Let me set the record straight: I am NOT, by nature, a baker of fancy desserts.  Or overly involved desserts.  If you’d like any sort of crisp or pie, I can do that for you.  Cookies?  Coconut cakes?  Lemon bars?  I’ve got you covered.  But 30 layer crepe cakes?  Dyed, rolled and personalized heart cookies?  Homemade cream puffs and eclairs?  That train is driven by my daughter Hannah.

And Martha, of course.  Martha Stewart has, through her beautifully shot magazine and her PBS television series Martha Bakes, convinced my daughter that anything is easily achieved in the kitchen.  Our kitchen.  Admittedly Hannah and I watch the show together, but most of the time I would be content to simply observe the goings-on in Martha’s world of baking.  H wants to actually make it all.  Just yesterday morning, the first thing out of her mouth was, “Good morning Mommy.  Can we make cream puffs today?”  And because I’ve silently sworn to say no less often, cream puffs it was.

There were a few stumbles, a few tense moments, but we got messy and we laughed a lot.   We also agreed that the entire puff/eclair making process was much easier than anticipated, so you should seriously give it a shot.  The pate a choux dough was a snap with only 5 ingredients (butter, sugar, salt, flour, eggs), and if you aren’t interested in making pastry cream filling, you can throw in ice cream and top with chocolate or the maple glaze for profiteroles.  I say make the glaze – it was so good I could have bathed in it.

Thank you, H, for continually pushing me to try new things!  My world is brighter and much more delicious because of you.

Click here to check your local listings for the PBS series Martha Bakes.

Click here for the Maple Glazed Cream Puffs and Eclairs recipe.