Of Cream Puffs and An Addition to the Family.

I have never been much of a day dreamer. Even as a kid, I could always be found writing my short stories or with my head buried in a book rather than gazing into the distance, lost in my thoughts.

Recently however, I find myself day dreaming at work of all the lunches and desserts I would whip up over the weekend. Dreaming of indulging in a chocolate molten cake with a gooey chocolate centre accompanied by a luscious scoop of vanilla ice cream speckled with tiny vanilla beans or tucking into a bowl of comforting spaghetti bolognese with generous shavings of Parmigiano-Reggiano and freshly ground black pepper certainly helps the work week go by just a little quicker.

This week, cream puffs were all I had on my mind.

Thoughts of spending the better part of the weekend in the kitchen, whipping up and putting together the multiple components (the chox pastry, tart dough and pastry cream) and finally sinking my teeth into the little babies were all that got me through the really long work week.

So when the weekend finally arrived, there really was no surprise where I was bright and early Saturday morning. It was just as well I got an early start with it as there was a lot of waiting time with choux pastries having to be frozen after being piped out and then again once topped with the tiny discs of tart dough.

It always surprises me how much I love long, involved, multi component desserts. There really just is something about it that really helps me unwind for by the time my little pastries sent off into the oven, all my late nights in the office were long forgotten.

These were soo good! With the crisp tart dough lending a textural constrast to the light, soft choux pastry and a rich, velvety pastry cream filling, these little babies were all I dreamt about and so much more.

And now, to round off the indulgent and relaxing weekend I’ve had, here’s introducing the newest member of my family, Kiki.

We adopted her from a friend and have had her for almost a week now. She seems to have adjusted pretty well to our household and is pretty happy to just sit around quietly, watch everyone do their own thing and let Coco provide the sound effects.

Isn’t she just the most gorgeous thing? I can’t wait to start teaching her tricks!

Cream Puffs [Taken from Martha Stewart's Baking Handbook]

Pastry Cream
2 cups milk
60g unsalted butter
1/2 cup sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
Pinch of salt
4 egg yolks
1/4 cup corn starch
3/4 cup pouring cream

Tart Dough
45g unsalted butter, softened
1/4 cup icing sugar
1 large egg yolk
1/2 cup + 2 tbsp plain flour
Punch of salt
1 tsp pouring cream

Choux Pastry
125g unsalted butter, chopped
1 cup water
1 tsp sugar
1/2 tsp salt
1 1/4 cups plain flour
4 eggs, plus 1 egg white if needed

1. To make pastry cream Combine the yolks, corn starch and 1/4 cup of sugar in a large bowl. Whisk well and set aside. In a saucepan, combine the butter, milk, salt and remaining 1/4 cup sugar over medium heat till the mixture comes to a simmer. Pour the milk mixture into the yolk mixture, whisking constantly. Pour the mixture back into the saucepan and bring to a boil, whisking constantly, till thickened. Strain the mixture into a bowl and let cool at room temperature.
2. Whisk the cream till stiff peaks form and fold it into the pastry cream. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it directly onto the pastry cream to prevent a skin from forming and refrigerate till ready to use.
3. To make tart dough Using an electric mixer, whisk the butter and icing sugar together till combined. Add the egg yolk, following by half the flour, mixing well. Add the rest of the flour, salt and cream and mix till all the flour is incorporated. Wrap the dough in plastic wrap, shaping it into a disk, and refrigerate for at least 2 hours.
4. To make choux pastry In a saucepan, combine the butter, water, sugar and salt and bring to a boil. Remove the saucepan from heat and quickly whisk the flour in. Return the saucepan to heat and over medium heat, cook the mixture till the mixture pulls away from the side of the pan and a film forms on the bottom of the pan, stirring constantly.
5. Transfer the dough to the bowl of an electric mixer and beat it for a minute till cooled slightly. Add the eggs in one at a time, beating well. Touch the batter to see if a soft peak forms. If it doesn’t, add the egg white in a little at a time till it does.
6. Pipe the batter out into circles as large as your round cookie cutter. Smooth the pointed peaks with a moistened finger and freeze the puffs for at least 30 minutes.
7. Roll the tart dough out to about 1/8 inch thick and cut as many circles with your cookie cutter as you have choux puffs. Place each disc of tart dough on a frozen puff and return to the freezer for at least 15 minutes. Preheat the oven at 190C.
8. Bake the puffs for about 25 to 30 minutes or until they are golden brown all over. Remove the puffs from the oven and let cool at room temperature.
9. Put the pastry cream into a piping bag with a large round tip. Insert the tip into the bottom of the puff and fill it with pastry cream. Dust with icing sugar and enjoy. Makes about 36 cream puffs

A Special Something for a Special Dad.

Seeing as how I made my mum scones on Mothers’ Day, it was really only fair that I made my dad something a little indulgent today. And I knew just the thing to make his day just that little bit more special.

You see, my dad loves his pastries, a particular fondness he does a pretty good job at resisting (unless we’re in a particular hotel that serves these little pastries with fresh mango slices as part of their breakfast pastries, then it’s a whole different story). So I figured, Fathers’ Day is probably as good a reason as any to indulge a little. Besides, life is too short- you have to live a little right?

So sliced peach pastries it was (mangoes were going at the ridiculous price of 5 bucks each!).

I think it’s pretty much an understatement when I say my dad really liked this. I left one out on the patio for him with a glass of barley to wash it down while he was hard at work under the scorching sun in the garden. He came by a little later and proceeded to help himself to another one while telling me how good they were and how they looked right out of a bakery.

