Daring Bakers Challenge: I Do Éclair!

Voilà! It's my first Daring Bakers Challenge - chocolate éclairs. Well, as you can see, I deviated from the traditional form of the pastry by making a puff instead. But I followed the Pierre Hermé recipe exactly otherwise. I made this for my department beginning-of-the-year party, so I thought a smaller portion would be more potluck friendly. I also piped the chocolate pastry cream into the puff instead of slicing it in half and sandwiching it. It's just more eater friendly, I think, not to have cream splooging out the other side when you take a bite. Even better, it's a pastry that can be downed in one!

The components of an éclair are the choux dough, the crème pâtissière, and the glaze. Hermé's recipe was pretty perfect - he is the god of pâtissièrie, after all. In fact, one of the new students of our department told me she spent some time in Paris this year and my choux dough was "the perfect texture." What a compliment!

Here are the full recipes, with a couple more pictures.

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs
Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé
(makes 20-24 Éclairs)

• Cream Puff Dough (see below for recipe), fresh and still warm

1) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.

2) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

3) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.

Notes:
1) The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Assembling the éclairs:

• Chocolate glaze (see below for recipe)
• Chocolate pastry cream (see below for recipe)

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.

2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.

3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

Notes:
1) If you have chilled your chocolate glaze, reheat by placing it in a bowl over simmering water, stirring it gently with a wooden spoon. Do not stir too vigorously as you do not want to create bubbles.

2) The éclairs should be served as soon as they have been filled.

Pierre Hermé’s Cream Puff Dough

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk
• ½ cup (125g) water
• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
• ¼ teaspoon sugar
• ¼ teaspoon salt
• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour
• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon.

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs as directed above.

Notes:
1) Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

2) You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

Chocolate Pastry Cream

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk
• 4 large egg yolks
• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar
• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:
1) The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

2) In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

3) Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze
(makes 1 cup or 300g)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:
1) If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly
 in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

2) It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce
(makes 1½ cups or 525 g)

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 1 cup (250 g) water
• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:
1) You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.
2) This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Tourist Thursday: The Scroll and Key Secret Society at Yale

This week has been so breezily pleasant that walking around campus has been a treat (I'm finally up and about). I brought my camera with me the other day, since I feel it's a shame I haven't captured more of this beautiful place. I thought I'd post here, once a week, the things I notice and admire around the grounds.

We'll start off with a secret society building (or "tomb") - not the famous Skull and Bones but its younger counterpart, the Scroll and Key. Its building is located in the heart of the campus, near the library and across the street from my own department.

This is the backdoor entrance. The tomb is on the right, with distinctive black and white striping.

Viewed from the front, the Moorish design is quite obvious (see also the gate
encircling the property in the above picture). I love the green hydrangeas!

I walked by this building a hundred times, wondering what in the world it was. There are no signs and no windows . . . I guess that should have clued me in. There are several of these tombs on campus, and this is, in my opinion, the most beautiful - although I love the fence around the Book and Snake tomb.

Hazardous Challah

I think all the accidents and pains I've avoided for the last few years have descended upon me in the space of this last week. In one week I've:
1) had extreme eye irritation (see last post)
2) burned a slash on my hand to a blister
3) developed a huge sore on my tongue so I can't eat properly
and, as of yesterday,
4) developed sciatica, that is, herniated a spinal disc
Please let this be the end of it! I remember, when I was dealing with the eye thing, I said, "At least I have the rest of my body." Maybe now I believe in touching wood.

Yesterday, at the bakery, I was bending down to pick up a tray of challah bread from a lower oven when I lifted, straightened, and twisted to my right at the same time. Then, after managing to get the tray to a rack, I grabbed onto the counter and tried not to faint.

Challah: it can kill you. Now I'm happily on pain meds and have managed to get up and walk all by myself today! Maybe tomorrow I'll be able to pick stuff up that I drop on the floor.

On a happier note, Wednesday was my niece's birthday. I miss my afternoons with her.

Happy Birthday!

