Trio of Cream Puffs (strawberry, chocolate, and green tea)

Last night I went to a movie night with a newly formed film club that I am very fond of. I am also fond of the way we've decided to incorporate food into our movie nights, potluck style. My contribution was the vegan crumb cakes (below), an eggplant bread casserole (above) and these cream puffs.

I feel like these cream puffs may have triggered an anxiety attack. I'm blaming it on the cream puffs.

I made the cream puffs in the morning and they were adorable and thrilling in a way because I've never worked with choux pastry and my pastry bag sprung leaks all over the place and I was almost positive that the puffs weren't going to come out well. But they did. They were crispy on the outside and airy and delicate on the inside. I wanted to make a pillow out of choux pastry.

But here's the unfortunate part: I overlooked the fact that choux pastry does not hold up very well when left in sweltering apartment heat all day. By the time I was ready to fill them with whipped cream and take them to the film club the puffs had lost their crispness. I don't know why I become so upset by things like this. I tried to crisp them up again by throwing them in the oven for 5 minutes, which worked for the most part except that the internal temperature became too warm to fill them with the cream. But I was going to be late and so I filled them anyway and immediately regretted it because the whipped cream started to deflate immediately. My solution was to stick them in the freezer. By that time the cream puffs had been through such a variety of temperatures that they were pretty useless.

ARGGGHH!

Butternut Squash and Goat Cheese Quiche

I had leftover filling from my butternut squash mini galettes and I also had frozen some tart pie dough that I had made a couple weeks ago. Easy easy.

Basic recipe for quiche:

Ingredients:

tart pie dough or any dough of your choice or store bought pre-made dough

filling of your choice (it can be something as simple as gruyere cheese or chives or steamed asparagus with goat cheese

2 egg yolks

1 egg

1 cup heavy cream (or milk if you don't want to consume heavy cream calories...but I recommend the heavy cream)

1/4 teaspoon nutmeg

1. preheat oven to 340

2. whisk together egg, egg yolks, and cream

3. add nutmeg

4. arrange filling of your choice in a half baked tart pastry

*note, if you don't want to bother making your own dough you can buy puff pastry, fit it into a cake pan, bake it at 400 for about 15 minutes and then fill it and bake until done

5. pour the egg mixture over the filling

6. bake in the oven for 30 minutes

Fig & Apple Galette

Oh, I love galettes!

  I have a thing for rustic looking desserts, free form pastries, things that I imagine a French grandmother with a chignon making.  I wish I were a chignoned French grandmother. 

 I am not.  

I foresee a period of obsessive galette making.  Yes, I think I'll make a bunch of galette dough tomorrow and freeze it.  That is the other great thing about French-type pastry doughs...they freeze beautifully.  You can make them and wrap them tightly and then store them for up to 3 months. 

I'll tell you something about this fig and apple galette: the small extra something, almost imperceptible but absolutely wonderful part of this galette was brushing it with a homemade orange honey glaze and then sprinkling it with sugar that had been mixed with orange zest.  

This dessert makes me anxious for the Fall.  

Chamomile Sables With Apricot Filling (I Love You So Much)

Pate Sablee

Ground Chamomile and Ground Lavender

Ground Chamomile Buds

Sometimes nothing is so lovely as a buttery sable cookie.  It lends itself well to everything.  This particular recipe makes for an especially soft and melty cookie, and the chamomile was a very pleasant aftertaste, not overwhelming.  Also quite wonderful when sandwiched with apricot jam.  I picture eating one with milk tea in the morning.  

Ingredients:

1 3/4 pastry flour

2 tablespoons finely ground chamomile buds

2 egg yolks

1 cup powdered sugar

1 cup butter, cubed and softened slightly at room temperature

pinch of salt

2 drops yellow food coloring

1/4 cup apricot jam

1. make a well in the pastry flour

2. put the butter, salt, and powdered sugar in the well and work the flour into the center of the well by crushing the butter between your fingers

3. in a small bowl whisk together the egg yolks and food coloring

4. make another well into the dough and add the egg yolks

5. work the egg yolks into the dough using the palm of your hand until ingredients are well incorporated

6. wrap tightly with plastic wrap and refrigerate for 2-3 hours

7. preheat oven to 340

8. unroll the dough on a lightly floured surface until the dough is about 1/4 inch thick 

9. cut with cookie cutters and bake on parchment paper for about 10 minutes or until the edges begin to become golden

10. when the cookies have cooled, sandwich them with apricot jam