Daring Baker's Chocolate Eclairs

I was excited to make the Daring Bakers challenge this month but, again, I procrastinated. And I learned a lesson. Quit procrastinating!!!
I waited till the very last evening possible, to make my eclairs. No wiggle room for error. But I had every bit of confidence that this would go smoothly. I mean, it's not like it's the first time I ever made a Choux pastry. That's fancy talk for a cream puff dough!


Was I confident or cocky? That is the real question. You see, I made my dough. I piped it out, bake it, and cooled it. All was fine. But then I was combing through my 5 pages of instructions, looking for the pastry cream ingredients, and my eyes saw something I didn't see before. The cream puff dough called for five eggs and I only used three. Where did I get 3 eggs in my head? Can't I read? And it was sooo hot. I had to do it on a day when the temperature outside was 109. What was I thinking? Or... Was I thinking?

So I redid the dough using 5 eggs. I made them, I piped them, and I baked them. All was fine when I brought them out of the oven. They looked perfect! I was doing good! Then I turned around. One second was all it took for my beautiful cream puffs to fall. They fell flat. I threw them out!

Wasn't I just talking about self confidence? Well, I felt deflated as well. I was hot, tired, and pissed. I was gonna do it a third time being that the third time is a charm, but I didn't have enough eggs. So I moved on to the pastry cream.

Now that stuff is a dream. I made mine with a vanilla bean instead of chocolate, being I have an abundance of vanilla. But I believe I might have ate just a tad bit to much straight from the bowl. Either that, or, the recipe just doesn't make enough. Yea, that's it. The recipe doesn't make enough. Be sure you double that part of the recipe. To be sure you have enough! :)

O.k.... It was like 8 o'clock at night and I had some chocolate eclair monsters yelling at me. "Where. is. my. eclair?" That did not make a hot, tired, crabby person any happier. I'll give ya a cream puff alright. Well, at this point in the game, I made a simple ganache and threw a few desserts together. My daughter said, "They're beautiful" She is so sweet! I wonder what she wants.

So the next day, with the pastry cream gone, I piped a few eclairs with whip cream as per request from one friend. She loved them. They did look pretty but I wanted pretty with pastry cream. I wasn't about to make more and have all those calories around again. No sirree! I was done. Threw in the towel. Moving on!

I boxed the few eclairs for my friend and delivered them. Presentation is half of it, right?

Thank you Meeta and Tony for picking this challenge. I have a feeling this recipe will be made again here, soon. I have a few birthdays coming up and what says I'm thinking of you like a few eclairs?

Note to Karri-Sorry I didn't get any eclairs to you. I'll make it up to you! Did you freeze my zuchinni bread? LOL

More Daring Bakers challenges:
Danish Braid
Opera Cake
Cheesecake Pops
The Perfect Party CakeJulia Child's French Bread
Lemon Meringue Pie
Buche de Noel
Potato Bread
Bostini