Wedding Weekend

My big sister got married on May 7.  Remember this cake?  It was for her wedding.  We changed a number of the details and came up with a cake that was perfect for her and her sweetie.  I take that back…we came up with A LOT of cakes that were perfect.
Here’s a quick view of the fun.

Mulry Wedding VIEW SLIDE SHOW DOWNLOAD ALL

In all, there were nine flavors of cake.  Seven of those were prepared by the aunts (bakers) and sisters (decorators).  Two of the flavors were baked by another aunt.  This cake buffet was definitely an act of love. 
May 7 was also Kentucky Derby day, so we had some Derby fun at the wedding.  Many ladies wore their finest hats.  We had a lot of fun in the prep hours and a ton of fun at the event.
Congrats Crystal and Bill!

Getting Ready for a Wedding

One of my favorite sisters is getting married in a few weeks and my other favorite sister and I are making the cakes.  Crystal has chosen a cake buffet with a few different flavors of cake.  The centerpiece of the table will be a cake like this one – it represents the love of nature that Crystal and Bill share.  They spend lots of time at parks and Crystal loves photographing wildflowers, so this natural cake is a perfect touch for them.  Bill also took Crystal to a state park to propose!
It’s been a while since I’ve made a sculpted cake, so I need to practice.  This one is pretty easy to sculpt, but covering it in fondant is not as easy.  Luckily I have a few more weeks to practice.
Crystal drew inspiration for this cake from this photo, which can be found on the Cupcake Envy web site.

Below is a photo journey of my afternoon.
  Cakes are baked, cooled, and have amaretto simple sugar on them.
Cakes are stacked and trimmed so the sides are flush.
I think a basket of flowers would make a nice cake also.
The half-finished cake with chocolate fondant on it.  Next time I will put even less buttercream under the fondant.  It looks a bit puffy here.
  The finished cake.  I made the grass and flowers out of fondant as well.  Crystal and Bill’s initials are inside the heart and since the top seemed so empty, I drew in the tree rings also.

Scotch Cookies

I have been patiently waiting for our photographer to let us know our wedding pictures are ready so I can add them to the blog, but we haven’t heard a thing from her!  Her contract says it could take up to 90 days since this is the busy season, and we’ve just barely past 30 days, so it could be a long wait. 
Today’s photo and recipe are the Scotch cookies from our wedding.  These were a must-have as they are a family favorite on my mom’s side of the family.  It’s a tradition (or should I say a requirement) to make them the same way every time.  My mom did deviate in one way this time—she made them in hearts instead of circles.  Even the fork-poke holes in the top of the cookie must be made the same way when making our cookies.  When you bake, though, do whatever design you want!

Scotch Cookies

½ pound unsalted butter, at room temperature
¼ pound light brown sugar
¾ pound flour (most of)
Cream butter with brown sugar. Add ½ pound flour; blend well. Add enough of the remaining flour to make a firm dough.
Roll out ¼ inch thick; cut one test cookie and bake 7-10 minutes at 350º until very light brown. Compare to cookie cutter; if bigger, add more flour. If same size, proceed with remaining dough.

Related articles by Zemanta

• A Taste of Scotland: A Recipe for Scottish Shortbread (trifter.com)
• Scotland, as seen on a shortbread tin (independent.co.uk)

 

I’ve been adopted!

My last post introduced a new ‘activity’ I am participating in.  One evening back in January, I was surfing food blogs, gathering inspiration to continue working on my blog, and looking for yummy recipes to try.  I came across this post at Dine and Dish.  I was interested in the idea.  I commented on the post, stating that by the rules I would be an experienced blogger, but felt I am still very much a newbie.
I was paired up with Deanna, from Occasional Sugar.  I mentioned her in my last post where I also described the adoption process.  The night I posted I was supposed to be doing some online PD, not reading her blog, so I wrote very little.  Since then, I have sifted through her many posts and found that we are quite similar in many ways.  I’ll leave it to you to read her blog and find those similarities.  Deanna said she also still feels like a newbie so we are working through the mentoring process together, helping each other continue to learn and grow in blogging abilities.
While I was reading some of her posts on Tuesday, I was also baking.  A few teachers at school had requested cupcakes for Wednesday and I wanted to try another vanilla recipe for the wedding.  Josh knew I would be baking cupcakes so he requested chocolate.  How could I turn him down?
I turned to Deanna’s blog for inspiration and found what appears to be her favorite chocolate cake recipe.  A match made in heaven…or my kitchen.  Josh wants chocolate cake and she has chocolate cake!  I promptly made these cupcakes:

