Birthday Baking.

For Joseph's birthday I made homemade eclairs. It was the first time I have ever made eclairs so there were bound to be a few lessons I was going to learn.

I learned that our oven needs to be 25 degrees hotter than what the recipe calls for.  My first batch came out small and not fluffy enough. Pâte à Choux (pronounced paht-ah-shoo!) requires a really hot oven to create enough steam from the moist dough to cause bubbles to create the fluffiness as it has no leveners. My 2nd batch came out MUCH bigger with large cavernous pockets to hold the delicious pastry cream.

Notice the difference in size, the front one is puny and small and sunken in the center while the one in back is fluffy, and full (and delicious).

I also learned to watch the chocolate sauce like a hawk.  The smell of burning chocolate is not pleasant.

And lastly I learned that trying something new that you've never made before is not really all that hard.  You have to be open to the fact that it may not turn out 100% perfect on the first go, but that doesn't mean you failed. Adjust and keep going.