Hubby and I have been trying to make cream puffs. My dear departed mother-in-law made them and our memory of them is not being reenacted in our efforts to make them. It finally dawned on me that we're kind of following eclair recipes. Our memory of mom's cream puffs is they were almost the size of a small???? baseball. Big enough to easily cut in half and fill with yummy filling of our choice. Our eclairs seem to come out okay but not very big or puffy? Should eclair and cream puff recipes be the same, just a different shape for the dough? On our next attempt can we just make the dough shape bigger, start out with the unbaked dough the size we want? Or if we're making the dough correctly should they be puffing up on their own? And if we start out with the dough shape bigger than we have been making...how long should we cook it?

If they're not overheated, is there any kind of typical life expectancy of impact-bonded pots and pans? I.e. - cookware with a thermal diffusor plate bonded to the bottom. I have some older Invitations pieces - over 20 years old, on a few the handle is cracking, I could fix them but wonder if I'd be wasting my time on cookware that could be degrading. I just hate to discard something that's otherwise perfectly usable if repairing it would extend its useful lifespan. Related to this, is there a line of cookware you favor? Any opinions on Breville Thermal Pro cookware which I stumbled across. For the foreseeable future it's going to be used on an electric element range. Thanks!