Dessert Party

I am so sleepy right now after being up until past 1:00 am last night making profiteroles and pastry cream for today's dessert party at work. I had forgotten how long and strenuous a process is to beat pastry cream into the thick smooth goo that people die for. But it was worth it! (The puffs in the pic are not mine--forgot my camera--but mine were as lovely.)

My chocolate cream, however, while it tasted good, the texture was a little grainy and the butter was seeping out when I unwrapped it this am. What happened? I'll have to do some research with famed food scientist Harold McGee to see if I can understand why the emulsion broke. Chocolate is tricky--my melted chocolate turned to chocolate powder when I tried to microwave it today, too, so I didn't get the nice drizzle of chocolate on top that I had planned. And, I should have dusted them with powdered sugar. But the taste and the texture was perfect. Many people were made very happy, including my boss, which is a good sign, I think.

Truly need to sleep now. Cannot cook late into the night like I used to!