Too busy baking to blog

Pre-proofed / pre-kneaded dough

Ah my baby's a beauty, isn't she?

You're thinking it so I'm going to say it,  yes - they are phallic looking.

Gooey lovely messy finished product 

I’ve fallen off of the blog bandwagon over the past few weeks.  Normally this is when I give some lame excuse about being “headless chicken busy” and travelling / working like a crazy woman.  While there’s been no travel, and only a moderately busy work schedule – there’s still been a fair bit of excitement...(stay tuned for updates).  


Ironically enough, a lot of the limited amount of free time I've had has been spent baking – but in a highly irregular way - creating loaves of bread, practicing eclair making, and baking copious scones.

One week alone I managed to make 5 loaves of bread – two lovely egg-y challahs (one coated in caraway, poppy and black onion seeds and the other with a wee bit of cinnamon and sugar). The other three loaves were an all-white “bloomer” bread, which was for my "confidential" audition (sorry folks, even signed the official waver). 


Regardless of the outcome of the audition, I learned that bread making is very much a science, much more than cake or pastry making.  Both challahas came out looking, smelling and tasting luverly.  However, the first 'bloomer' bread was cut into much too quickly.  It hadn't cooled properly so I thought it wasn't cooked all the way, so back into the oven it went only to then end up being overcooked.   Eh, they do say practice makes perfect though, the second and the third tries produced excellent results.


The third 'bloomer' was the one officially judged at my audition. It was weighed (apparently you can weigh the fat content of bread...god help if I ever get on one of those machines), was sniffed, poked, tasted and examined like a horse at auction. Official celebrity feedback? "Tasty, and great proofing."  Not too shabby for a novice.


My foray into choux pastry making was a slightly different experience.  I wasn't prepping for the audition, more just wanting to try something new and eclairs were a first for me. 


The thing is, I've always been a bit curious about eclairs - thinking they were quite difficult to make and not really worth the effort.  The eclair's dirty little secret? She's actually straightforward, simple, and a constant crowd pleaser.  Choux pastry can be made in the bat of an eye, pastry cream can be made 2-3 days ahead, and that chocolate glaze on top? Mine took about one minute in the microwave and about 1 minute out.  Not exactly rocket science eh?  Only now that the cat is out of the bag - I might be in serious trouble...instead of just grabbing for an apple I might just whip some up mid-week eclairs, just because I can.


The photos of the eclairs above aren't particularly pretty.  I started out by properly piping the pastry but since it was a random Tuesday night after work, and well...I didn't really give a fig what they looked like (nor did I imagine my eagerly awaiting co-workers would either) I went ahead and slapped the pastry cream in the middle and used a brush to slather on the chocolate ganache.  


I'd like to report that I ate 5 (yes FIVE) in two days.  Hence my comment above about not wanting to be anywhere near a machine that can weigh fat content.  Now onto profiteroles...

Bad Taste (never tasted so good)



Way better photo than I normally take, courtesy of GP resident photographer: Stephen Howse

UPDATED DIRECTIONS BELOW

Guilty Pleasure's party on Saturday night had the fabulously horrific theme "Bad Taste". I won't go into the details of our costumes, but in addition to a one-piece sparkly silver Abba-esque jumpsuit for our Waterloo performance (ah-mazing!), JW and I managed to take on the personas of ‘Tina’ and ‘Gloria’ for the first half of the night. For those of you who’ve seen this year’s Oscar nominated 'The Fighter’ – remember Micky and Dicky's seven sisters? We were equally foul-mouthed as that lot, but dressed in an even more inappropriate trailer-park ensemble. Deliciously bad taste for sure!

I used the opportunity to do a wee bit of practice on my piping and writing skills with a swiss meringue buttercream – hence the ornately, if not delicately designed cupcakes in the photo above. I wasn’t a fan of the frosting but the yellow buttermilk cakes were outstanding.  I've made them before and even wrote about them last year, commenting on their tastiness albeit being a bit too dense.  This time around - much fluffier - did a few recipe alterations, that might have made a difference.

http://www.marthastewart.com/recipe/yellow-buttermilk-cupcakes

- 4 cups all-purpose flour instead of the 3 cups cake flour (which they stubbornly refuse to sell in my local Waitrose) and 1.5 cups all-purpose flour

UPDATE: I've been told the point above is confusing. To be fair, mama knows best - I agree.  What I meant was...recipe calls for BOTH 3 cups cake flour and 1.5 cups all-purpose flour (so 4.5 cups in total).  What I did INSTEAD was just use 4 cups of all-purpose flour.  Kapish?

- Reduced the butter and sugar just a smidgen (about ¼ of sugar and 1 Tbsp butter) – less by design and more because a standard UK butter pack is 250 grams, just nearly a Tb less and figured if I was doing that, then a wee bit of sugar could go as well

Up to you how you play it – but the option is there for the reductions if you so choose – all other measurements were kept the same.