Cream Puffs Galore

Let's talk French desserts. Fancy ones.

French doughs and batters have lots of fancy names, like pate a choux, or pate brisee, or pate sucre. I don't think that helps the approachable factor.

Pate A Choux (eclair or cream puff batter) translates to cabbage paste. See? Not so scary. If you're wondering about the name, it's because cream puffs "look like little cabbages", and fun fact, "Mon petit choux" is a term of endearment meaning, "My little cabbage". Cute.

Last weekend I taught Jesse how to make cream puffs. She took lots of pretty pictures. Now it's your turn to make these delicious little puffs of gold.

Let's start with the Pate A Choux - here's the breakdown.

1 cup water

1/2 cup butter

1/2 tsp salt

1 1/3 cup flour

5 eggs

Combine water, butter and salt in a heavy saucepan. Bring mixture to a full boil. Remove the pan from the heat and add the flour all at once. Stir quickly.

Return the pan to moderate heat and stir vigorously until the dough forms a ball and pulls away from the sides of the pan. 

Transfer the dough to the bowl of a mixer, and with the paddle attachment, mix at low speed until the dough has cooled slightly. It should still be very warm but not too hot to touch.

 At medium speed, beat in eggs a little at a time. Add no more than one quarter of the eggs at once, and wait until they are completely absorbed before adding more. When all the eggs are absorbed, the paste is ready to use.

 Pipe into desired shape, keeping them all uniform size and shape. Bake at 425 until crisp, about 17 minutes.  Do not open oven while baking, they WILL collapse.

But that's what the oven window is for! (super concentrated face helps too)

A few notes on Pate A Choux:

- My batter in these pictures was still a little warm when I piped it, so I would recommend refrigerating for 15 minutes if you have the same problem. 

- Feel free to pipe into eclairs, mini eclairs, or whatever your heart desires. Just remember, they expand a lot in the oven, so keep it small. 

- Don't have time to finish this whole process in one day? I didn't. Good news is these shells freeze beautifully, so once you have them baked and cooled, just pop in the freezer and defrost in the oven for a few minutes when you're ready to use them. 

Here's what they should look like when baked, and you can see the middles are completely hollow in the middle! Lots of room for delicious filling. 

Now may come the question, what to fill these little gems with? Well, the options are pretty much endless, but we're going to stick with the classic vanilla pastry cream here. 

Pastry Cream (Crème Patissiere)

4 cups milk

1/2 cup sugar

5 egg yolks

2 whole eggs

1/2 cup cornstarch

1/2 cup sugar

4 tbsp. butter

1 tbsp vanilla

In a heavy saucepan, dissolve sugar in the milk and bring just to a boil.

With a whip, beat the egg yolks and whole eggs. Sift the cornstarch and sugar into the eggs and whip until smooth.

Temper the egg mixture by slowing beating in the hot milk in a thin stream. Return the mixture to the heat and bring to a boil, stirring constantly. When the mixture comes to a boil and thickens, remove from the heat. Stir in butter and vanilla. Refrigerate until cold and whip before filling éclairs.

Don't have time for pastry cream? While I highly suggest it if you're going to all this work, another easy option is to fill with sweetened whipped cream. 

Next up, ganache. 

2 cups semi-sweet chocolate chips

1 cup cream

Bring cream to a boil in a medium saucepan. Turn off heat and add chocolate chip and let sit for 1 minute. Whisk until smooth.

Whew, ok, that was a process, but bear with me here, almost finished!

Time to fill these puppies! 

The filling process is made much easier with a pastry bag and tip, not going to lie here, but obviously I forgot both of those things when I made this batch, so I'll give you some options. 

1. Pastry bag/tip - Poke holes in bottoms of pastry shells with tip, fill with cream. 

2. Ziploc bag/tip of vegetable peeler - yeah, that happened. 

Once filled, dip in ganache, and be prepared for some marriage proposals. 

Yum yum!

Tasty Resolutions

Almost two weeks into the new year, I'm going to make an assumption and say that most of us are still going strong with our new year's resolutions. Honestly I'm still kind of in the process of figuring out what mine are. Get a library card. That's definitely one. Post on my blog more. I'm doing so good, right?

