PUFF PASTRY 101

by

Look at me! While ranting about trying to lose weight, losing a ring and other mundane stuff I forgot to mention about my winnings in Vegas. Ooh yes, baby, I won, gambling in Vegas. To tell you the truth, I did not forget but I was in a double mind to mention it- since I do not want to endorse gambling on such a public forum (yes, yes I am the morally right kind of person 😉 ). So why mention today. Well, the reason why I mention it today is that I put my winnings into buying a new cookbook! Well, its funny because I remember telling V before leaving for Vegas that I’ll only play for enough money to buy this cookbook that I had been eyeing for some time now (people gamble for the enjoyment, to pay debts, buy drinks, while I play to buy cookbooks 🙂 ) . And that’s exactly what happened! I won only enough to buy me that book. This was destiny. That book was in my destiny! God wanted me to have it. So even though I just played twice on the slot machine- the moment I hit my target amount I immediately encashed it. No, this time I was not going to be greedy.

A few days back, the book (that I bought from my hard earned money), arrived in a shipment from Amazon. Happy and excited, I opened the package, and behold the beauty! There it lay Sarabeth’s Bakery From My Hand to Yours Sarabeth’s Bakery: From My Hands to Yours – in a large white colored cover with a simple yet beautiful picture of a lady whose hands are shown holding a batch of freshly made brioche in her apron! Yes, it had me floored. For the first few moments I was just flipping through the pages, feeling the smooth and crisp paper, oggling at the beautiful pictures (I am such a sucker for cookbooks!). 🙂

It was on my bed side table that night, and I read through the first few pages and instantly knew I made a good decision in buying this book. The book is designed with elegant simplicity. Her tips and techniques are what makes this book worth buying. I do wish though she had included the recipe for her famous orange-apricot marmalade that kick started her career.

Yesterday I chose to try Sarabeth’s version of Puff Pastry.

As Sarabeth describes:

With countless amazingly, thin, buttery layers that shatter when bitten into, puff pastry is the classic layered dough.

The secret to Sarabeth’s dough is that she uses heavy cream instead of water. Ok! I know what you thinking- “heavy cream! Wasn’t it fatty enough with the butter! “. But Sarabeth believes that the added butterfat from the heavy cream gives the pastry another dimension of flavor and crispiness. Hmmm.. It just means I have to gym harder!

You can use puff pastry in a number of things. It can be used in making palmiers, tarts, mille-feuille. I will be using it to make Apple Turnovers to send to V’s office. (That’s why I am not too worried about the butter and the heavy cream going in the dough- as long as I don’t have to eat them all!)

PUFF PASTRY 101

The dough should be made at least 2 days before using. It has two parts the D’etrempe and the Beurrage

Read More →

KAHLUA BROWNIES & SNOWFALL!

by

Temperatures have fallen significantly! It snowed today- and quite a lot, going by our small mining town standards! Fresh snow looks so beautiful- and during the holiday season it means even more!

I decided to celebrate the snow by making brownies. I have already posted a brownie recipe before (Maida Heatter’s version). This time I wanted to try Nick Malgeiri’s version. The other day I was surfing through Chowhound’s discussion forums and in the topic “50 dessert you should know” everyone was raving about Nick Malgeiri’s supernatural brownies! I had to give them a try now, and today seemed like the perfect day.

I did want to jack these up a little, in the spirit of the holidays, you know with the new year around the corner ;). I thought Bailey’s would give a perfect twist to the traditional brownies. I wasn’t sure that we had some but the other day V reassured me there was a bottle in our pantry (hmm…how did my eyes miss that?!) I took his word and what would you know, the wife is always right! There wasn’t any bottle.

Now, completely in the mood to jack the brownies up, I decided to use Kahlua. I also added a little coffee powder and a tablespoon of hazelnut creamer.


The brownies came out really good. There is a slight hint of the Kahlua- not too strong, which is good, but any one who wants a stronger flavor I would suggest increasing the amount of Kahlua. V liked them (to be fair he likes everything I make 🙂 ). Taking for my friends tomorrow- the real verdict will be given then.

I am sending my recipe for Divya’s Brownie event

Read More →

Lavender Chiffon Birthday Cake

by

It was my birthday yesterday and finally I turned 18 (or so I would like to believe..sigh…how I wish that was true!!!). Christmas is over but the hang over is still there. The weekend was spent in Vegas (I know- life is gooood!!). It was my first time there and after a long time I had so much of fun! Three days of drinking, eating, drinking, gambling, drinking, shows, lights and did I mention drinking?! Came back late night 26th since V was working on Monday, 27th – my birthday. Called people over for cocktails and cake- it was supposed to be a surprise but V had to tell me since the house was in a mess after the long weekend. So much for the surprise!

Luckily, the cake was already planned. A few days back I discovered Deeba’s blog, and was floored by her baking skills. The moment I laid eyes on her version of the Lavender Chiffon Cake, I knew this was it- this was the birthday cake I had to make. Impressed with the whole look of the cake I decided to replicate it. I tried my hand at the firm white chocolate ganache decoration too with a mango motif design, though with not much success. Of course, Deeba’s cake looks so much more beautiful and wish my pictures were as good (I should have photographed in day light- but the cake got ready in the evening, just in time for the party). Looks aside, the cake was excellent- just baked, it was springy to touch like a chiffon cake should be, and light as a feather! So what if my photography and decorating skills aren’t that good! As they say, you learn from your mistakes and am happy to come out of this as a more experienced decorator- I promise next time would be better.

Read More →