I’m just really glad he liked it. I wish there was more I could do than just give my dad a huge hug and wish him a happy Fathers’ day but for now, these pastries will have to do.

Caramel Heaven.

Okay, seeing as how subtlety isn’t really one of my strong points and I know no other way to say this, I will come out and just say it.

You. Have. To. Make. This.

If you’ve never had ice cream so good each brain-numbling spoonful completely blows your mind- heck, even if you have- you have to make this.

I know the recipe looks long and complicated but all it really says is that you make caramel over the stove, split it into half and make caramel sauce (with the addition of some cream) with one portion and caramel ice cream with the other. It’s as simple as that and you’ll be handsomely rewarded, I promise.

As if tasting like heaven wasn’t enough, the corn syrup in the caramel prevents the ice cream from freezing too hard. So even if you make this with elbow grease like I did (due to a- hopefully temporary- misplaced ice cream paddle), the ice cream will have the most perfect scoopable texture straight out of the freezer- making it the most perfect ice cream ever in my books.

To say every spoonful of this smooth, creamy caramel ice cream with thick, decadent caramel sauce had me swooning would be an understatement. It really was the perfect treat to cool down with on a hot, sunny day.

And fortunately for me, I seem to be the only caramel fan in the house- not that I have any plans of sharing.

Caramel Gelato [adapted from Sherry Yard's The Secrets of Baking]

Ingredients
1/4 cup water
1 cup + 2 tbsp caster sugar
2 tbsp corn syrup
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 1/2 cups whole milk
3 egg yolks
Generous pinch of sea salt

1. Combine the water, 1 cup of sugar and corn syrup in a medium saucepan over medium high. Bring the mixture to a boil and heat the mixture till it hits 360F on a candy thermometer. Remove the pan from heat.
2. To make the caramel sauce Heat 1/4 cup of cream in a saucepan till warm. Pour half the caramel in and whisk till combined. Remove from heat and let it cool completely- it will thicken as it cools.
3. To make caramel ice cream Whisk the eggs and 2 tbsp of sugar together in a large bowl. Heat the milk, remaining 1/2 cup of cream and salt in a saucepan over medium heat till warm. Carefully pour half the milk mixture into the remaining caramel. Stir to combine well and pour the mixture back into the milk mixture.
4. Bring the caramel mixture to a boil and slowly pour it into the egg mixture, whisking well constantly. Return the mixture to the saucepan and over medium heat, stir the mixture constantly till it becomes thick enough to coat the back of a spoon.
5. Strain the mixture into a bowl and let cool completely before refrigerating for at least 4 hours. Churn with an ice cream maker, according to the instructions that came with it. Serve with caramel sauce. Makes half a litre of ice cream

Bread, As Instant As It Gets.

One of the things I really love doing but haven’t really had the luxury to since I started work is bread making. The thing about making bread is that while it’s completely magical and immersely satisfying to make something so wholemeal, good and completely takes on a new life on its own with the most basic of ingredients, it is also rather time consuming, easily taking up the better part of the day with all the kneading and proofing.

I have to admit that I’ve known for a while now (how could I not, with everyone raving about it from the moment it hit the stores) that there exist this book that claims that with its recipes, all you need is five minutes, that is excluding the proofing and baking time, each day and viola, fresh bread on your table. I’ll also admit that having always made bread the old fashioned way (ie with my two bare hands and a lot of flour), I was very skeptical to say the least.

But when I came across Artisan Bread in Five’s website , I just had to order the book right after I picked my jaw off the floor- you wouldn’t believe how gorgeous the photos on that site are- and start baking bread asap.

Mixing the dough without kneading it and putting it all in the fridge to rest with utter blind faith that it will work out was no easy feat. I swear the dough was practically crying for me to pick it up and knead it to smooth springiness. Instead, I practised tough love, chucked it in the fridge and waited for it to work its magic.

As it turns out, I was duly rewarded for quelling the instinct to knead. With barely no effort at all and a couple hours in the fridge, the dough baked up beautifully with such good flavour and texture. I honestly couldn’t believe how good the bread was when I first tasted it. I mean really, I barely even had to lift a finger and viola, freshly baked bread- all in barely no time at all to boot!

I think it pretty much goes without saying that I am completely sold on the book and that my family has been enjoying homemade bread on a much more regular basis now. Oh and that, of course, I’m already standing in line (virtually, of course) to get the soon to be released Healthy Bread Baking in Five.

Light Whole Wheat Bread [adapted from Jeff Hertzberg and Zoe Francois' Artisan Bread in Five Minutes a Day]

Ingredients
3 cups lukewarm water
1 1/2 tbsp yeast
1 tbsp coarse sea salt
1 cup whole wheat flour
5 1/2 cups unbleached plain flour

1. Mix the yeast and water together in a large bowl. Mix in the flours and salt without kneading until all the dry ingredients have been incorporated.
2. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and allow to rest at room temperature until the dough rises and collapses, approximately 2 hours.
3. Transfer the dough into a lidded ( but not airtight) container and use over the next 14 days.
4. To bake Pull off however much of the dough you need depending on the size of the pan you use. Flour the work surface and shape the dough into a ball. Place the dough in a lightly greased loaf pan and let it rise at room temperature for about an hour.
5. Preheat the oven to 225C with an empty baking pan on the bottom shelf. Pour about 2 cups of hot water into the baking pan just before you put the bread in. Bake the loaf for about 45 minutes (you might need more or less time depending again on the size of your loaf pan) or till golden brown and firm. Remove the loaf from the pan and let cool completely before slicing. Makes 2 medium sized loaves