At Least I Can Still Smell - Sniffing Après L’Ondée

For the last two days I've been plagued with eye pain, and I finally saw the doctor today, even though my student health insurance doesn't kick in until Friday and my short term plan ended on Monday. Isn't that just Murphy's Law?

Anyway, right now I can't even walk outside because the wind feels like knives in my eyeballs, and the sun is too bright. Ahhh! Get me away from this fresh air and sunlight! But, should I lose all vision, at least I've been training my nose for the last few months. I'll smell my way around. (But really, I should be fine.)

Since I find myself with limited amusements, let me jot down some of my thoughts on the last perfume I smelled, Après L’Ondée by Guerlain.

From Bois de Jasmin

Après L’Ondée is not one of the classic heavyweights from Guerlain, which include L'Heure Bleue and Shalimar - these are powerful, heady perfumes. Meaning "after the rain shower," the fragrance begins with the a watery note - hard to describe, but once you smell it, you'll know it. The top notes I smell also include iris (a root-like scent), thyme, and sage. Just imagine you plunged a bunch of herbs under cold water and are holding them up to your face. Better yet, imagine you're standing in a herb garden after a rainstorm.

Then I get violet - a very purple and tiny smell. By "tiny" I don't mean the smell is faint but that it smells tiny, delicate, miniature. Sweet, too, but in a small way, not in the expansive way of sugar and vanilla. Like a petite candied violet.

I wish Après L’Ondée stopped there for me. I would be in love with this melancholy scent if it did. Alas, on me it finally develops into Eau de Baby Wipes. Once in a while, amidst the smell of infant hygiene, I get a whiff of something herbal again, only to lose it.

I also wish I loved this scent for a sort of silly reason: I want to like the house of Guerlain. I am secretly afraid that I will despise every one of their fragrances (I also do not like Shalimar). Will I then be denounced as completely bourgeois? What if I actually like Britney Spears' Fantasy instead? As a developing perfumista, I am educating my nose. I have samples of other Guerlains to try yet, as well as exclusives niche fragrances. But this brings up the question of how we learn taste: is it based on our own likes and dislikes, or on what is deemed "tasteful" by others? How does this work with food and wine? Do we naturally like caviar and truffles or do we because we learn they are "sophisticated" foods?

Maybe the test of natural affinity vs. pretension is whether we abandon our old likes entirely or not . . . I do love foie gras and escargot, but I also love a good mac 'n' cheese. I also have a secret place in my heart for junk Chinese food: mmmmm, Orange Chicken. What do you think?

First Day at the Bakery

When my alarm went off at 4AM today, I figured I got about 2 hours total of sleep. But this is what I signed up for, right? This is the job I've been longing after for time out of mind. So I got up, put on a big t-shirt, sneakers, and my blue bandana and headed out the door.

The bakery I'm working at is located in a Whole-Foods-type grocery store, so when the head baker, I'll call her Karen, let me in, the produce guy was just beginning to check his stock. It seemed sort of magical to haunt the behind-the-scenes storage rooms and walk-in freezers of the shop. One advantage of baking at a store, and something I've always fantasized about for my own home (when I have a gazillion dollars) is having the entire place serve as your pantry! No turbinado sugar? No bittersweet chocolate nibs? No problem! Take a cart and go down the baking aisle! No fresh blueberries? Hit the produce section.

Anyway, today was an easy introductory day. Karen is always ahead of the game, so she had made in advance several batters and frostings, so we were good to go. We baked/made:

1) Scones - apple cinnamon, blueberry, raspberry
2) Muffins - more types than I can remember
3) Cinnamon sticks - a breakfast pastry
4) Cookies - again, numerous types
5) Bars - brownies (normal and vegan), blondies, and apricot

We also iced several cakes. I have to work on frosting abilities and my piping. My rosettes are really not up to par yet. All in good time.

It is so novel for me to have giant bins of flour and sugar and nuts and grains. And industrial ovens! I can't believe I get to be in my ideal playland, but for work. But I am pretty exhausted, and the job does require that I'm on my feet for hours, so it's not all fun and games. It seems most jobs aren't . . . Well, nonetheless, I am excited to start this new adventure. Tomorrow I learn challah bread production!

