Puff Pastry. It’s a time consuming pastry that might not even be worth it. Regardless, I made it anyway with the intent to make raspberry Millefeuilles and Pesto Palmiers… I’m barely getting by okay with the pastry puffs so those bakes are on pause.

Night 1

This is the night where I followed instructions of my pastry book. Roll 250g of pastry puff to 1/4 inch thickness. I only used one tray on top of the baking tray as my weight, and I set the oven to 375 for ~20 minutes. It made this… An absolute unit.

Night 2

I did something that I should always do before I follow a bake from the book: watch a recipe video online. Chef John showed me to roll it out very thin, poke holes with a fork to prevent major puffage, and bake for 400 degrees around ~25 minutes. Much better.

I still want this crispy thin, so next time I will roll this out on parchment paper to something so thin it will be pushing my comfort zone. 🙂

This was time consuming but it was easy to execute. I used the king arthur recipe that originally uses cinnamon sugar. Having just made snickerdoodles, I was craving for something savory instead of more cinnamon sugar. Next time, I would REALLY pinch those star tips together and measure each strip carefully. The extra care of measuring your cuts will go a long way.

I’m not a big fan of snickerdoodles. They’re just not an adventurous cookie when the flavor is only coming from the sugar, cinnamon, and butter. Yet when I was out of ideas for baking, Zach told me that he was craving snickerdoodles. So I set out to make some really good ones. I really liked the recipe found here.

• I reduced the 1 cup of white sugar to 3/4 cup and it was great for someone who’s not big on sweets like me.
• I rolled the dough out to 1/4-1/3 inch thick and used a cookie cutter. Perfect cookies every time.
• I reduced the temperature to 335 degrees for a more even bake.

For Christmas, I was hoping to recreate a croquembouche to add to the festivities. When I made the chouxs, they came out far larger than I hoped. It wouldn’t have made for a delicate croquembouche, so I improvised and dipped them all in dark chocolate ganache.

For the ganache, I used Ina Garten’s recipe: chocolate, heavy cream, and (I omitted this since I was using a very dark chocolate) instant coffee. It’s simple, but I saw a recipe that calls for a dash of salt and some butter. I’d like to try that next for a more complex flavor in the chocolate.

Before yesterday, I had no idea what a croquembouche was besides it being a funny french word. I saw a post and it was the fanciest thing I’ve ever seen: a tower of cream puffs each hand-dipped in caramel and then spun together with caramel twine.

I’ve never made cream puffs, choux pastry, or pastry cream before this. I did it all last night and it was surprisingly easy. The cream puffs themselves would make for a great party platter. I followed the recipe for choux pastry and pastry cream from The Flavor Bender. It was all so good!

Tips

• My oven is hotter than other ovens. My cream puffs were perfect at the 23 minute mark – different from the 30 minute mark in the recipe for choux pastry.
• For the spoon test of the choux pastry, perform it only when the choux pastry is cooled.
• For the caramel twine, make sure your caramel cools enough that it creates thin long strings when you lift the caramel up from a fork. You want the caramel to cool to this specific point or else you’ll end up with globs of caramel.
• With all of your leftover egg whites, use them to make macarons!

Imagine. You’re pumpkin pie. You wake up in a hot sweat, even though it’s chilly outside. Above you, hungry people clad in scarves and flannel are staring down at you. Today is not your day.

In preparation for Thanksgiving, I really want to perfect my pie crust. Last year’s pumpkin pie had a delicious filling but a crust that was as hard as rocks. Although the pumpkin pie filling this time came from a can, I loved the crust. I used the recipe that can be found here. Next time, I’ll use the homemade pumpkin pie filling recipe from this baby here.

Hello! I am not rusty after all. We have rosemary, and I am afraid that the autumn rain will get to it before I do. I used two tablespoons of rosemary for these two decently sized loaves. The recipe was simple and I will perfect this again for Thanksgiving!

Next time…

• Before pressing the rosemary onto the rolls, generously brush the two rolls with melted butter. I want rolls so golden I need sunglasses to see it!
• Put two cloves of crushed garlic into the flour. It adds dimensions.

I feel like such a pinterest star writing that title! I made both for the first time today, and it came out SO good. I used the NYT recipe for pancakes but made a few modifications. I also used a super easy and simple berry compote recipe but spiced it up a bit more. Use with a good quality maple syrup and you’re freakin golden

Flaxseed Pancakes

• 2 cups flour
• 2 tsp baking powder
• 5 tbsp flaxseed
• 2 eggs
• 1 1/2 cup milk
• 1/2 tbsp sugar
• 1/2 cup sour cream
• Some salt

Balsamic Berry Compote

• 3 tbsp of balsamic vinegar added in tbsp measurements
• 2 1/2 cup frozen mixed berries
• 1/4 cup freshly squeezed orange juice
• 1/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 tsp nutmeg

Recipe for Balsamic Berry Compote

In a NONREACTIVE pan,

1. pour in freshly squeezed orange juice and dissolve the sugar over medium heat

2. when bubbling, pour in the berries and nutmeg. Stir gently.

3. after one minute, add in the first tbsp of balsamic vinegar. Add more to taste.

9/29/2018

Oh my heck, I just remade this recipe and failed disastrously. I used a smaller, reactive pan and placed the orange juice in there. It now tastes like I’m eating a liquified spoon. NOOOOOOO

So this is my second time making cinnamon rolls, the first time being last year. I think my first time was way better.

I used the recipe and ingredient list from lizzyt.

Tips

• Use 1/3 cup heavy cream instead of 1/2 cup. This makes for a sufficiently gooey (but not overly) cinnamon roll
• When she says to cover the table with flour, you COVER that table with flour. This is to avoid the dough from sticking to the table
• For the filling, only soften the butter. Do not melt it
• I reduced the sugar in the filling from 1 cup to 3/4 cup. I thought it was a good amount of sugar
• You may need to increase the butter in the frosting, because I had already reduced the cream cheese and still found it too… cheesy? I could have also increased the powdered sugar
• Don’t buy powdered sugar. You can just process granulated sugar instead

Overall, it still tasted good! Regardless, anything with that much sugar and butter should taste good. I am still worried about how gooey it is, and I had even baked it for longer.

Next, flaxseed pancakes and berry compote!

10/26/18

Redid the recipe. I baked it for a few minutes and then poured the cream on top. IT WAS STILL MUSH. Next time, I will roll out the dough until very thin, and then add a small pour of heavy cream in the sugar. I may just lightly brush the tops with watered down heavy cream.

It’s my first time making any kind of preserves and at this point, it’s a success if I don’t die from botulism.

It just makes it so much better that I loved the way this turned out. Make sure to nuke those jam jars really good to save yourself a trip to the hospital. Yay, no botulism!!

Recipe

• 4.5 lbs of firm Italian plums, pitted and sliced thinly
• 1/4 cup water
• 1/2 tsp ground nutmeg
• 1 cinnamon stick
• 2.5 tbsp fruit pectin
• 2.5 cups brown sugar

Over high heat, I combined the plums, water, nutmeg, and cinnamon in a large pot. I stirred constantly until water comes to a rolling boil which is when it continues to boil despite stirring. I then added the fruit pectin and stirred for roughly 5 minutes. I added the sugar in 1/2 cup measurements, tasting periodically to make sure it is not too sweet. Stirred on high heat until it reached the desired consistency. I used a food thermometer to ensure the mix reached 220 degrees Fahrenheit, which is the temperature that jelly will set. Ladle the mix into your sterilized jam jars.