Pastries

I'm pretty happy with myself, finished this month's Daring Bakers challenge on time AND finished writing about it in time to post it on the 27th!
So this month we made cannoli. Not something that was very high on my to do list but I've always been curious about their taste. They are not something you would find in the Netherlands (or Austria I think). I'm not very big on frying so that's something I very rarely do. But it's good to practice now and then. I think I've only used ricotta once in my life and I didn't like the cake I produced so I wasn't sure I was going to like the filling. But since I like traditional baked goods, decided to stick with the original recipe anyway.
Cannoli forms is not something I own but I did have something similar that I purchased a few months ago: schaumrolle forms. Pretty much the same thing only smaller (6 cm / 2.4 in) and coated with teflon. I was in doubt if the teflon would appreciate being fried but I thought baking the cannoli in the oven wouldn't be authentic enough. I tried frying it and the teflon seemed ok.
I made the dough as stated. When rolling it I used my new rolling pin with adjustable thickness rings (heaven to use!) and rolled it out to 2 mm (a little more than 1/16 in) thickness. The dough was easy enough to roll. I had egg left over so used that to seal the cannoli's and this worked well too. Unfortunately after baking the dough the cannoli never turned out blistered even though the oil was hot enough as it took less than a minute to brown them. With the second batch I used the 1 mm (less than 1/16 in) ring for my rolling pin hoping that the thinner dough would give the blistering but even those didn't blister :(
For the filling I pretty much followed the recipe except I used grated chocolate instead of chopped, used almonds instead of pistachio nuts and added a few drops of orange essential oil in addition to the candied orange peel. Never thought that ricotta with some sugar and flavours would be this good :) Nice substitute for buttercream on cakes, and less rich too, but probably everybody except me already knew this ;)
The filling combined with the bite size cannoli's was good and I'm glad I finally got to taste real cannoli's. I don't think I will ever make them again though with all the work and frying involved. But that's probably because I'm not a 'fryer' person.

The November 2009 Daring Bakers Challenge was chosen and hosted by Lisa Michele of Parsley, Sage, Desserts and Line Drives. She chose the Italian Pastry, Cannolo (Cannoli is plural), using the cookbooks Lidia’s Italian-American Kitchen by Lidia Matticchio Bastianich and The Sopranos Family Cookbook by Allen Rucker; recipes by Michelle Scicolone, as ingredient/direction guides. She added her own modifications/changes, so the recipe is not 100% verbatim from either book.

CANNOLI SHELLS
2 cups (250 grams/8.82 ounces) all-purpose flour
2 tablespoons(28 grams/1 ounce) sugar
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.06 ounces) unsweetened baking cocoa powder
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1/2 teaspoon (approx. 3 grams/0.11 ounces) salt
3 tablespoons (42 grams/1.5 ounces) vegetable or olive oil
1 teaspoon (5 grams/0.18 ounces) white wine vinegar
Approximately 1/2 cup (approx. 59 grams/approx. 4 fluid ounces/approx. 125 ml) sweet Marsala or any white or red wine you have on hand
1 large egg, separated (you will need the egg white but not the yolk)
Vegetable or any neutral oil for frying – about 2 quarts (8 cups/approx. 2 litres)
1/2 cup (approx. 62 grams/2 ounces) toasted, chopped pistachio nuts, mini chocolate chips/grated chocolate and/or candied or plain zests, fruits etc.. for garnish
Confectioners' sugar

CANNOLI FILLING
2 lbs (approx. 3.5 cups/approx. 1 kg/32 ounces) ricotta cheese, drained
1 2/3 cups cup (160 grams/6 ounces) confectioner’s sugar, (more or less, depending on how sweet you want it), sifted
1/2 teaspoon (1.15 grams/0.04 ounces) ground cinnamon
1 teaspoon (4 grams/0.15 ounces) pure vanilla extract or the beans from one vanilla bean
3 tablespoons (approx. 28 grams/approx. 1 ounce) finely chopped good quality chocolate of your choice
2 tablespoons (12 grams/0.42 ounces) of finely chopped, candied orange peel, or the grated zest of one small to medium orange
3 tablespoons (23 grams/0.81 ounce) toasted, finely chopped pistachios
Note - If you want chocolate ricotta filling, add a few tablespoons of dark, unsweetened cocoa powder to the above recipe, and thin it out with a few drops of warm water if too thick to pipe.