Exciting News!

So, I think it's safe to blog about this without jinxing myself now: I've been hired by a bakery! To bake! I'd seen the ad on Craigslist a while back and applied, but I heard nothing for weeks. Then, last week, I saw the ad again and went in, this time armed with photographs of my baked goods. The head baker liked them and soon I was meeting with the manager and owner!

There'll be a trial period, so they can see if I can handle the machinery and production. There's a big Jewish population in the area so the challah bread production will be one of my major responsibilities - thank goodness I brought a picture of my challah bread with me! If all goes well, I'll be the sole baker on Saturdays and Sundays, in charge of muffins, cakes, scones, etc. etc.

I start this Thursday morning with training - at 5AM! Ahhhh!!!

Banana bread with chocolate chips and rum-soaked raisins.

Dahlias

Zhang Yimou

Filipo Monteforte/AFP/Getty Images

I think we can all agree that the Olympic Opening Ceremony in Beijing were pretty fantastic. The artistic direction was done by Zhang Yimou, famed director of films such as House of Flying Daggers, Hero, and Raise the Red Lantern. Gong Li, whom I idolize as the most beautiful Chinese woman ever, was his longtime muse and amour.

When at the West Lake in China last summer, I got to see a production by Zhang Yimou on the lake. Not sure how they did it, but it was also quite fantastic, though on a much smaller scale. Here are a few (blurry) visuals. They retell well known Chinese tales, perhaps we would call them legends or fairytales, that center around the beautiful lake.

Dancers on the lake wave enormous feathers in unison.

Here the story of the White Snake and her husband are told on a floating pagoda.

Dancers perform the story of the Butterfly Lovers under a watery canopy. It's a story of star crossed love, but with a very slightly happier ending than Romeo and Juliet (the lovers meet as butterflies over their graves).

Happy 08/08/08!

Eight is a lucky number in Chinese culture because " bā " (八) sounds like " fā " (發) the word for becoming prosperous. Besides being an auspicious day for opening the Olympic games, today is also my sister's birthday!

I, however, have an unlucky Chinese number in my birthdate: Four, which is " sì " (四) sounds like " sǐ " (死), the word for death. Yay! Well, it's kinda cool, in a goth way.

Anyway, happy most auspicious day ever! I plan on watching the opening ceremonies tonight and maybe eating some " bā bǎo fàn(八寶飯) or Eight Treasure Rice. It is my favoritest Chinese dessert .

Mornings with Tilly

Let me introduce you to Tilly, my doggy friend:

For the last month and a half I've been getting up at the crack of dawn (okay, a little after that) on Tuesdays and Thursdays to run this little girl for an hour. It's probably one of the more interesting jobs I've had. Tilly belongs to a family in the area, and, apparently, she's quite the runner. The owner told me, "Well, she used to run twice a day, but now she's getting a little too old for that." Wow. I wish I had that kind of energy.

So, Tilly gets to go out and stretch her legs while I get a little pay and accountability in my running schedule. And Tilly is an easy dog - she doesn't pay any mind to other people or dogs, which makes me feel pretty superior when another dog is making a fuss. I think, "Hmph. What bad manners. Look at how composed we are." The only thing Tilly does sometimes that makes things difficult is poop twice in one morning - when I have only 1 plastic bag. By the second poop, I've already cleaned up the first and thrown the bag away half an hour ago. So, I'm stuck either looking like a jerk by not curbing my dog or picking the stuff up with my hands. What do you think I choose?

Toothsome Bear Cakes

What's with the title to this post? Well, I spotted it on a girl's t-shirt in Japan - I love nonsensical English on Asian products! And it's what came to mind, for some reason, when I finished icing these carrot cake cupcakes.

Something about the lime cream cheese frosting and the toasted walnuts made me think "toothsome." But, to tell the truth, I was less than thrilled with the cake itself. I used a recipe from Nigella Lawson's How To Be A Domestic Goddess, and I think something got lost in the conversion from British to American measurements and temperature.

In other news, I am now a member of the Daring Bakers! I look forward to making this month's challenge - so look for the big reveal on August 31st!