Have you ever tried the famous eclair dessert? You know the one… layers of graham crackers, pudding, and chocolate. It’s heavenly but obviously not keto friendly.
I decided to try and ketofy it.
This version has 3 steps to make so it is a bit of work but, trust me, it’s worth it. I find it fairly close to the original. You don’t get the graham cracker-iness obviously because you are using meringues instead but other than that it’s super-de-duper close.
Note - my pastry cream and ganache both separated a tiny bit because I didn’t whisk them vigorously enough. Just an FYI - it looks a little sketchy but does not affect the deliciousness at all!
Keto Eclair Dessert
Ingredients
Pastry Cream
1 1/4 cup heavy cream
3 egg yolks
1/4 cup Swerve sugar replacement
Pinch salt
1 Tbsp arrowroot starch
2 Tbsp butter, cut up
1 1/2 tsp vanilla
Meringue
3/4 cup fine almond flour
1/3 cup Swerve powdered sugar replacement
4 egg whites
2 Tbsp Swerve sugar replacement
1/2 tsp vanilla
pinch salt
1/4 tsp cream of tartar
Chocolate Ganache
5 Tbsp butter
2 oz (scant 1/3 cup) Lilly’s chocolate chips
1/4 cup Swerve powdered sugar replacement
1/2 tsp vanilla
Directions
Prepare pastry cream - Bring heavy cream to a simmer in a pan. In a separate bowl, whisk together egg yolks, Swerve, salt, and arrowroot starch. Temper the eggs by very slowly whisking in the hot cream until we’ll combined. Return mixture to pan, place back on low heat, and stir until thickened. Note - this happens quickly so keep stirring and don’t leave it alone on the heat. Remove from heat once thickened and stir in butter and vanilla. Chill pastry cream until completely cool.
Prepare meringues - Line a cookie sheet with parchment paper and preheat oven to 350. Draw 3 - 5 x 10 rectangles (or 24 - 2 inch circles) on the parchment paper to use as templates for the meringue.
Whisk together almond flour and powdered Swerve, set aside. Beat egg whites, Swerve, vanilla, salt, and cream of tartar until stiff peaks form. Fold in the almond flour mixture. Gently spread or pipe the meringue on to the forms on the parchment paper.
Bake for 15 minutes at 350 then turn the oven off and prop the door open with a wooden spoon. Let cool completely in the oven.
Above photo is before being baked.
Above photo is after being baked.
When pastry cream and meringues are both completely cool you can prepare the dessert.
Layer one meringue on the bottom.
Follow with a layer of half of the pastry cream.
Then another meringue layer. Top with the rest of the pastry cream. Set aside while you make the ganache.
Prepare ganache - Melt butter and chocolate over low heat. Remove from heat and stir in Swerve and vanilla. Stir until smooth. If butter seems to separate just stir a little more vigorously!
Let cool about 5-10 minutes, until thickened but still pourable.
Spread evenly over the last meringue layer.
Chill dessert for at least an hour. If making ahead of time, be sure to bring dessert out of the fridge and let sit for 15 minutes to soften ganache before serving.
Recap - layers are: meringue, pastry cream, meringue, pastry cream, meringue, ganache.
Photo above you can see my ganache separated a little as there is a bit of butter around the edges. Just be sure to whisk your ganache well and this shouldn’t happen to you! It doesn’t affect the taste at all either, just doesn’t look as pretty.
You can see those tasty layers when you dig in!
I decided to do 8 individual servings in little containers but you can make it as a 5 x 10 dessert if you prefer.
Nutritional info per serving (recipe makes 8 servings): 335 calories, 33 fat, 7.8 carbs, 3.6 fiber, 6.4 protein. That’s 4.2 net carbs.
Reminder: if the pastry cream or ganache looks separated it won’t affect the taste. Just be sure to whisk well while you are making it!