Anyway, I know one that holds true for me along with most everyone - be healthy. It's important, it can be fun and exciting, and also a real pain in the ass. So to make this goal a little easier for you, and as a request from my sister Nikki, let's make some fiber packed, naturally sweetened, tasty baked goods.

First, let's talk breakfast. I'm going to say it's at least 20% easier for me to drag my tired butt out of bed if I know there's something good for breakfast downstairs. Which brings me to this recipe from my mama: whole grain, honey sweetened, and there's veggies (in the muffin!).


Carrot Spice Muffins 

1 1/2 cups whole wheat flour                                                              
1 tsp baking soda                                                                                  
1 tsp baking powder
1/2 tsp salt
1/2 tsp cinnamon
1/4 tsp nutmeg
1/8 tsp ginger
1/8 tsp allspice
1/3 cup honey
1 egg
1/2 cup yogurt
1/3 cup olive oil
1/2 tsp vanilla
1 1/2 cups grated carrots
1/2 cup raisins
1/2 cup chopped walnuts

Preheat oven to 400. Measure dry ingredients into a large bowl. Mix all other ingredients into the same bowl until moist. Scoop batter in muffin tins* and bake 15-20 minutes.

*I'm going to make a guess and say this yields 12 muffins, but my mom's recipe doesn't specify.


Now maybe you have a craving for cookies. I do, most of the time. But maybe you don't want to eat a stick of butter in cookie form. That's why these Peanut Butter Cookies from Heidi Swanson are pretty much where it's at. Naturally sweetened, whole grain, and you get those great omega 3 fatty acids from the extra virgin olive oil - they'll make your hair shiny and your body happy - that's all you need to know. Also, if you want to add some dark chocolate chips, I won't tell anyone.


So good luck with those resolutions, I'll work on getting to the library and making a batch of these cookies.

Whole Wheat Apple Butter Scones

Happy New Year to all of you wonderful people! Now that the holiday craziness is finally coming to a close, I think it's time to hop back in the kitchen.

Scones. I like em'. I know they're kind of an acquired thing, some people say they're too dry, some just boring, but these scones are neither of those things. Moist, sweet, delicious... and I've made them twice to make sure they turn out perfect for those Sunday morning house guests of yours... because wouldn't you love to greet them with warm apple-y scones? I thought so. Just looking out for you here.

Whole Wheat Apple Butter Scones
If you don't have WW pastry flour, go ahead and use all purpose flour. 


2 cups whole wheat pastry flour
1/4 cup brown sugar
1 tsp. baking powder
1/2 tsp. baking soda
1/4 tsp. salt
1/2 tsp. cinnamon
1 stick butter, cubed
1/2 cup buttermilk
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1/3 cup apple butter
cinnamon sugar (for sprinkling tops)

Preheat oven to 400. Either grease, parchment or silpat a baking sheet. Combine dry ingredients in a large bowl, add butter and rub into the flour mixture with your fingers until the butter is the size of peas.

 Add buttermilk and vanilla extract and stir to form a soft (but not sticky) dough. Roll out on a floured surface (I used AP flour for this), and spread with the apple butter.

Roll up and cut into 9 slices - I used a sharp carving knife for this. Flatten slightly with the palm of your hand and sprinkle with cinnamon sugar. Bake for 20 minutes.
















I would suggest eating these with a cup of milky tea or coffee, and more apple butter or butter on top never hurts.

New years resolution? Eat more scones.

Pie in the face

Confession: I've always wanted to throw a pie in someone's face… preferably an ex-boss of mine. It's kind of on my bucket list.

Speaking of pie, since we're all here for baking tips and such, let's have a chat, shall we?

So, pie. It's pretty much where it's at. Pie can be awesome, pie can be pretty craptastic - the deal breaker for me? The crust. I've had too many a pie crust that taste like bitter, slightly burnt and crumbly weirdness. Let’s not ruin our filling with that god awful stuff anymore, yeah?

