Eclairs - finishing

Eclairs - today lets talk the finish.

First, we need to create a ganache. This is simply a mixture of hot cream and chocolate.  For this ganache, I'm using 1/2 cup of cream and 4 ounces of chopped semisweet chocolate, in this case Ghirardelli which makes a great semisweet chocolate baking bar that is perfect for this sort of thing.  But any good semisweet chocolate will do.

Heat up the cream until is is hot, but don't boil it.  You can put it in a saucepan, but I just set my metal measuring cup on an electric burner and it works just as well.

It's best if the chocolate is chopped fairly small.  If it's not chopped small enough, the hot cream will not have a chance to melt all the chocolate before the mixtures cools and it won't be a smooth ganache.

Add the hot cream to the chocolate and let it sit for 45 to 60 seconds.  Then slowly stir it.  I like to go in small little circles in the middle and then gradually work my way outwards as everything melts and comes together.

Then simply let this sit out at room temperature for a while until it cools.  It will still be liquidy enough to spread.

Now slice the tops off the eclair shells and fill them with your custard-cream mixture.  And then either spoon the ganache over the eclairs or take the tops and dip them into the ganache.  Now you have a finshed eclair.  Pop them into the fridge to chill and the ganache will set.  I like to them sit for a few hours.  Then they're ready to eat.

Eclairs look like they must take a lot of work, but it's not that much, and since you can divide the process up into three separate stages and do each stage at a separate time, the task is easy to schedule around other things.

Soon you'll find them on the menu at brucebakeryandbistro.com.  I hope you will give them a try.

Eclairs - shells

 

Eclairs.  Today let's about shells.  Here's what's needed:  butter, a tiny bit of sugar and salt, water, flour, and eggs.  That all.

Heat the water with butter salt and sugar until the butter is melted.  I never let it boil as I don't want to lose any of the volume of water.

Add in the flour all at once and stir with a wooden spoon.  This type of spoon is the easiest of all the utentils to use for making eclair dough, in my opinion.  Once the flour and liquid is combine, still in the pot on the heat, you start stirring more vigorously.  This should be maintained for a few minutes.  The dough will come together and soon you will see a thin film being left on the bottom of the pan.  Now you know it's done.

Toss the dough into a mixer and mix for a minute or so to allow some steam to vacate the dough, and to cool it just a bit.  Then add whisked eggs and mix until they are thoroughly combined.  Finally, turn up the speed on the mixer to medium and run it for about 30 seconds.  Now you have a beautiful dough.

Spoon the dough into a pastry bag.  I'm using a relatively small tip here as I want smaller eclairs with this batch.  But you can do a variety of sizes and shapes of eclair shells.

Make whatever shapes you want, doing this directly onto parchment already placed on a baking sheet.

Into the oven they go at a high 400 degrees.  You want a burst of heat to hit these to make them cook faster initially.  However after a short while, the heat is turned down and the shells are baked for longer time at the cooler temperature.  This stops the expansion of the shells and allows for nice browning on top with a fully cooked interior.

And there you go.  These are relatively small versions of eclair shells.  They can be made bigger and thicker, small and round, whatever you wish.  Once cooled, these are ready to be cut open and filled.

Next up is topping, which will be extremely easy.   A new post on that will come shortly.

Enjoy the fall weather everyone.  It is amazing out there today!

Eclairs - filling

Making eclairs. Today let's talk about the filling.  Without a good filling, an eclair is just a bunch of baked dough with a bland interior.  The filling is important to get right.  This particular filling is a blend of a custard and whipped cream.  Cake flour, sugar and salt are all whisked together.  The sugar whisked in combination with the cake flour will help ensure that the cake flour won't clump when it is introduced to whisked eggs.  So this mixture of dry ingredients and eggs now sits off to the side.

Milk is scalded. Basically I heat it up until little bubbles start to form on the outer edge.  We don't want it to boil.  Technically scalding has been achieved once the milk reaches about 180 F.  Once scalded, the milk is then added slowly to the egg mixture while whisking.  Then once it's all combined, the entire mixture is poured back into the saucepan.

Now we have to stir constantly for a few minutes.  The mixture will start to thicken.  Once it does, I always stop stirring periodically to see if it is bowling yet.  Once it starts to bowl, I only want it to continue for about 10 seconds, just enough to cook the flour taste out.  Any more and the texture won't be what is wanted.   Remove it from the heat, and pour it through a fine-meshed sieve into a heat-resistant bowl.  At this time, add vanilla extract.  If using vanilla beans, the seeds can be scraped into the milk when it is first in the pan for scalding.  But vanilla extract will not handle that heat well, and should added here at the end.  It's always a good thing to remember that vanilla bean seeds and vanilla extract should be added at different points when going into very hot mixtures.