DIRECTIONS FOR SHELLS:
1. In the bowl of an electric stand mixer or food processor, combine the flour, sugar, cocoa, cinnamon, and salt. Stir in the oil, vinegar, and enough of the wine to make a soft dough. Turn the dough out onto a lightly floured surface and knead until smooth and well blended, about 2 minutes. Shape the dough into a ball. Cover with plastic wrap and let rest in the fridge from 2 hours to overnight.
2 Cut the dough into two pieces. Keep the remaining dough covered while you work. Lightly flour a large cutting or pastry board and roll the dough until super thin, about 1/16 to 1/8” thick (An area of about 13 inches by 18 inches should give you that). Cut out 3 to 5-inch circles (3-inch – small/medium; 4-inch – medium/large; 5-inch;- large. Your choice). Roll the cut out circle into an oval, rolling it larger and thinner if it’s shrunk a little.
3 Oil the outside of the cannoli tubes (You only have to do this once, as the oil from the deep fry will keep them well, uhh, oiled..lol). Roll a dough oval from the long side (If square, position like a diamond, and place tube/form on the corner closest to you, then roll) around each tube/form and dab a little egg white on the dough where the edges overlap. (Avoid getting egg white on the tube, or the pastry will stick to it.) Press well to seal. Set aside to let the egg white seal dry a little.
4. In a deep heavy saucepan, pour enough oil to reach a depth of 3 inches, or if using an electric deep-fryer, follow the manufacturer's directions. Heat the oil to 375°F (190 °C) on a deep fry thermometer, or until a small piece of the dough or bread cube placed in the oil sizzles and browns in 1 minute. Have ready a tray or sheet pan lined with paper towels or paper bags.
5. Carefully lower a few of the cannoli tubes into the hot oil. Do not crowd the pan. Fry the shells until golden, about 2 minutes, turning them so that they brown evenly.
6. Lift a cannoli tube with a wire skimmer or large slotted spoon, out of the oil. Using tongs, grasp the cannoli tube at one end. Very carefully remove the cannoli tube with the open sides straight up and down so that the oil flows back into the pan. Place the tube on paper towels or bags to drain. Repeat with the remaining tubes. While they are still hot, grasp the tubes with a potholder and pull the cannoli shells off the tubes with a pair of tongs, or with your hand protected by an oven mitt or towel. Let the shells cool completely on the paper towels. Place shells on cooling rack until ready to fill.
7. Repeat making and frying the shells with the remaining dough. If you are reusing the cannoli tubes, let them cool before wrapping them in the dough.

DIRECTIONS FOR FILLING:
1. Line a strainer with cheesecloth. Place the ricotta in the strainer over a bowl, and cover with plastic wrap and a towel. Weight it down with a heavy can, and let the ricotta drain in the refrigerator for several hours to overnight.
2. In a bowl with electric mixer, beat ricotta until smooth and creamy. Beat in confectioner’s sugar, cinnamon, vanilla and blend until smooth. Transfer to another bowl and stir in chocolate, zest and nuts. Chill until firm.(The filling can be made up to 24 hours prior to filling the shells. Just cover and keep refrigerated).

ASSEMBLE THE CANNOLI:
1. When ready to serve..fill a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch plain or star tip, or a ziplock bag, with the ricotta cream. If using a ziplock bag, cut about 1/2 inch off one corner. Insert the tip in the cannoli shell and squeeze gently until the shell is half filled. Turn the shell and fill the other side. You can also use a teaspoon to do this, although it’s messier and will take longer.
2. Press or dip cannoli in chopped pistachios, grated chocolate/mini chocolate chips, candied fruit or zest into the cream at each end. Dust with confectioner’s sugar and/or drizzles of melted chocolate if desired.