The recipe (makes one double crust pie) –

3 cups flour

¼ cup sugar

2 sticks cold unsalted butter, cut into cubes

pinch of salt

ice water

Mix together flour, sugar and salt. Rub the butter into the flour with your hands* until the butter is mostly incorporated, but you still have some small chunks in there. Pour in the ice water a few tbsp. at a time, fluffing the mixture with your fingers, and when everything is moistened, start forming into a ball. You want the minimum amount of ice water possible, but you also don’t want any crumbs left in the bottom of the bowl.  Cut the dough ball in half, form into disks and wrap in plastic wrap. Chill for 45 minutes.

Let’s continue our chat… you’ll have many people telling you that you should never use butter in pie crust, that it makes it hard to work with, that only shortening will make it flaky like it’s “supposed” to be.

I call bullshit on those people.

Technically speaking, they’re right. Fine, I’ll give them that. But you know what they don’t tell you in culinary school? Shortening makes it taste like crap. Do you really want to smear a nice chunk of shortening on your toast in the morning? No, you don’t, and if you do… I think you probably need to seek some professional help.

As far as workability, butter has a lower melting point than shortening, so yes, you’re going to need to keep it cold, because that’s what you do with real food… jesus, what is this world coming to?

Maybe I’m coming off as elitist… no, I definitely am – but I think it’s my duty to all bakers to help make them better bakers. I’m serious here. I want you to walk into that potluck of yours and put the other pie, cake, trifle, whatever, to shame. Heck, I want you to blow my pie out of the water, because as much as I love having the best pie, I want yours to be better. Why? I’m selfish. I want more good pie in my life. I hope we understand each other here.

Let’s get on to the tips –

1. Most importantly, keep everything cold. Take your butter out of the fridge right before you’re ready, and make sure you have the ice water all set. Some people go as far as refrigerating the flour, but I say that’s overkill.


2. Don’t add too much water. It will make it harder to roll and it won’t be as flaky in the end. This might take a few tries before you get it right. 


3. When rolling, keep it moving. This means you always want to make sure you keep adequate flour underneath and on top of the dough. You should always be able to slide the dough on your surface (I like to keep continually turning mine as I’m rolling). If the crust gets too warm in this process, just stick it on a cookie sheet and put it in the fridge for a few minutes. Take a breath and try again. 

*I want to note that some people prefer to use a food processor at this point, but I wouldn't suggest it. It's way too easy to over process the butter in a very short amount of time, thus not creating the small pockets of butter which result in a flaky crust. I realize this might not convince you, and I might just have to look the other way on this one, but please just take my word for it. Also, a pastry cutter may be used, but I think it's important to know what your product feels like when it's ready.  

      
      If you need advice about what to fill your pie with, let me know! Also, if you still feel lost, would pictures or a video be helpful? If the answer is yes, I'll do my best to work on that. 

Chocolate troubles

All bakers have them at some point in their lives - that moment of panic when you realize you just ruined that bowl of melted chocolate.

For those not in the know, I'm talking about when liquid hits melted chocolate. Your once beautiful, shiny bowl of chocolate becomes a gluey, hard mess of seized chocolate.

Here's what the difference looks like:

But, but, it makes sense, right? Logic would tell you if your melted chocolate is too thick to just add a little milk or water. Logic also might have just took your wallet while you weren't looking. Don't trust it as much now, hmm?

I had one of these moments just last week, which is why I'm writing this post.

I was making these brownies with my sister Jesse, when something terrible happened. I was microwaving the chocolate, butter and water together, when after a few stirs, it looked lumpy, inedible and disgusting. I wish I took a picture, because it looked pretty darn impressive - all the butter had separated from the cocoa and no amount of whisking was going to save it. Jesse looked scared, and we both contemplated throwing it out. Frankly, I should have known better. Looking at that ingredient list, obviously it would seize. I had just never had cocoa powder seize before. Chock that one up to experience.

Ok, so how to save this mess: I remembered hearing somewhere that pretty much the only way to save seized chocolate is to add more liquid. It sounds counterproductive since that damn water was what made it seize in the first place, but chocolate ganache (cream and chocolate) has to work somehow. We added the eggs and sugar, and lo and behold, no more separated weirdness.

A few tips to avoid this problem:

1. When melting, make sure you bowl is completely dry; a drop of water could made it seize.

2. If you're using a double boiler instead of a microwave, wipe the bottom of the bowl once you take you chocolate off the heat. Don't want to take any chances of that water getting into the chocolate.

