Skip to main content
Dessert

Eclair Pudding

A baked custard dessert with chocolate icing and vanilla custard filling.

From an old cookbook · modernised transcription
From a historical cookbook (Internet Archive) · 13 ingredients
Jump to recipe ↓

Why it works: Milk and vanilla are a kitchen classic. They rank in the top 5% of all ingredient pairs, and cooks put them together in 19,187 recipes. Both carry ethyl caproate, which smells fruity, apple peel. The science ↓

Eclair Pudding

Ingredients

Directions

The book gives no oven temperature. The 350°F (175°C) in the steps was added when the recipe was transcribed, as a starting point.

Prepare the cake base

  1. Preheat the oven to 350°F (175°C).

  2. In a bowl, beat the eggs and mix in 1 cup sugar, 1 cup flour, and 1 teaspoon baking powder.

  3. Pour the mixture into a baking dish and bake until set.

Make the icing

  1. For the icing, combine the egg white, ½ cup sugar, and grated chocolate in a saucepan.

  2. Boil the icing mixture until thick and smooth.

Make the custard

  1. For the custard, heat 1 pint milk with a pinch of salt.

  2. In a separate bowl, whisk together the egg yolks, ½ cup sugar, and 2 tablespoons corn starch.

  3. Gradually add the hot milk to the egg mixture, stirring constantly.

  4. Return the mixture to the saucepan and cook until thickened, then flavor with vanilla.

Assemble and serve

  1. Once the pudding is baked, split it and fill with the custard just before serving.

Recipe from a historical cookbook (Internet Archive).

Transcribed from a scanned cookbook and modernised for today's kitchens. Where the book gave no heat or time, or said "a moderate oven", the temperatures and times here may be modern equivalents rather than the book's own figures.

Explore the science

The flavor team

The pairs that carry this dish. Each one is judged two ways: how much their aromas overlap, and how often cooks already put them together.

  1. Milk + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together19,187 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl caproate (fruity, apple peel).

  2. Chocolate + vanillatop 5% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together10,020 recipes

    Shared aroma: sotolon (curry, maple).

  3. Sugar + vanillatop 8% of all pairs
    Smell alikelow
    Cooked together35,032 recipes

    Shared aroma: beta-damascenone (apple, rose).

  4. Corn + vanillatop 9% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together1,943 recipes

    Shared aroma: ethyl cinnamate (sweet, balsamic).

  5. Milk + corntop 10% of all pairs
    Smell alikemoderate
    Cooked together6,955 recipes

    Shared aroma: hexanal (green, grassy).

Sugar and vanilla barely smell alike, yet cooks put them together in 35,032 recipes: they work on texture and structure more than aroma.

Ranks compare each pair with 20,000 random ingredient pairs on CompKitchen. How we score pairs

What each ingredient does

Eggs
Bind the batter and set the baked pudding into a sponge-like structure.
Flour
Provides the starch and structure that hold the baked base together.
Baking powder
Releases gas in the batter so the base rises and becomes light.
Corn starch
Thickens the custard as it heats, giving it a smooth, spoonable body.
Egg yolks
Enrich and thicken the custard, adding richness and smoothness.
Milk
Forms the liquid base of the custard, adding moisture and creaminess.

The step that matters

Adding the hot milk to the egg mixture. Pouring hot milk in too quickly can scramble the egg yolks. Adding it gradually while stirring constantly tempers the eggs so the custard thickens smoothly.

“What each ingredient does” and “The step that matters” were written by Claude from this recipe’s own method and reviewed in samples by CompKitchen.

You might also like

Chocolate CreamChocolate Cream171 recipesVanilla Ice CreamVanilla Ice Cream108 recipesCorn CakeCorn Cake90 recipesCorn Starch CakeCorn Starch Cake89 recipes