This is the first DB bakers challenge I made very early on, but that has all to do with the fact that I'm co-hosting this month's challenge ;) I just found out I was pregnant when I heard I was to co-host this month's challenge...and my due-date was actually the 21st of the same month! But I figured it would be ok since there were three of us to co-host. But as May drew closer both other hosts turned out to have other obligations and I was left alone. It seemed a bit too much to do it on my own with giving birth and all ;) Luckily the first person I asked to co-host with me said yes :) Thanks so much for that Courtney!
The main reason I joined the Daring Bakers was to explore new techniques. And as the challenges progressed I learned more and more. There was repetition of techniques too, making the challenge recipe itself a bit less challenging but there was always the choice of flavour or presentation to make it challenging.
My thoughts for this challenge was to make something that was all about technique, a technique not yet dealt with by the Daring Bakers: Strudel dough. Making strudel dough had been on my to-do list for ages but I never dared making the ultra-thin dough...until now that is!
Both Courtney (of Coco Cooks) and I made the dough prior to posting the May challenge. Though I was very apprehensive to make it, it turned out being less difficult (and stressful ;) than I imagined. Making the dough and stretching went pretty smoothly. I made the traditional Apple Strudel and hoped to have energy to make a fancier one later on. Unfortunately I couldn't force myself to make it again....not enough energy :(
The dough itself is quick to make, the most time-consuming is preparing for the filling: making and baking the bread crumbs and peeling and slices the apples mainly. But the results were definitely worth it, the strudel tasted just wonderful! I don't think I ever had a real (as in thin layers of dough) apple strudel before so I cannot compare but we will be moving to Vienna in about a month so I can check out the 'real thing' over there :)

I hope everybody had a great time trying out this month's challenge, I know I did (once the stretching thing turned out going well ;)
And in case you're wondering...no baby yet ;)



Apple strudel (from Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers)

makes one big strudel

2 tablespoons (30 ml) golden rum
3 tablespoons (45 ml) raisins
1/4 teaspoon ground cinnamon
1/3 cup plus 1 tablespoon (80 g) sugar
1/2 cup (1 stick / 115 g) unsalted butter, melted, divided
1 1/2 cups (350 ml) fresh bread crumbs
strudel dough (recipe below)
1/2 cup (120 ml, about 60 g) coarsely chopped walnuts
2 pounds (900 g) tart cooking apples, peeled, cored and cut into ¼ inch-thick slices (use apples that hold their shape during baking)

1. Mix the rum and raisins in a bowl. Mix the cinnamon and sugar in another bowl.
2. Heat 3 tablespoons of the butter in a large skillet over medium-high. Add the breadcrumbs and cook whilst stirring until golden and toasted. This will take about 3 minutes. Let it cool completely.
3. Put the rack in the upper third of the oven and preheat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Line a large baking sheet with baking paper (parchment paper). Make the strudel dough as described below. Spread about 3 tablespoons of the remaining melted butter over the dough using your hands (a bristle brush could tear the dough, you could use a special feather pastry brush instead of your hands). Sprinkle the buttered dough with the bread crumbs. Spread the walnuts about 3 inches (8 cm) from the short edge of the dough in a 6-inch-(15cm)-wide strip. Mix the apples with the raisins (including the rum), and the cinnamon sugar. Spread the mixture over the walnuts.
4. Fold the short end of the dough onto the filling. Lift the tablecloth at the short end of the dough so that the strudel rolls onto itself. Transfer the strudel to the prepared baking sheet by lifting it. Curve it into a horseshoe to fit. Tuck the ends under the strudel. Brush the top with the remaining melted butter.
5. Bake the strudel for about 30 minutes or until it is deep golden brown. Cool for at least 30 minutes before slicing. Use a serrated knife and serve either warm or at room temperature. It is best on the day it is baked.

Strudel dough (from Kaffeehaus – Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers)

1 1/3 cups (200 g) unbleached flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
7 tablespoons (105 ml) water, plus more if needed
2 tablespoons (30 ml) vegetable oil, plus additional for coating the dough
1/2 teaspoon cider vinegar

