I became a Daring Baker - Éclairs

Daring Bakers?
Daring Bakers.
It's a challenge made up by ancient foodbloggers to give us, the cooking/baking connoisseurs some challenge in everyday cooking and baking. Basically you sign up with those guys and then they will give you one recipe to bake in a month. Everyone, all those 1000 members or so, will bake exact same recipe and then publish it on exact same day. Me and all those other 1000 foodbloggers think its fun :)
Let's get to the challenge then. August challenge was Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé hosted by Tony Tahhan and MeetaK. Hosts allowed to make some modifications and the rule was to keep at least one chocolate element in it. I went with more traditional version, I 'll explain later, why. I kept the pastry cream just with eggs and milk, left out the chocolate and my chocolate element was chocolate glaze.
When I have been baking, I've always kept it relatively simple, no fancy cakes, so reading this recipe at the beginning made me feel like, wow, I think I need to take a day off to do this and the day before, to make sure I have everything and a day after to make sure I can clean everything and can get a rest.

Let's get to the business.
Part 1. Making the dough. It's very easy. Just the non traditionality of making of the dough is what scares at first. Boil the milk! Sounds like making a porridge. But once its done, its done very fast and in the end its a beautiful creamy dough, just a shame it wasn't sweet :P I didn't have a proper pastry dough, so I used the old fashioned plastic bag technique.

Scoop the dough into one corner of the bag and then cut the corner off.

I learned the trick from my mother actually, this is how we decorated gingerbread cookies with sugar glaze at every Christmas. It works perfectly fine, if you don't need to do fancy reliefs. One day I will get a real pastry bag though, maybe I should put it in my list for Santa :P

Squeeze chubby fingers on the baking sheets

Part 2. Making pastry cream. I thought, eggs and hot milk, it's a miracle if it comes out fine on a first trial, it will all end up with lumps ... Well, I must admit that I had extra set of hands helping me on this recipe. So one set was mixing vigorously while the other added the hot milk one teaspoon at a time. Like this, it all worked out great. This is a most beautiful Pastry cream I have ever made, nice, shiny, creamy ... lovely.

Out of the oven, cream ready, just missing the glaze now ...

Part 3. Making the glaze. That's was the easiest part. Heat the cream, chop the chocolate etc. Part 4. Putting it all together. Is there enough cream? Pastry seems so fragile, can I cut the pastry without wrecking half of them? Well, if I do then there is definitely enough cream ... This is a real handicraft part. Cutting wasn't too bad, if using proper bread knife and sawing them gently then it all works out great. Putting a glaze on the tops requires patience, first 5 is fun, then getting to 10, then you think , "are we there yet?" The filling was just about enough, could've been few Tbsp more, but I suppose it was the missing chocolate that I left out of the cream.

This is my little Éclair factory

Here comes conclusion with everything explained. Why I left chocolate out of the Pastry cream? Because Joao is the main consumer of these Éclairs and he is a traditional guy when it comes to food. Anything new is SCARY. Chocolate in the pastry cream is something that he never had in past 20 years so unless I don't want to eat 24 Éclairs alone, I better take his suggestions into account. he liked them, so next time, it might be with Chocolate pastry cream :P Yes, well, on my first month as Daring Baker I have committed myself with some diet, which means no sweets other than fruit and that's the main reason why Joao has to like them. I had to sin of course, to try out just one Éclair, to be able to write the following. It all came out wonderful. Pastry was very delicate. Cream was, like I said, lovely, creamy. Next time if I want to leave the chocolate out, I will put a bit more sugar in the pastry cream , because otherwise it's needed to eat 5 Éclairs to get satisfied. My waist would hate me for this. In the end when they are crafted all together, they taste, wow. The best I have had, also because they were super fresh. In the Pastry shop, you never know how long has it been sitting there on the display.

Cream Puff Dough (makes 20-24 Éclairs)
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

Pastry Cream
2 cups (500g) whole milk
4 large egg yolks
6 tbsp (75g) sugar
3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted
7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted
2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

Chocolate Glaze (makes 1 cup or 300g)
1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream
3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature
7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

Chocolate Sauce (makes 1½ cups or 525 g)
4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 cup (250 g) water
½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream
1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

Cream Puff Dough:

* Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or 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 hand mixer 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.
* Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 41/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.
* Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes.
Notes: The éclairs can be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Pastry Cream:
* In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.
* Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.
* Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.
* Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.
* Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F/60 C remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four instalments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Chocolate Glaze:
* In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.
* Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Chocolate Sauce:
* Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.
* It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.
Note: You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using. This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Assembling the éclairs:

1) Slice the éclairs horizontally, using a serrated knife and a gently sawing motion. Set aside the bottoms and place the tops on a rack over a piece of parchment paper.
2) The glaze should be barely warm to the touch (between 95 – 104 degrees F or 35 – 40 degrees C, as measured on an instant read thermometer). Spread the glaze over the tops of the éclairs using a metal icing spatula. Allow the tops to set and in the meantime fill the bottoms with the pastry cream.
3) Pipe or spoon the pastry cream into the bottoms of the éclairs. Make sure you fill the bottoms with enough cream to mound above the pastry. Place the glazed tops onto the pastry cream and wriggle gently to settle them.