Now the strained custard will chill in the fridge for a few hours.  Press plastic wrap right up against the surface to keep it all soft and smooth.

Once chilled, it will be unused until we are ready to fill the eclairs.  When that time comes, heavy cream is whipped until very stiff.  Then it is whisked into the custard.  Now we have a cream-infused custard.

And here's what it look like.  If you taste this, it will be amazing.  Lightly sweet, lots of vanilla tones, and wonderful silky texture.

Now it's ready to fill an eclair.  When that times comes, just put it in a pastry bag so that you can pipe it into the eclair shells.  More on that in the next post.  For now, the mixture will sit in the fridge.

That's all for tonight.  Next time:  eclair shells.

Have a great week, everyone!

Manual effort

hosta

Summer is just about over.  Fall is on it's way.  Almost all the hummingbirds have already headed south.  I spotted only two today.  Time to start reducing the number of feeders outside, but a couple will be left out for straggler migrating hummers who are still coming down from farther north.

This past week I cut a lot of vegetables for making chili, a savory egg salad, and something else that I for some reason can't recall at the moment.  It can take quite a while to do that, although I have gotten fairly speedy over the years and I use a knife-resistant glove on my non-knife hand to protect it which means I can do it without worrying about a cut.  Someone once asked me why I didn't just buy pre-cut vegetables in containers from the grocery store.  The obvious answer to that is probably that size counts, and one would have to cut all those vegetables anyway.  But another answer is that there is a different feel to cooking if you do it all yourself by hand.  I like taking ownership of that prep process.  I want to cut those vegetables to the size and shape that I desire.  And doing it is actually quite a peaceful and relaxing thing to do.  Of course that can change if I'm on a timetable, but I try not to cook on a timetable.  I like to go at whatever pace I want to go without regard to the clock, without worrying about a deadline.

When you do it all yourself it feels different.  Maybe it's almost like a meditative thing.  I don't know exactly.  But the process is nice.  At least I think so.  Then again, sometimes I have to cut of lot, I mean a lot, of vegetables and I have to admit it wouldn't be bad to have a little help in doing it.  If that help is a second person doing the cutting, then that's great.  Cooking with others is a community thing.  So it's not that I have to do it all by myself as a matter of principle.  I just like to have it done all there in the kitchen where food is being made, I guess.  

The manual effort that goes into cooking is a good thing for the soul.  I think manual effort in anything is good for us.  And cooking by nature will always require a lot of that.  When you do something with your own hands, the final product really does feel different.

Stuffed cherry tomatoes

spring 2020, back gardens

I've had a nice few days since my last post.  I've worked on some good new piano music, watched some good television, and spent time talking online and playing online chess.  It has been a few days of practically no sunshine here in Kansas City.  Lots of rain means the plants all have a chance to do what they need to for the upcoming winter.  The hummingbirds are feasting, gorging themselves on nectar.  I have 5 hummingbird feeders up between both back and front yard gardens, and they are very active with lots of hummers.  Soon these fun little birds will head down south to escape the winter that it is to come.

I'm working on a new item.  In fact, it's pretty much done.  I just have a tiny tweak or two left to achieve something which I can say is finished and is ready for all who like to try my food.  This is a cherry tomato stuffed with a mixture using a goat cheese base but which includes several other ingredients as well, including fresh herbs.  It tastes so natural and refreshing and light, it's really a challenge to eat only one.  I've never really been a fan of goat cheese before.  Then my brother happened to visit one day and brought some goat cheese to use with some other items we were going to eat.  I tried it and was very pleased to find that I liked it .... a lot.  So I immediately went out to get some and tried it with a stuffed cherry tomato that I had played with a couple years ago but which never quite made the cut for me.  Well, I tell you, with this new goat cheese, it worked.  Either that or my appreciation for goat cheese suddenly burst into existence for some unknown reason.  In any event, I'm going to be adding it to the full menu soon.  I will let everyone know in a new post when that happens, and I hope everyone will give it a try when it hits its first weekly menu offering.

Try to enjoy the seasonal change we are going through as summer ends and autumn begins.  Stay healthy and safe.  And as always, eat well.

Microwaves and melting butter

rock pile, mock cairn, or charming landscape decor? 
whatever you want to call it it's in my yard

Can you imagine life without our microwave ovens?  

I have two ways I like to melt butter mostly:  in a metal measuring cup placed on a stovetop burner or in the microwave oven.

The first way is nice because I'm using a small container for this small amount of butter, and, for some reason, I really get a kick out of not using an entire saucepan.  The metal measuring cup can withstand the heat and I've only dirtied one small dish rather than one larger pan.  I can turn the burner on low and just let it sit for a while.  It's easy and efficient.