1. Combine the flour and salt in a stand-mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the water, oil and vinegar in a measuring cup. Add the water/oil mixture to the flour with the mixer on low speed. You will get a soft dough. Make sure it is not too dry, add a little more water if necessary.
Take the dough out of the mixer. Change to the dough hook. Put the dough ball back in the mixer. Let the dough knead on medium until you get a soft dough ball with a somewhat rough surface.
2. Take the dough out of the mixer and continue kneading by hand on an unfloured work surface. Knead for about 2 minutes. Pick up the dough and throw it down hard onto your working surface occasionally.
Shape the dough into a ball and transfer it to a plate. Oil the top of the dough ball lightly. Cover the ball tightly with plastic wrap. Allow to stand for 30-90 minutes (longer is better).
3. It would be best if you have a work area that you can walk around on all sides like a 36 inch (90 cm) round table or a work surface of 23 x 38 inches (60 x 100 cm). Cover your working area with table cloth, dust it with flour and rub it into the fabric. Put your dough ball in the middle and roll it out as much as you can.
Pick the dough up by holding it by an edge. This way the weight of the dough and gravity can help stretching it as it hangs. Using the back of your hands to gently stretch and pull the dough. You can use your forearms to support it.
4. The dough will become too large to hold. Put it on your work surface. Leave the thicker edge of the dough to hang over the edge of the table. Place your hands underneath the dough and stretch and pull the dough thinner using the backs of your hands. Stretch and pull the dough until it's about 2 feet (60 cm) wide and 3 feet (90 cm) long, it will be tissue-thin by this time. Cut away the thick dough around the edges with scissors. The dough is now ready to be filled.

Tips
- Ingredients are cheap so we would recommend making a double batch of the dough, that way you can practice the pulling and stretching of the dough with the first batch and if it doesn't come out like it should you can use the second batch to give it another try;
- The tablecloth can be cotton or polyster;
- Before pulling and stretching the dough, remove your jewelry from hands and wrists, and wear short-sleeves;
- To make it easier to pull the dough, you can use your hip to secure the dough against the edge of the table;
- Few small holes in the dough is not a problem as the dough will be rolled, making (most of) the holes invisible.

Both Courtney and I did a trial run on making the strudel. Below are our notes:

Courtney's notes
- She could't get it to stretch to 2 feet by 3 feet, it turned out more like 2 feet by 2 feet. But the dough was tissue thin nevertheless;
- She got some serious holes, but after rolling it wasn't noticeable;
- She used a large cheese cloth which helped manipulate and stretch the dough more than a heavier cloth would have.

My notes
- I made the dough by hand, just mixed the wet ingredients into the dry ingredients with a wooden spoon. Kneaded it for about 5 min like you would bread dough. This worked as well. Haven't tried using a standmixer so I don't know how it compares.
- Instead of cider vinegar I used red wine vinegar;
- I used bread flour;
- Picking up the dough to let it stretch didn't work well for me, holes appeared pretty much instantly. Instead I stretched the dough while it was lying on the tablecloth by putting my hands underneath and stretching it out further and further;

The May Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Linda of make life sweeter! and Courtney of Coco Cooks. They chose Apple Strudel from the recipe book Kaffeehaus: Exquisite Desserts from the Classic Cafés of Vienna, Budapest and Prague by Rick Rodgers.

Haven't been baking a lot since Christmas, partly because I made so much for Christmas, partly because I've had my boys down with the flu and partly because I was just too tired to bother with baking. But I had this nearly full jar of sesame paste in my kitchen since Christmas and didn't want it to become rancid. I do use it sometimes in savoury dishes but I wanted to make something sweet with it. Couldn't find too many recipes though. These tahini spirals were one of the few. According to the book I found it in, it's a recipe from Beirut. But after googling the Arabic name that's in the book (sukkar bi tahin) I only found the same recipe from the book. So I guess it's called differently, that is if it actually is a Beirut recipe ;) So if there's any experts reading this, please come forward and enlighten me :)
About the bread: it's basicly a bread filled with a sugar and tahini mixture. The combination of tahini and sugar made the bread taste like halva :) I liked the filling a lot but wasn't totally convinced about the bread part. Maybe it was because the bread didn't contain any salt. Probably I would have liked it better with a richer kind of bread, but that's just me ;)
The amount of filling in the recipe wasn't enough to fill the breads, the amount in the ingredients didn't add up to the amount of tablespoons stated in the recipe. Below I added 50%. That should be enough.

