daring bakers: i declare my love of éclairs!

if you must know - and as you can probably tell from the more than pathetic results - i did this at midnight the night before the deadline. and i am so pissed at myself because when meeta from what's for lunch honey along with tony of olive juice picked pierre hermé's classic chocolate éclairs i was so frickin' excited! does it really need explaining? i mean, doesn't everyone love éclairs? plus, i've never made the choux before, so i was definitely on to the challenge!

hmm, challenge ... by definition, doesn't that mean i shouldn't have left it the last minute? yes, i know, but stay with me here. i halved the recipe, because i'm trying to train, and having a box of fresh éclairs around was not going to help. first batch of choux came out runny after i beat in the eggs. me thinks it wasn't the eggs but that i didn't mix and heat the dough thing long enough.

i am far from even being a novice, let alone expert, in this stuff - so i had really no idea, but the reasoning sounded good at the time. so the second batch had the dough thing mixed and heated for at least 4 minutes, and this time the eggs added beautifully and i had a nice pipable dough. coincidence? who knows, i'm just happy it worked. so now they were baking good, golden brown, rising up, out of the oven ...

and the damn things deflated! and became soggy!! i think the main reason is because i left them - by mistake (see midnight baking circumstances, above) - on the hot baking sheet to cool instead of putting them on the rack. me thinks that it must need the air circulation. i also read the tip from foodbeam to poke a hole in the bottom once they're done to let the steam escape. makes perfect sense, thanks hindsight!



i wanted to cry. of course i want things i bake to come out correctly. but because this was new and because i love éclairs, i really really wanted these to come out better than ever! and now they were just soggy eggy hot dog buns!!

thankfully the over the top death by chocolate pastry cream made up for it!

so dear darling choux ... i may have failed you this time, but you have not seen the last of me, i promise i will make you proud!

and i promise if you take a look at some of my fellow daring bakers, you will be drooling to make your own éclairs today! they are an amazing group, and every time i think about dropping out of this thing (hello time management problems) i am always pulled right back in by all the gorgeous creativity they show month after month. if these lads and lassies don't inspire you as well, then i don't know what will!

chocolate hot dogs, anyone? ;)

daring bakers: danish braids

wow. what a time to come back, huh? just in time for this month's amazing daring baker challenge, co-hosted by kelly at sass & veracity and ben at what's cooking? how did they know i just LOVE laminated doughs?! uh, i mean, i love eating them cuz i've never made one before today (yes, i made my danish bread TODAY!) so i didn't know if i would love that part too. and well, wouldn't you know it ... now i'm a little afraid that i will indulge the new love making (hehe) with more puff pastries, turnovers, croissants, and danishes than ever thought imaginable.



the recipe chosen is from sherry yard's the secrets of baking. i bought this book a couple months ago and was intrigued by the fundamentals building block nature of the recipes. classic culinary learning style (or so i'm told by mr. mimi, CIA grad). it makes sense, and yet feels a little unfamiliar. two months ago i did try one of her frosting recipes, but it was written so scratchily and sparse, and i didn't make it right. for someone with more knowledge about frostings and how they work, i'm sure they would have easily filled in the missing pieces of info and been fine. but this was my first frosting that did not come from a betty crocker tub and sigh, it was a mess.

but what she has sometimes with sparsely written recipes, she makes up with lovely written introductions to each section of fundamentals. from the intro to laminated doughs:

"laminated dough is made up of two components: a ball of dough, or the détrempe, and a butter block, or the beurrage. the two are sandwiched together in a pâton, then rolled out and folded many times into a tour (turn). each fold and roll is call a turn, and each turn results in several thin layers of dough alternating with thin layers of butter. when the dough hits the heat of the oven, the water in the butter evaporates into steam, and pushes each layer of détrempe. and voilà! you now have beautiful, flaky pastry." (p. 264)

each type of laminated dough has a slightly different recipe. for a wonderful tutorial on la pâte feuilletée with tour double (double turn, folded like a book rather than a letter) please visit the lovely foodbeam. i was surprised to know that danish dough has cardamon and orange flavors. and it's not even a danish creation, but a pastry made up by viennese bakers replacing striking danish bakers in denmark. who knew baking history could be so gossipy!



umm, really. did you need all this rambling text? let's just get to it, huh? the dough itself was easier to roll out and turn than i expected, my butter stayed in place and there was no oozing or tearing. but there is still some refinement to be made in my handling because i seem completely unable to understand how thick 1/4" really is, even with a ruler in hand! i cut my sides a little wrong and my resulting braiding was a little (lotta) loose, so it didn't shape up ideally. i have a perennial problem with overfilling, and it reared its ugly head with these braids too. (trust me, i made sure to photo only the good side of things!) oh yeah, and as you see, i didn't watch it in the oven and it came out a shader darker brown than desired.



but despite all those little flaws, i loved this challenge. i made two versions, sweet and savory. the first one was a traditional strawberry marmalade with tonka bean pastry cream. the savory option was a mediterranean style fennel, onion, cured olive, and herbed goat cheese. wowzers, that savory one was to die for.

the sweet photos ...







and really, almost anything could go in these braids of pastry. to see more combination creations, please do check out every other daring baker out there! my fellow bakers have some kick ass talent. in the meantime, please try to clean up that drool on your keyboard :)

the savory photos ...