TWD - Crackle Top Cream Puffs

 
This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe is Crackle Top Cream Puffs.  These are little balls of choux pastry with a crackly pastry top, and filled with whatever you desire.

I made Dorie's chocolate pastry cream, but did not have quite enough to fill my 12 large cream puffs, so I filled two of them with Chantilly cream.  Here you can see all the permutations of my cream puffs:

Of course, these were delicious.  I have never made cream puffs with a crackle top before, and it was a revelation - so delicious.  It adds a sweet, crunchy layer to the top of the cream puff.  I have also never made chocolate pastry cream before.  Though tasty, it is very rich, so I prefer the vanilla version.

To see what everyone else made this week and what they thought  of it, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Palmiers

The last Tuesday with Dorie recipe for this month is Palmiers.  These treats comprise puff pastry that is rolled with sugar, folded, then coated with melted butter and more sugar, to create  layers of puff pastry that are cut into "ears" and caramelised in the oven.

Palmiers to my taste are very plain, but they are apparently adored by French children.   To me, the best use for palmiers is Dorie's suggestion to place them on top of other soft desserts to add a bit of crunch and texture.

Some of my palmiers refused to stay folded up as they baked, so that you can see that as well as ears, I have hearts and "C" shapes.  The shape really doesn't matter if you aren't trying to sell them - they all taste the same.

To see what the other Dorie bakers made this week, visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

TWD - Chocolate Cream Puffs with Marscapone Filling

This week's Tuesday with Dorie recipe sprang from Dorie's idea for chocolate choux pastry and a little romance.  It is chocolate cream puffs with marscapone filling.

The choux buns are made with a little cocoa in the dough to make them chocolate flavoured.  The hardest part of choux buns for me is stopping them from deflating while they are cooling.  M top tip for avoiding this is to stick a thin skewer in the top of each bun immediately once it is out of the oven to release the steam inside (which can cause it to collapse).  For me, the recipe made 12 choux buns.

The filling is marscapone lightened up with whipped cream that has been kissed by rosewater and tinged pink.  (That is where the romance comes in.)  To make them pretty once assembled, icing sugar is dusted over the top of the buns.

I am a sucker for a choux bun, so I did like these.  However, I prefer a crème patisserie filling to the cream - that's just a personal preference.

To see what everyone else thought of what they baked this week (either these or a gateau basque), visit the LYL section of the TWD website.

Phillippa's Sausage Rolls

Who doesn't love an Aussie sausage roll?  Spicy mince, flaky pastry and tomato sauce (of course!) merge to make one delicious, popular treat.

I recently made the sausage rolls from Phillippa's Home Baking, which use rough puff pastry and a mixture of beef and pork mince.  For those not from Melbourne, Phillippa's is a bakery institution established by Phillippa Grogan, famed for its breads and other baked goods. 

These sausage rolls did not disappoint - they had flaky pastry, and were just on the right side of spicy and juicy:

Have I tempted you to make some sausage rolls for yourself?  If so, you will need:

Rough puff:

225g plain flour
1/4 teaspoon salt
170g cold butter, cubed
125ml chilled water
1 teaspoon lemon juice

Put the flour and salt into a bowl.  Add the butter, water and lemon juice.  Use your hands to mix the ingredients together into a rough dough, then wrap in plastic wrap and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Take the dough from the fridge and roll into a rectangle about 20cm x 30cm, with the edges being as straight as possible.  Fold one short end of the dough into the middle of the rectangle, then fold the doubled over part of the dough over the top of the remaining third of the dough so that you have a folded piece of pastry measuring 20cm x 10cm.  Wrap in plastic film and chill in the fridge for half an hour.

Repeat the rolling and folding process with the pastry three more times.  You now have ready to use rough puff pastry!

Sausage rolls: 

80g fresh breadcrumbs
1 brown onion, chopped
100ml tomato sauce (ketchup)
2 teaspoons Dijon mustard
3/4 teaspoon salt 
3/4 teaspoon black pepper
350g beef mince
350g pork mince
2 tablespoons chopped flat leaf parsley
1 tablespoon chopped thyme or sage
1 x rough puff pastry
1 egg
1 tablespoon milk

Process the breadcrumbs in a food processor to make medium sized breadcrumbs, and place into a large bowl.

Put the onion, tomato sauce, mustard, salt and pepper into the food processor and blitz to a puree, then spoon into the bowl with the breadcrumbs.  Add the mince, parsley and herbs to the bowl and mix with your hands until well combined.  Place into a covered bowl and chill.