3. Another way chocolate can seize is if the heat is too high. So for the double boiler folks, you want the water steaming, not boiling, so keep the heat low. For the microwave folks, always do small time increments (keep it below 20 seconds), keep stirring, and stop when the chocolate is almost all melted. Keep in mind that white chocolate is extra finicky, so be a little more careful.

4. Whatever the method, if not using chips, make sure you chop your chocolate in small, uniform pieces.

5. I hate to say it, but if your chocolate does seize, and you don't intend on adding more liquid as a next step, it's best to just throw it out and start over.


The brownies turned out awesome, by the way. Make them.

praline questions

Sometimes friends ask me questions outside of this bloggity blog, so I decided to pull this one out of my email and share with all of you!

First off, meet Bronwyn. This lady bakes and cooks many delicious things. Like truffles. She is the master of the truffle. Quite the title, huh? Anyway, here was her baking dilemma:


"Ellie!
What's wrong with my praline? It was all pretty and golden and suddenly turned white! I think it crystalized. But why? Is it because I used a wooden spoon, or a non- stick pan???

Help!
Bronwyn"




Here's a picture of how praline is supposed to look, and how Bronwyn's crystalized praline looked. 

Her recipe was a basic boiled sugar syrup with added hazelnuts and salt once the syrup turned golden.

A few things could have happened to make the sugar syrup crystalize -


1. Excessive stirring, or really any at all. (which Bronwyn informed me she didn't do, but it's something to watch out for!) Sugar syrups should be left to cook on their own.

2. Sometimes crystals can form around the top edge of the boiling sugar, which eventually will lead to crystallization. To avoid this, take a pastry brush dipped in water and run it around the top of the pan to dissolve the crystals. It will steam, but don't be scared!

3. You can also add a bit of corn syrup or lemon juice - they won't affect the flavor, but they'll help your chances of avoiding crystals.




As far as wooden spoons/metal spoons/nonstick pans, those shouldn't really have an effect. Although I would suggest using a wooden spoon for sugar syrups just to avoid potentially burning your hands.




Good luck with the praline, Bronwyn! I hope this helped!

Cookie Monster

Me and cookies go way back. I'm pretty sure they do with everyone, and I think that's why our love affair with them seems to continually grow. I have a few standby cookie recipes, and surprisingly I rarely venture out of those few. I guess I feel like when I want cookies, I really just want a piece of home, and they never fail to bring me back.

This first recipe is for good ol' chocolate chip cookies. They're fool proof, turns out the same every time into perfectly chewy, melt in your mouth cookies. I never try out different recipes for this classic because I don't need to.

Chewy Chocolate Chip Cookies

-	2 C. - 2 tbsp flour
-	1/2 tsp baking soda
-	1/2 tsp salt
-	12 tbsp butter, melted and cooled to room temperature
-	1 c. brown sugar
-	1/2 c. sugar
-	1 egg - 1 egg yolk
-	2 tsp vanilla
-	1 1/2 c. chocolate chips

Blend butter and sugars together. Add eggs and vanilla and mix well. Add dry ingredients and chocolate chips. Bake at 375 for 11-14 minutes.


Now for one of my favorites when I'm really having a chocolate craving.

Mexican Chocolate Cookies

-	2 1/4 c. flour
-	1 tsp salt
-	1 tsp baking soda
-	1/2 tsp cinnamon
-	1/4 tsp cloves
-	1/8 tsp cayenne pepper
-	2 sticks butter, softened
-	1 c. sugar
- - -	1 c. brown sugar 2 eggs 1 tbsp vanilla 1/2 c. unsweetened cocoa 1 c. chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 375. Stir dry ingredients together and set aside. Cream together butter and both sugars. Add eggs, vanilla and cocoa. Add flour mixture and mix well. Add chocolate chips. Bake on greased cookie sheets for 10 minutes.



Now go bake some cookies. Bring them to your papa, or your neighbor, or that cute boy or girl you like.  Or just keep them for yourself and nobody will be the wiser. It's ok, because I said so.