
Here is one of my finished eclairs. The kids said that they tasted great even though they didn't look very pretty. The comments were: "yummy" and "very chocolaty". Unfortunately, I did have some problems.

The dough was easy to make. I didn't have a pastry bag, so I used a plastic bag with the corner cut off. Here is the dough before it was baked.

I followed ALL the baking instructions. When I pulled this pan out of the oven, the dough started to collapse. I quickly put the second pan back into the oven to try to save them.

Here is the second pan. I baked these longer, but they still collapsed! What do you think? Were my "chubby fingers" too chubby (see the recipe if this doesn't make sense)? Even after a longer cooking time, they were still doughy in the middle. This is why I think I started out with too much dough. I guess I should have baked them longer even though they were getting very golden brown.

a collapsed puff

This is the chocolate pastry cream. It is delicious. The chocolate sauce is also yummy! Both are VERY chocolaty. If you are a chocoholic, you'll be happy!
Here is where my story takes an interesting turn. I created everything, assembled one eclair for a picture, and took my pictures. I went into our computer room to upload the pictures to my blog. I kept hearing the jingling of my dog's collar, but it didn't register. It was too late when it finally did. I walked into the kitchen to see my dog eating my baked puff doughs. He ate over half of them!
Guilty!