Let's run a marathon

Think! This could be you.

Its in my nature to want challenges. Otherwise its boring. Now I came up with this silly idea about running a marathon.
It was one Saturday morning when I went to work and remembered that on that same day my colleague was about to run Helsinki marathon. And there I was dreaming until I got hooked up in this feeling that it must feel awesome when you run or walk or crawl over the finish line of marathon. And it takes about 3 hours of my time, so its not that bad, I can find that time :P
This whole idea about running a marathon is scary, but at the same time, it keeps on haunting me, so I am starting to think that I think I have to do it, to get rid of the ghost.

I was googeling little a bit about training for marathon and stuff. One source said that you should be running regularly every week at least a year before starting training for marathon. And lately my running routine has seriously faded. I will get back to running as soon as I get my life back into routine, I promise. At the moment there is holidays coming up and starting a new job, looking for a new house etc.

And I am not talking here running in 6 months. I am talking about setting a realistic goal to run in 2010, this gives enough time, to shake off that laziness, right.

I did e-mail to few people, 3 to be preicise. Two of them, men, said no right away. One of them, a woman, gave me a litte hope, that I might not be alone in this crazy thought. I'm not trying to say anything here ... hehe :)

Huge dose of Estonian on 19th of August in Tallinn

Unfortunately I couldn't be there ... I bet every Estonian says that, but the truth is that the little piece of Earth where its kept, is also limited, so not all 1,3 million will fit in there.

The singing, I suppose we get it with breast milk, you usually say, but no, for us it comes with basic 9-year education in school. Where practically all the kids who can sing, without sounding like untuned instrument, attend the school choir and from there on national song festival in every 2 years. I remember that at one point my "teenager monster" raised the head and I refused to go to choir . Then music teacher said that it is strictly obligatory and of course then I felt even more revolutionary and definitely not wanting to go. I cannot remember exactly, but I bet all this lasted few weeks and then I was back, attending the weekly rehearsals, because the truth is, that everyone wanted to go to song festivals. It was going away for a week, sleeping entire choir together in some classroom floor in sleeping bags. Huge sleepover for entire week. After big rehearsals going around in the capital, sometimes seeing famous people on the streets WOW ... all this, was a great reward for a girl from a little countryside school. In the end it felt very impressive to sing in this huge choir of 15 000 people . Anyway, this is how we learned to appreciate singing together, from school, with basic education and the outcome was that Estonians sang themselves free from Soviet Union 20 years ago.

More precisely 20 years ago on 11th of September 1988, 300 000 Estonians (according to wikipedia) gathered on the same spot in Tallinn Song Festival Grounds, to sing songs about the country and freedom, together with politicians and singers, who were spreading the message. Not throwing rocks and burning flags, just singing :)

Now they have repeated this event, for some it was nostalgic (that's me, I was young then, but I remember it all), for young folks, its was completely new and fresh injection of nationalism.
The outcome was simply beautiful. I wish I was there...

That's my nationalism raising head :)

This song was composed by Tõnis Mägi, also sang by him on this video, and became The song of restoration of independence of Estonia in 1991.

Meet Robert and other stories ...

Robert is our newcomer pet snail. We didn't buy Robert from a pet store or didn't pick him up from a bush in the park. Miraculously Robert came to us by itself. On Tuesday evening when we sat at the table to have dinner, Joao noticed a snail on the leg of the table (I don't know if you say "leg", but you know what I mean). A snail in the house, in 3rd floor apartment? How? Its a mystery till today? We gave him a little lettuce to nibble and called him Robert. He lives a happy life in my herb garden in the balcony, just few minutes ago when I checked he was conquering the rosemary bush.

Pet snail Robert and a proud owner

Over the weekend we got some serious rain here. You might think that here they are used to it, but this one seemed to be over the limit. Roads were flooded and people locked into the house and out of the house. We even got two refugees in our house to wait the traffic jams to calm down. Because some of the roads were flooded, then the accessible ones got serious traffic. Supposebly it was a madness, something that people can talk about next 10 years. Where I was, on my 3rd floor apartment, I didnt notice much difference. Yes, meanwhile it seemed to rain so much that I didnt see the other apartment buildings next to mine, but that was about it. Oh yes and few days later, when taking a walk to the park, we found it closed on one side, because there was an ocean.

