Concentrate, Woman, CONCENTRATE!

Why oh why am I always juggling a dozen things AND trying to cook at the same time?! It happens again and again!! Gah!!

I’m trying to pull out the ingredients for the Bavarian-Filled Eclairs while talking on the phone, starting a load of laundry, and assisting my son with his English homework.

WHY did I do that?

As I’m cooking the mix in the first step (butter and flour, trying to get the dough to firm up), it’s not working. It looks like Cream of Wheat when it should be looking like beautiful bread dough. I went over and over and OVER the ingredients list, and had my daughter go over it, too. It looked correct. After 45 minutes of non-stop stirring, hoping it would thicken, my blistered hand could take no more. I added more flour to the pot, and the mix started to change into something that looked more accurate.

I doubled the amount of butter needed. I measured 1 stick of butter to be 1/4 cup when it is 1/2 cup.

I tried baking a few anyway, just to see if they would turn out. My vote would be, uh, NO.

GRRRRRROOOOOAAANNNN!! This recipe was for my church group, too, which was meeting tonight! :’(

Well, I added more flour, what I could, and a lot of eggs. This is what they are. Not exactly the glorious products from Amish fireplaces… but over all, not too shabby.

They look OK. A little too brown for me, but still nice. They have a cake-ish consistency, not like the puff-pastry texture it is supposed to have. I will fill it with the most luscious Bavarian Cream filling and see how they turn out. I think they will be OK, just… different.

Well, lesson learned. NEVER multi-task when preparing an important recipe! NEVER!!!