Tahini spirals (from the Dutch translation of Home Baking: The Artful Mix of Flour and Tradition Around the World by Jeffrey Alford and Naomi Duguid)

makes 6

about 350 g (12 ½ oz) flour
¼ + ⅛ ts instant yeast (or ½ ts active dry yeast)
240 ml (1 cup) water
2 ts sugar
1 tbs olive oil
sugar for sprinkling

150 g (5 oz) tahini (sesame paste)
150 g (5 oz) sugar

Mix the flour, yeast and sugar. Add the water and oil. Mix until you get a dough. Knead the dough for about 5 minutes (add more flour if the dough is too wet, add more water if it is too dry).
Allow to rise for 2-3 hours or until doubled in volume.
Preheat the oven to 190°C (375°F).
Mix the tahini with the sugar.
Divide the dough in 6 pieces. Work with 3 pieces at a time. Roll the 3 pieces until you have 13 x 25 cm (5 x 10 in) rectangulars. Spread about 2 tbs of the tahini mixture on each rectangular. Roll up the dough from the long side. (according to the recipe this would make it stretch until 50 cm (20 in) long but that never happened in my case. I managed to slowly stretch it until it was 35 cm (14 in) long.) Roll the dough into a spiral. Brush the end with a little water and tuck it underneath the spiral.
Take the 1 spiral and flatten a bit with a rolling pin. Do the same with the other 2. Take the first spiral again and roll it out until about 16-18 cm (6-7 in). Repeat with the other 2 spirals.
Brush the 3 spirals with water and sprinkle some sugar on top.
Repeat with the other 3 pieces of dough.
Bake about 20 minutes or until golden brown. Allow to cool on wire racks.

I'm keeping this post short otherwise I won't be able to make the deadline for Meeta's Monthly Mingle. This months theme is chocolate and fruit.
I made some medium sized puffs from the choux dough that was left over from last month's Daring Baking challenge. The boys and I visited A's grandmother today and I wanted to bring something sweet to eat. The puffs were in the freezer so all I needed was a filling and a glaze. With the Monthly Mingle theme in mind I settled for strawberry mousse puffs with white chocolate glaze. Ingredients I had on hand.
The mousse I made the same way I made the mango mousse, and raspberry mousse. Just whipped cream, strawberry puree, icing sugar and gelatin.
The puffs were delicious, the filling was not so sweet so that was great to compensate for the sweet glaze. If you like sweet than I'd suggest you use more icing sugar in the mousse.
Unfortunately I didn't have much time making pictures as A's grandmother, her neighbour, my MIL and my two boys were eagerly waiting for a puff. I did make a few but those were out of focus. This was the only one that was ok, doesn't actually show much of the puff itself though.

Strawberry mousse (adapted from Mango Mousse Mirror cake)

enough to fill 11 medium sized puffs

250 ml (1 cups) whipping cream, chilled
5 g (1/6 oz) gelatin
50 ml (¼ cup) cold water
250 ml (1 cups) strawberry puree
30 g (1 oz) icing sugar (or to taste)

Whip the whipping cream until soft peaks. Cover and put it in the fridge.
Soak the gelatine in the water for a few minutes. Meanwhile mix the strawberry puree with the icing sugar. Heat the gelatine/water mixture in the microwave until dissolved. I popped it in for 30 seconds.
Add the gelatine mixture to the strawberry puree and mix well. Add the strawberry mixture to the whipped cream until well combined. Chill for at least 4 hours.

Choux dough

I used half the recipe wich makes at least 12 medium puffs

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

Preheat your oven to 220°C (425°F). Line a baking sheet with parchment paper.
In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the
boil.
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.
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. (I chilled my dough and baked the puffs a few days later).
Using a small ice cream (or cookie dough) scoop, scoop 11-12 medium sized half spheres.
Bake the puffs for 15 minutes and rotate them. Reduce the heat to 190°C (375°F) and continue baking until golden brown (5-10 minutes). Allow to cool on the baking sheets.
Fill the puffs with the strawberry mousse.

White chocolate glaze

50 g (1 ¾ oz) heavy cream
100 g (3 ½ oz) white chocolate, chopped

Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate. Allow to stand for a few minutes. Stir until smooth and combined. Dip the puffs in the still warm ganache.