Preheat your oven to 220 degrees Celsius.  Line two baking trays with baking paper or silicon mats.

Lightly flour your work bench, then roll out the rough puff pastry into a rectangle measuring 48cm x 30cm.  Cut the pastry into three pieces measuring 30cm x 16cm each.

Take the sausage meat mixture and divide into three even pieces.  Roll each piece into a ball, then roll  each ball into a sausage measuring the length of the long end of the pastry.  Place one sausage on the edge of one long end of a pastry strip, brush the opposite long end of the pastry strip with water, then roll the pastry, starting with the sausage edge, to enclose the sausage in the pastry. Press the edges of the pastry join lightly with a fork to seal.

Repeat for each of the other two pastry strips and the remaining sausage mixture.  Cut each long sausage roll into the desired size using a sharp knife (I cut each into quarters for party sized sausage rolls).

In a small bowl, beat the egg and milk together with a fork, then using a pastry brush, brush this egg wash mixture over the top of the sausage rolls.  

Place the sausage rolls on the lined trays and bake in the oven for 30-35 minutes or until cooked through and golden on top. 

Serve the sausage rolls hot with lashings of tomato sauce.

Chili Con Carne Sausage Rolls

For our Movember morning tea last week, I also made Beef and Bean Sausage Rolls from the Bourke St Bakery Cookbook.  These sausage rolls are inspired by chili con carne.

I was glad I made these, as they were the sole savoury offering on our morning tea menu, and they went quickly.  If I say so myself, they were delicious.  It also used up the puff pastry living in my freezer, taking up precious space. 

The recipe for these sausage rolls is as follows:

1/2 of a 400g tin red kidney beans, drained and rinsed
20ml olive oil
3 chopped garlic cloves
2 small red chillies, deseeded and  finely chopped
1 chopped brown onion
500g beef mince
30g dry breadcrumbs
salt and pepper to taste
3 sheets store-bought ready-rolled puff pastry

1 egg
1/2 cup milk
chilli flakes, for sprinkling

Preheat your oven to 190 degrees Celsius.

Heat the oil in a pan and add the onions, chillies and garlic and cook for 2 minutes. Add the kidney beans stir together for 1 minute. Remove from the heat and allow to cool.

Put the bean mixture in a large mixing bowl and add the beef, breadcrumbs, salt and pepper. Using your hands, mix for 3 minutes to thoroughly combine.

Make an egg wash by whisking together the egg, milk and a pinch of salt. 

Take a pastry sheet and cut it in half so that you have two long rectangles.

Divide the beef mixture into six even-sized portions. On a clean work surface, roll each portion out into a log. Place each log in the centre of a pastry sheet and brush one long edge with egg wash. Firmly fold the pastry over, pressing to enclose, leaving the ends open. Cut each roll into 3-4 pieces and place on baking trays lined with baking paper. Brush the top of each roll with egg wash and sprinkle with chilli flakes. Bake for 35-40 mins, or until they are golden brown.

Enjoy!

Daring Bakers - Croissants - Fresh, Fluffy, French

There is a chain of French cafes in Melbourne called Laurent.  Laurent sells all kinds of delicate cakes and pastries, dressed up very beautifully.  One of their tastiest offerings is not the prettiest at all - it is the almond croissant, a soft, flaky, buttery pastry filled with almond paste.

I have always wanted to make croissants, and this month, the Daring Bakers gave me a reason to do so, as we were set the assignment of making croissants.  In the words of the blog checking lines: 

The Daring Bakers go retro this month! Thanks to one of our very talented non-blogging members, Sarah, the Daring Bakers were challenged to make Croissants using a recipe from the Queen of French Cooking, none other than Julia Child!


As you can tell from all the exclamation marks, this was a very exciting assignment.

I got about a 50% strike rate with my croissants.  All of them looked like croissants, but some of them ended up being too small and baked up fairly hard as a result.  Of the remainder, they certainly looked and tasted the part.  At the top of this post, I have deliberately featured the star performers of my croissant batch - the plain croissant and the almond croissant, filled with almond paste left over from some other challenge.

I also made one filled with chopped chocolate:  

This is the interior of the almond croissant, with its almond paste filling:

And for reasons best known to my iPhone and my computer, featured stubbornly upside down, is the interior of the star performing plain croissant:  

Thanks to Sarah for hosting us this month.  I certainly enjoyed this challenge, and can tick off "croissants" from my baking bucket list.  To see what the other Daring Bakers did with this challenge, you can view the slide show over at the Daring Kitchen (from 27 September US time).