Of course sometimes I want it melted more quickly.  So this time it goes into the microwave. The problem is that if it heats up too quickly it will rapidly expand, or overboil, or explode.... I'm not sure what exactly it does.  All I know is makes a big mess .

I've learned that if I wrap a ramekin in a paper towel at least that towel will contain the agitated butter.  Of course, sometimes I think I'm going to leave it for a few seconds, and I hit the 30 second timer and then step away thinking I'll only be gone for a part of that time and be right back.  When I'm not, then I am reminded of what I have done by the sounds of exploding butter.  

At this point there are splotches of melted butter all over the top and sides and inner door and rotating tray.  Doesn't really take all that much time to clean up but it sure is a pain.

I've been experimenting with melting butter in a large glass measuring cup, the quart sized ones.  I think it actually allows for faster melting with no exploding butter.  I need to do more testing on this idea.  And then if it really consistently works, I will want to know why the larger sized container in the microwave is better to use than a small ramekin.

Does anyone have the mathematical calculations on that?  Perhaps a doctoral dissertation?  Oh, well.  I suppose it's not really necessary to know for certain why .... but it would nice.  I am an intellectually curious person who hates to be dissapointed.

Have a great week ahead everyone and enjoy the beginning of fall temperatures here in Kansas City.

Butter and hot water

from my garden

 I don't like synthetics much .... except when I do.  At least when it comes to foods.  Confusing, right? 

This also goes for things that are overly processed.  Powdered milk?  Why bother.  Although once in a while I come across a recipe that uses it and then it's OK.

I dislike imitation vanilla.  But I'm fine with synthetic food coloring because I really don't see a good alternative.  

Bleached flour?  I'm good with it, and in fact prefer it to unbleached.  

Margarine and other processed butter products ... yuck.  I know ... I know ... most people love them and think of them as a great alternative to more costly butter.  There's something I notice about butter that always makes me feel good about using a high quality butter.  (I use Plugra for just about everything.)  When it's on my fingers, I can run it under hot water, and it washes away virtually completely without the need for soap.  That always seems significant to me.  If I have margarine on my fingers, that always requires a bit of soap to completely remove.  So to feel my skin completely free of the oils using nothing but hot water somehow adds to my satisfaction in using that kind of food product in the things I make. 

So I'm an enigma, a cluster  of counter-ideas as to what's OK and what's not.  

That's OK.  Aren't we all?

Our favorite dishwares

 

This morning as I was drinking milk from one of my favorite mugs, I was reflecting on the fact that our kitchens are filled with so many specific pieces of dishware and cookware that become part of our normal daily life patterns.  The photo above contains a small platter and a bistro bowl.  These are Fiestaware pieces from the Homer Laughlin China Company, made here in the United States.  I can't imagine my kitchen without the beautiful colors.  And I certainly can't imagine not eating on these sturdy well-made pieces of dishware.

When I make pasta it often goes into this low broad-based bowl of which I have several, made by Le Creuset.  The broad rim makes it ideal for carrying large servings of all sorts of things.  The soda glass (I have a couple dozen) is excellent for pudding parfaits, ice cream sundaes (and ice cream sodas, of course -- every try a purple cow?) and many other things.  Rugged in structure yet beautiful in form, it's great to be able to pull one off the shelf whenever I need it.

This mug was a gift from a piano student family I work with.  It is part of a small collection of various mugs that all have a story behind them, some sort of narrative as to who gave them to me, or a special memory attached to them, etc., but also actually get used every week at least once.

One of my favorite items:  a set of nested stainless steel cookware made by Magma that is specifically designed for boat owners who have limited space in which to stock their kitchens.  Each set has several pans with lids and removable handles, and everything fits nested inside to become the compact form you see above.  The idea is ingenious and is executed very well.  These are great pans and I cook in them all the time, and they don't take up much space.  I intend to get another set at some point.

This fun mug is a gift from my sister with whom I share a love of birds.  We both have several bird-feeding stations in our yards and compare notes often on the bird activities we see.  This mug carries the image of an American goldfinch.  Goldfinches are frequently seen at the thistle seed feeders in my yard.  I often drink milk from this at the start or finish of a day.  I love the image, and I love the smooth feel from the finish on this mug.

Our homes are filled with so many personal things that speak of who we are.  Kitchens are part of that for many of us who spend a lot of time in them.  I could go on and wax philosophical on this topic, but there's really no need for that, and that wasn't the purpose of this post.  Sometimes it's nice just to take note of something basic since we often take too many things for granted.  And that's all today's post is about:  noticing the beauty and utility of things that often become mundane in our minds as time passes and we forget to appreciate them.