What an easy and fabulous dessert! It only takes a few minutes to prepare this delicious dessert for your family or friends and you don’t even have to bake it. I got this recipe from my favorite recipe queen, Mimi Pownall, years ago (in the 80s). It is very popular and actually one you can do different things with if you use different flavors of pudding and different canned frostings on top. You will find this recipe has gone viral on the Internet with folks like Paula Deen, allrecipes, food.com, and many other sites posting it. I’m not sure who actually created the recipe, but it appears it may have been one of Kraft’s creations originally.
Here’s what the dessert looks like in the pan.
A look at an individual serving.
Here’s another plate of it. It is like eating chocolate éclairs – so light and fluffy. You can mix and match the puddings and frostings if you like. All taste wonderful.
Here is the piece on my plate. Yummy!
This is what it looks like after you dig into it a little bit!
Here’s what I did.
This is what you need – 5 ingredients!! Super easy.
Spray a 9×13″ baking dish with cooking spray.
Empty the contents of 2 instant vanilla pudding and pie filling mixes into a mixing bowl.
Add milk.
Mix with your mixer until mixture thickens – about 3-5 minutes.
Here’s what it looks like after it thickens.
Add cool whip to pudding mix.
Stir cool whip and pudding mix together with spoon.
Place a layer of graham cracker crumbs in the bottom of your 9×13″ baking dish.
Spread half of the pudding mixture on top of the graham crackers, then top with another layer of graham crackers.
Spread the remaining pudding mixture over top of the graham crackers.
Add a third layer of graham cracker crumbs.
Spread chocolate sauce over top of the graham crackers. Smooth the icing so it fills in all the spaces.
Continue spreading the icing until the entire surface is covered.
Add an attractive swirl pattern with your knife or the back of a spoon if desired. You can refrigerate this dessert now for several hours. I prefer to freeze it. It is a lot easier to cut this dessert with a knife and lift out with a spatula if you freeze it and then set it out on the counter for 10 minutes or so before serving.
This is an individual serving.
This dessert went really fast. Everyone wanted some! It is so tasty.
This shows the height of the dessert pretty well.
Here’s the recipe with my adaptations. I have made my own topping before, but it is easier to just buy a can of chocolate frosting. Either way it comes out great, but it is a lot less work, clean up and mess to just use a can of chocolate frosting on the top layer.
ÉCLAIR DESSERT
(Adapted from recipe from Mimi Pownall, when we attended First Baptist Church Indian Rocks, Largo, FL, via Kraft Foods)
1 box graham crackers
2 3-oz. pkg. instant French vanilla pudding
3 cups milk
16-oz. container cool whip
1 can ready to spread chocolate frosting
Spray 9×13” pan or baking dish with cooking spray. Mix pudding and milk until thickened. Add cool whip. Take one package of the graham crackers and spread over bottom of baking dish. Cover with half of the pudding mixture. Spread with another layer of graham crackers, followed by the remaining pudding mixture. Top with the last layer of graham crackers. Spread chocolate frosting over all. Refrigerate a few hours before serving. Serves about 12-15.
NOTE: the original recipe calls for a homemade chocolate topping. You can use this if you don’t have canned chocolate frosting.
TOPPING:
2 squares bitter chocolate
2 tbsp. butter
2 tbsp. white corn syrup
3 tbsp. milk
1 tsp. vanilla
1 ½ cups powdered sugar
Melt chocolate with butter. Add remaining ingredients. Mix together and pour over top of graham cracker layer. Refrigerate 8 hours before serving. (This also freezes well).
A delicious comfort food…creamy, fluffy, melt-in-your mouth dessert that friends will you think spent hours preparing yet it only takes about 5-10 minutes!
This piece has your name on it!
Beautiful, yummy, fluffy, light dessert that goes great after a heavy meal like pasta or meat dishes.
This has been one of our favorites for years! I microwave the frosting about 45 seconds and then pour it over the graham crackers…really easy. The frosting sets up in the refrigerator.
What a great idea, Becky, I’ll have to try this some time. Thanks.
This looks scrumptious!
It is! And it is just SOOOO easy! Hey, I can do a 5 minutes dessert!
I am dying to try this dessert! It looks delicious
. I wish I found your site earlier. So many recipes and all of them look so great! It is obvious that you enjoy cooking 
It is delicious and, if you feel like experimenting, you can make it with many different flavors of pudding or frostings like chocolate pudding and chocolate frosting, or stuff with butterscotch, peanut butter. The sky is the limit with the different ways you can make this.
Even better, is it really only takes about 5 minutes to make it! I like that!