Do these look like cream puffs to you? Didn’t think so. Yes, those are burnt butter drippings all over the plate.
I had my day scheduled so that I won’t be frantically getting ready to go out tonight to our first Christmas party of the season. I decided to quickly whip up a batch of cream puff batter to bake this morning. This recipe is an old stand-by passed on by my mother, which I make almost every Christmas season, and it probably hasn’t failed me (or to be more accurate, I haven’t failed IT) in 15 years.
Today I broke my record. Failure. Utter Failure. I am not pleased. I am also out of butter, the key non-negotiable ingredient.
Wise daughter, of course, reminded me that multi-tasking has its drawbacks. Scowl directed her way!
Okay, so the puffs are drowning in butter. Apparently I doubled the butter amount. I should have known something was off when the mixture just wouldn’t form into a ball, no matter how hard I stirred. But no, I had to keep on going, adding a little more flour, and then a little more flour, hoping miraculously that would be the key. I knew better.
Now all I have is tasteless, hard mounds of baked yuk.
I guess this day will be a little busier than planned. I see a frantic afternoon in my future.
And I will be carefully measuring and double checking all four ingredients when I revisit my kitchen later today.
I have a motto that says "there is no such thing as a failed dessert." I find that my family will eat even the biggest flops and be very forgiving if I label them as dessert. Hopefully your family is the same. Still, it is very disheartening to bake something and have it not turn out the way you wanted it to.
ReplyDeleteThis happens to me from time to time as well. And usually on a day when I can't afford to have it happen. Hope things went better in the afternoon!
ReplyDeleteha ha - from the picture they almost looked like potatoes at first - but what about the saying that if life hands you lemons make lemonade. If you handed yourself too much butter, make butter ______ (trying to think of the opposite of a puff)- maybe you've created some new craze...then again, I guess not.
ReplyDeleteviv
Viv - they would have to be butter pucks, because they were almost that hard! Hopefully never to be repeated!
ReplyDeleteSucky!
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