going to love this beautiful No Bake Chocolate Éclair Cake dessert! And you won’t be alone – all of your family and guests will be craving a second helping and begging you for the recipe!

Just wait until they figure out how easy it is to make. Each step takes a while with the chilling between stages and again at the end, but it is worth every moment you have to wait for it to get cold!

This is a great make-ahead dessert. You can make it a day or two in advance and have dessert already made for any party or occasion.

While not the same as the traditional éclair pastries, it is a good approximation of the flavor combination and texture. The graham crackers soften with the moisture in the pudding becoming soft and luscious.

This is a recipe where a stand mixer really helps you. There is plenty of mixing and whipping required and not having to hold the mixer while it works is a big benefit. But you can do it with a hand mixer if you prefer.

The original recipe calls for folding in most of the whipped cream after whisking some of it into the pudding first. I wound up over-whipping my cream which made it harder to incorporate into the pudding, so I used my whisk to mix in all the whipped cream to eliminate the lumps. I lost some of the volume but I wound up with a smoother mixture.

If you are folding the whipped cream in, add the whipped cream to the pudding in the bowl and use a spatula to cut down the center of the bowl to the bottom, then twist your wrist so you drag what’s on the bottom up to the top as you lift the spatula. Turn the bowl a quarter turn and repeat. Keep folding and turning the bowl until the two mixtures are completely blended. This is the beauty of folding, mixing without deflating the air you’ve beaten into the cream or eggs, for example.

This is a perfect recipe to use a baking pan with a cover which protects the glaze and pudding beneath it. I love my Anolon pan and use it all the time. It has a hard plastic top that snaps onto the pan giving me an environment that keeps all my baked goods fresh. Cakes last at least twice as long as those covered with foil.

Don’t be surprised if the pudding/whipped cream mixture is quite thin initially but it will thicken as it cools and the graham crackers absorb some of the moisture and soften. Be sure you prepare it far enough in advance to have time for it to fully chill in the refrigerator. It will take a lot of a day to make with the wait time for parts to cool or chill. But it is doable in a single day.

There are a number of similar recipes on the Internet and they vary widely. Some are completely from scratch (like this one) and some use pre-made ingredients for a very quick assembly. If you want to try one of those, take a look at my friend Traci’s rendition. I know you will love it too!

The only reason I didn’t take the short cuts is that it can be challenging to find a gluten-free vanilla pudding mix and gluten-free graham crackers. If you can find them, by all means take the shortcuts in Traci’s version!

If you look very closely you can see small black specks which are from the vanilla paste I used. They are the seeds of the vanilla pods and add more vanilla flavor to all your baked goods without having to pay for or deal with the pods.

Give this No Bake Chocolate Éclair Cake a try and I hope everyone loves it as much as The Artist and I do. Creamy, luscious, and so satisfying, this is one great dessert! Happy Chocolate Monday and I’ll see you back here on Friday with another savory recipe.

If you try this recipe, let me know! Please leave a star rating in the recipe card, comment below, and don’t forget to snap a pic and tag it @theheritagecook on Instagram! Seeing your creations makes my day and I love hearing from you!

 

Ingredients needed for No Bake Chocolate Éclair Cake:

• Pudding: sugar, cornstarch, salt, whole milk, butter, vanilla, water, unflavored gelatin, heavy cream
• Assembly and Chocolate Glaze: graham crackers, semisweet chocolate chips, light corn syrup

 

PRO Tip:

Be sure you have all your ingredients for the pudding ready on the counter so you can add them quickly when needed.

 

How to make No Bake Chocolate Éclair Cake:

1. Make the Pudding: Place the sugar, cornstarch, and milk in a large saucepan, preferably nonstick; whisk in the milk until smooth. Bring to a boil over medium-high heat, then reduce to medium-low heat and cook, whisking until thickened and large bubbles break the surface.
2. Remove from the heat and whisk in the butter and vanilla, then strain into a clean bowl. Set the bowl on a wire rack and let cool about 45 minutes. Press a buttered piece of parchment directly on the surface and refrigerate until cool, about 2 hours.
3. Finish the Pudding: In a microwave-safe bowl, stir together the water and gelatin; let sit until softened, about 5 minutes. Microwave until bubbling around the edges and gelatin dissolves, 15 to 30 seconds.
4. In the bowl of your stand mixer, whisk 2 cups of the cream until foamy, then whip on high to soft peaks. Add the gelatin mixture and whip to stiff peaks.
5. Whisk 1/3 of the whipped cream into the chilled pudding, then gently fold in the remaining whipped cream, half at a time, until combined with no streaks or lumps.
6. Assemble the Cake: Cover the bottom of a 9×13-inch (23x33cm) with graham crackers, broken as needed to fit in a single layer. Top with half of the pudding mixture (about 5-1/2 cups), then another layer of graham crackers. Repeat with the remaining pudding mixture and remaining graham crackers.
7. Make the Glaze: Combine the chocolate, remaining 3/4 cup cream, and light corn syrup in a microwave-safe bowl. Microwave, stirring about every 30 seconds until smooth, 1 to 2 minutes. Set aside to cool to room temperature, about 15 minutes. Spread the glaze over the graham crackers in the pan using an offset spatula, being sure it covers the crackers completely. Carefully cover the top without touching the glaze.
8. Refrigerate the cake for 6 to 24 hours before serving. Scoop servings into a bowl or plate and serve chilled. The cake can be refrigerated for up to 2 days, covered.

 

PRO Tip:

For the buttered parchment that is placed on top of the pudding to avoid a skin from forming, I used a 9-inch round that I use for cake pans. The kind I have come with two strips on opposite sides that you use to lift the baked goods out of the pan. It worked perfectly and kept my hands clean when I lifted it off the pudding.

 

PRO Tip:

Don’t be concerned if the pudding mixture is very thin. It will thicken when you mix in the whipped cream and more when you chill it, it will thicken. This is a soft, delicate dessert. Be sure you store leftovers, covered, in the refrigerator!

 

Recommended Tools (affiliate links; no extra cost to you):

• Kitchen scale
• Large saucepan
• Heatproof spatula
• Mixing bowls 
• Parchment rounds with handles
• Stand mixer or hand mixer
• 9×13-inch (23x33cm) baking pan
• Offset spatula

 

Gluten-Free Tips:

* You can adjust any baking recipe to gluten-free by using 120 grams per cup of my favorite gluten-free flour blend. If you are using another brand of flour or regular flour, whisk it, spoon it lightly into a measuring cup until mounded, level off the top with a knife, and weigh the flour left in the cup. Use that weight as your standard per cup of that specific flour. Do this for each flour blend you use. Commercial gluten-free blends such as Pamela’s All-Purpose Artisan Blend, Bob’s Red Mill 1-to-1, or King Arthur Measure for Measure are all good gluten-free choices.

You will get the best and most consistent results by using a digital kitchen scale and weighing your ingredients, especially when you are baking. And use grams, they are much more accurate than pounds and ounces.

All recommended ingredients are gluten-free as of the writing of this article. Always check to be sure the products haven’t changed and are still safe to consume.

 

 

 

 

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