Feed a crowd with one of our favorite desserts: Eclair Squares!
We love eclairs! You just can’t beat the creamy filling and the soft texture of a good eclair. Here’s a super easy way to serve up the flavors you love of a classic eclair with way less effort. It’s a short cut to making individual eclairs, and there is no piping involved here. Eclair Squares are a fun way to serve dessert to a crowd. This is one of my favorite desserts to feed a few, because everyone loves it! We love to let everyone top their own with lots of fresh berries and a drizzle of chocolate for a decadent dessert! We hope you enjoy this family favorite as much as we do! See this post for a traditional eclair recipe. We even made them cute for Halloween…Eclair Mummies!
What you need to make Eclair Squares:
For the Eclair Base:
- butter
- water
- all purpose flour
- eggs
- salt
For the Cream Filling:
- cream cheese
- milk
- vanilla pudding
- cool whip
For Serving:
- chocolate syrup
- fresh berries
How to make Eclair Squares:
For the Eclair Base:
- Preheat: Preheat your oven to 400.
- Boil butter and water: Bring to a boil the butter and water.
- Add flour and salt: Once it starts to boil, take it off the heat and add the flour and a pinch of salt. Mix in the flour with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes smooth. Leave it to cool for a few minutes – don’t let it cool completely as the dough will be lumpy.
- Add eggs: Whisk in the eggs.
- Spread on pan: Spread onto a greased sheet pan.
- Bake and cool: Bake for 25 minutes until puffy, and then let cool.
For the Cream Filling:
- Mix cream cheese and milk: With a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese with the milk.
- Combine pudding and milk: In a separate bowl mix together the vanilla pudding with the milk
- Mix together: Combine both mixtures together until thickened.
- Add cool whip: Fold in the Cool Whip
- Spread over crust: Spread mixture over the top of the crust.
- Cool: Refrigerate.
- Serve: Serve with a drizzle of chocolate syrup and fresh sliced berries.
How to store Eclair Squares:
Keep these eclair squares stored covered in the refrigerator. Don’t garnish your squares until they are ready to be served. They will last in the fridge around three days!
Eclair dessert vs. regular classic eclairs:
The beauty of this dessert is how you can have the flavors of eclairs with a lot less work that is required with classic style eclairs. With classic eclairs you have to pipe the filling into the center cavity of the eclair, but this one you just spread the cream filling over the top. It’s so much easier! This dessert is great for feeding a crowd, because you can cut each square a little bigger or smaller depending on the amount of people you need to serve.
Make ahead:
This is a great make ahead dessert because it needs time to chill in the fridge. So make it a day ahead! I love these sheet pans with the plastic lid that clicks into place. It makes it easy to travel, without messing up the top layer of the dessert.
Garnishing Eclair Squares:
In the photos here we show each serving with a slice of strawberry and a little sprig of mint leaves on each one, but the fun part is letting each person add the berries and chocolate syrup to their own square. You could always serve it like this, and offer additional berries with the syrup. Strawberries, blueberries, blackberries, raspberries…basically all the berries would be so good on this!
Eclair Squares
If you love eclairs, you will love eclair squares! It's the flavors you love of eclairs only so much easier!
Ingredients
For the Eclair Base:
- 1 stick butter (1/2 cup)...do not use margarine
- 1 cup water
- 1 1/4 cups all purpose flour
- 4 eggs beaten
- 1 pinch salt
For the Cream Filling:
- 4oz. cream cheese
- 2 tbsp milk
- 1 large package Vanilla Pudding
- 1 1/2 cup Milk
- 8oz. package Cool Whip
For Serving:
- Chocolate Syrup
- Fresh Berries
Instructions
For the Eclair Base:
-
Preheat your oven to 400.
-
Bring to a boil the butter and water.
-
Once it starts to boil, take it off the heat and add the flour and a pinch of salt. Mix in the flour with a wooden spoon until the mixture becomes smooth. Leave it to cool for a few minutes - don’t let it cool completely as the dough will be lumpy.
-
Whisk in the eggs.
-
Spread onto a greased sheet pan.
-
Bake for 25 minutes until puffy, and then let cool.
For the Cream Filling:
-
With a hand mixer, beat together the cream cheese with the milk.
-
In a separate bowl mix together the vanilla pudding with the milk
-
Combine both mixtures together until thickened.
-
Fold in the Cool Whip
-
Spread mixture over the top of the crust.
-
Refrigerate.
-
Serve with a drizzle of chocolate syrup and fresh sliced berries.
Making This Recipe? Tag us on Instagram: @NoBiggie using the hashtag #NoBiggieRecipes, so we can see what you are making in the kitchen!
MORE desserts we LOVE:
- Chocolate Cream Pie
- Raspberry Cream Tart
- Chocolate Dipped Eclairs
- Croissant Bread Pudding
- Magnolia Bakery Banana Pudding
That’s it! If you love eclairs you’ll have to make these squares and let me know what you think in the comments below!