The end of the month means another Daring Bakers challenge. This month's challenge is Pierre Hermé's chocolate éclairs, éclairs filled with chocolate pastry cream and topped with a chocolate glaze.
Even though I've made éclairs before (filled with lavender white chocolate mousse) I was still looking forward to making them again. I don't own Dorie Greenspan's Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé but I do own her Desserts by Pierre Hermé and the recipe for the chocolate glaze is in that one too. It has been on my to-do list to try out. Usually I make a simpler chocolate glaze but this particular one is said to retain its shine...sounded interesting :) Haven't made it up till now because it's more time consuming than the more regular chocolate glazes.
At first I wanted to play around with the flavours, make a raspberry pastry cream, stick with Hermé's glaze and top with a raspberry. I even made the pastry cream last week but I was not satisfied with the colour and look of the pastry cream. I added raspberry puree for taste but also for colour but instead of pink it turned into a sort of brownish pink colour....not pretty. I didn't want to use artificial colours to masquerade it either. Besides the ugly colour there were tiny bits of egg yolk visible. I guess I should have used the finemeshed sieve. The taste was very good though but I decided not to use it for the éclairs. It was the first component I made so the rest was put on hold until yesterday. By that time I felt like staying true to the recipe and only needed some kind of pretty decoration. Gilded marzipan balls sounded good, only I wasn't able to gild the balls completely so the orange marzipan that was left over from Rein's birthday was showing through. I felt I needed to somehow match that to the éclair and ended up adding some orange essentail oil to the chocolate glaze (I added ¼ ts). That way the orange colour was more part of a whole.
The glaze was easy to make though a bit time consuming with making a chocolate sauce first. At first I wasn't sure the sauce was going to work because the chocolate didn't melt completely. But after heating and stirring for 15 minutes it turned out beautifully. And although I didn't use the same chocolate Hermée using I thought the sauce tasted delicious. For the final glaze we had to make a ganache first. After adding all the chocolate the ganache had difficulties staying emulgated (emulsified?) and looked sort of curdled. This problem was solved after adding the butter and chocolate sauce and I ended up with a beautiful glaze. I chilled it to use today.
Making the chocolate pastry cream went smoothly if you don't count the fact that at the last moment before taking it out of its ice bath some of the ice water got into it. I was able to pour most of it out and had to blend in the little bit that was left. I'm not a fan of chocolate custard but was hoping that maybe this pastry cream with egg yolks, butter and good chocolate instead of cocoa powder would change this. Unfortunately not :( not that I dislike it, I mean, it's sweet and tastes like chocolate but it's still not my favourite.
I wanted to bake the puff dough yesterday evening as well but I discovered that I was out of flour! Well not out of spelt flour, whole wheat flour, self raising flour and quinoa flour but out of the flour I actually needed for this challenge. I didn't feel like going to the supermarket so I postponed making them until today. And today being a busy day I was glad that I managed to make them. I baked about half of the dough, the rest I put in the fridge. Most of the 13 éclairs weren't very pretty, only a about 3 looked good enough to feature in the photograph.
Assembling the chocolate éclairs didn't go smoothly unfortunately. The first thing I ran into was the fact that I didn't have enough pastry cream to fill all of the éclairs. Ok, so I halved the recipe, still I should have had enough to fill 12. I could only fill 7. I used a cookie dough press that also had a nozzle to fill stuff with and never realised how fast it was empty. I started with the ugly ones and never got to fill the pretty ones. So the éclair in the picture only has the chocolate glaze and no filling he he!
When I heated my glaze to the designated temperature it started to separate a little bit :( I hoped it wouldn't be that visible but when I dipped the éclairs it just looked ugly. I didn't cry but it didn't make me happy either. I was pressed for time so that didn't help either. I tried whisking it but that didn't help enough. Than I remember a tip Astrid of La Cerise gave me to save a separated ganache: add a little hot cream and stir. The glaze was sort of ganache-y so I gave it a try: it worked! I was so relieved...at least the glaze would be ok. I didn't have time to photograph the éclairs until after our picknick in the park and after the youngest was in bed. By that time daylight wasn't all that much anymore. The éclair you see in the picture was the only one of the three ok looking ones that also had ok looking glaze. The only problem was that didn't dip it on the top so it tilted when I put it down. I had to insert a toothpick to stabilize it. So maybe it the picture it looks like an ok éclair, in reality it was an empty éclair that needed a toothpick to stay upright ;) Oh well, another challenge done, and in time too...just in time that is ;)
Oh yes, how did it taste? It tasted delicious if you actually like chocolate pastry cream so to me it was just ok. I did like the taste of the glaze, you could really taste the orange taste. I still have some left-over glaze....it might have a second life as truffles, that is if I don't just spoon it out of the bowl :)



You can find the recipe at What's For Lunch Honey? and Tony Tahhan who host this month's challenge.

To see how all the other Daring Bakers did, check out this link.