Baked Goods

I’m a little sad right now. When I sat down to write this post I had an eclair sitting next to me. It was supposed to be my muse. I would write a little, take a few bites, savor the yumminess and then write some interesting and funny things until the effect wore off and I had to eat some more. The eclair’s name was “El Yumino”. Apparently my first few bites were too big as El Yumino is gone and I am left all alone, reflecting on what once was. Below you will find a picture of a sibling from the same batch that came out of the oven. I ate this one first which is why I figured that I could slowly work my way through El Yumino. Alas, I am weak.

Eclair

What is interesting about El Yumino is that he was part of the first batch of pastry to be cooked on my new jelly roll pans. Pâte à choux and I have met once before, a long time ago. It was one of the first pastries I tried to bake while on my mission in France. I was going through my french cook book, saw some eclairs and thought, “I like eclairs. I should make those.” If I had known then what I know now I imagine the result would have been satisfactory. But I was young and naive and had no idea how to properly mix the pastry dough in order to obtain a light and fluffy outcome. What I ended up with was something not so light and not so fluffy.

Tonight I decided to revisit my old nemesis. I added a little too much egg (Julia wasn’t kidding when she said “exactly 1 cup of egg”) so the dough wasn’t quite as stiff as it should have been but as you can see in the picture they cooked up nicely. The browning was perfect on every side and the interiors were light and airy. The jelly roll pans are definitely keepers.

You may recognize the chocolate on top from yesterday’s post. It is the chocolate Addie and I picked up at Fran’s Cake and Candy Supplies. Earlier today we employed it in the production of chocolate frogs, gorillas, monkeys and wart hogs.

Addie Drilling Things

Bam! I bet you didn’t see that picture coming, did you? After yesterday’s post I received an email from a disgruntled reader who wrote:

Although with all the talk about Addie I was expecting a picture of her with the spoils. Something to remember for next post.

I suppose blogs are like movies. If you follow a formula then people are happy and they will come and see your movie. It may not be new, it may not be fresh but you will please the general population and be able to recuperate the enormous fees you had to pay Mr. Cruise. Maybe for me that formula involves including lots of pictures of my kids. We will see. Here is another one just in case.

Luc in a tree