Northwood ocean

Brilliant inventions - Banana "ice-cream"

I found this recipe surfing in the internet. I cannot remember at all where, so my apology to the inventor, I am not trying to take the credits here, just spread the word about this goodness. Its good alternative if you need to put a brake on all this baking and baking and baking. Its lovely dessert, without a drop of sugar added. To be honest I don't even remember the amounts, so here I give you my instructions. Perhaps you can make it even more perfect for yourself.

Banana "ice-cream"

1. I cut about 1 1/2 bananas and put it to freezer and froze it overnight. (1/2 banana just didn't make it to the freezer, I had to try if it was still good :P)
2. Take out frozen banana pieces and put it to a blender with some nuts. I used 3-4 hazelnuts and 3-4 cashews, but you can use whichever you prefer. This amount seemed plenty for 1 1/2 bananas.
3. Just blend until well blended.
4. Serve immediately.

Banana "ice-cream" - Eat yourself and offer to a friend.

Baking on the rain

So I guess it's my turn now.

Yes, I'm the infamous one who has the name up but never dared to write a few words in this cute little board. For the ones who haven't figured out yet, I'm João, the other half of this blog, who actually is much less than half.

I hope I can maintain the standards of this place, and for that I'll promise to behave.

OK, but now let's Post!

One of these days it was raining in Dublin. I was not only surprised but also shocked. How come?! So unpredictable?! I just couldn't believe that it was raining on the day that I had plans to do nothing.

Oh well! - I thought. I guess it will be alright because there will be plenty more opportunities to do nothing.

Inspired by such a typical horrible weather I decided to do something extraordinary.

I don't want to stop any weak heart, but in fact I BAKED! In deed! Seriously!

I opted for this very basic Portuguese cake, original from my County, which is made for sweet teeth like me. It's called Pão de Ló de Alfeizerão.

It's based on Eggs and Sugar, and a small drop of flour. This mix makes it moist and very sweet, becoming a true orgy in my mouth.

I leave here a picture and the recipe. Enjoy it with tea or coffee on a rainy day.

Pão de Ló de Alfeizerão

2 Eggs
6 Eggs Yolks
100 gr of Sugar
50 gr of flour

Blend the eggs with the sugar until it's foamy. Continue blending and add one by one the egg yolks. Blend this mix for 10 minutes. Gently fold in the flour and take to a hot oven (225ºC) for 10 minutes.



PS: The cake will massively fall down after taken out of the oven, but don't panic, it's how it's meant.

Celebrating tiny baby tomato with roast chicken and Portuguese rosé

Dingle peninsula

I have my mother visiting me for 5 days, so we had a strong reason to leave Dublin and to go to see Ireland for the very first time in 8 months. Yes, 8 months in Ireland and the furthest that we had been until Saturday was Malahide. But not any more, now we have been alllllllll the way to the other side of the country, to Co. Kerry at the West Coast. We drove to Limerick and from there we made our way to Tralee, though smaller roads and beautiful countryside. In Tralee we spent a night in traditional B&B above the Pub. It was very convenient I must say, listening live music and having pints and then just few steps and you are in cosy bed. Well, lets be honest here now :P There was lots of noise too, but that was only first 10 min until I fell asleep :)

Me mother

This morning I noticed that my tomato plant is fully fertile and giving birth to tiny green baby tomatoes. Wiii ... it was blossoming for few weeks now, but didn't give any sign of tomatoes, so I was getting afraid that its a one lazy tomato plant. So you can imagine my joy this morning when I discovered the first tomato on it :D

Tomato nr.1

On Monday night I had 5 mouths to feed and I spotted a whole chicken in the supermarket, so thought, why not? Let's cook the whole darn chicken. I didn't follow any recipe. Just seasoned with salt and pepper, put some rosmary. When chicken had been in the oven for an hour I put the potatoes in the oven dish underneath the chicken and then gave it another 30 min or so.
The outcome was simple, very chickenny. Unfortunately there is no photo, because I forgot to take it and taking a photo of a dismantled chicken in the Tupperware box won't have the same impact. Next time then. And yes, there was lovely Portuguese rosé to accompany all this, given us by friends who went to Portugal this spring. So now was a good reason enough to open it. But as I said no photos this time, use your imagination, I don't want you to get your imagination spoiled :P