shoe cream, anyone?

I have made two batches of cream puffs...choux cream (read 'shoe cream') since last Friday...the first one turning out miserably and the second one somewhat better. (alas, the picture to the left is not mine) Cream puffs are not that hard to make...until the baking part, that is!

Common problems with cream puffs:

- they do not rise...flat round things

- they collapse upon completion (post-baking)

- they taste too eggy

- they are too dry

- they do not look round and pretty

The reason why I made them was because I am too afraid to buy them anymore. Recently a HUGE scandal (akin to the now defunct SNOW Brand company's milk scandal years ago) broke out, affecting the #3 confectionary giant in Japan. Well-established Fujiya (see the cute mascot, Peko-chan, to the right) was accused and found to have been using expired ingredients (milk, jam, etc) for various goods, most notably their cream puffs. Bacteria levels were tested to be 'out of the ballpark' out of the safety zone and all hell broke out when the media found out. Since then, poor franchises across Japan have ceased sales and closed their doors for the time being. Can they recover? If it were an automobile company...perhaps, but when it comes to food, they mean business here. Trust - as I have said before...takes ages to build and just moments to shatter, never to be regained again.