Josh and I didn’t like the flavor of these cupcakes as much as another chocolate recipe I found, but they were quite good.  The teachers at school gave them rave reviews.
I am looking forward to the next few months of blogging and learning with Deanna.
Emily's Chocolate Mayonnaise Cake
from Occasional Sugar
2 cups sifted flour
1 cup sugar
1 ½ tsp baking powder
1 ½ tsp baking soda
3 Tbsp cocoa
1 cup cold water
1 cup mayo
1 tsp vanilla
Sift together the dry ingredients.
Add 1 cup cold water, 1 cup mayonnaise and 1 tsp vanilla.
Beat until well combined.
Bake in 8 x 8 x 2” pan, 30 – 45 min. at 350.
Double ingredients for 9 x 13” pan. Bake 50 – 60 minutes.
(325 for glass pans)

~ Love on a Snowy Day ~

Winter in Louisville means an occasional snow day.  On the first lucky day in February, I decided to make blueberry muffins.  While Josh headed outside to shovel my drive and uncover my car, I headed to the kitchen to make breakfast for us.

Yes, the muffins are heart-shaped.  I have the regular and mini Wilton silicone pans.  I’m still trying to decide if I like them.  While muffins always bake well in them, the pans are terrible to clean.  I’ve followed many tips for using them, including baking with and without non-stick spray.  Either way, I cannot get the muffins to come out in one piece and I always have a tough time getting the spray gunk off the pans after.  Anyone have any suggestions (other than throwing the pans away and going back to my regular metal muffin pans)?
I had blueberries in the freezer that I chose to use in these muffins.  Instead of letting them thaw, I threw the frozen berries into the batter and they promptly froze the batter.  It was a little difficult to evenly fill the muffin pans, but I liked that none of the berries got mushed while I was folding them into the batter.  They stayed fat and round, and looked wonderful in the hot muffins.
Here’s my favorite muffin recipe:

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3/4 cup white sugar
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/3 cup vegetable oil
• 1 egg
• 1/3 cup milk
• 1 cup fresh blueberries

Directions

1. Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Grease muffin cups or line with muffin liners.
2. Combine flour, sugar, salt, and baking powder. Place vegetable oil into a 1 cup measuring cup; add the egg and enough milk to fill the cup. Mix this with flour mixture. Fold in blueberries. Fill muffin cups right to the top, and sprinkle with crumb topping mixture.
3. Bake for 20 to 25 minutes in the preheated oven, or until done.

We Love Pancakes!

Last week The Most Awesome Kindergarten Teacher and The Most Awesome Librarian continued a collaboration project with The Most Awesome Kindergarten Class. We have been working on informational writing, specifically How-To stories. After the students wrote a story to teach me how to find a book in the library (thanks for the great idea Awesome Librarian), we decided to write a story teaching people how to make pancakes.

To begin our study, we read two books about making pancakes. One was Pancakes by Jan Pritchett, a book in our Rigby Literacy series. This was a great teaching tool because it is a wordless book so the students had to verbalize all parts of the story and couldn’t rely on the text.

The second book was Let’s Make Pancakes by Emma Rossi. This is a leveled reader also, one that I found in our school’s bookroom. This book had text to read and the steps were slightly different from the steps in the first book, so we were able to have a discussion to compare and contrast the two books, which added to the depth of literacy skills covered throughout the week.

After we studied both books, the students created their own ‘book’ by listing the pancake-making steps on separate pieces of paper, then reading through them and correcting the sequence of steps. They then matched pictures (Google Images and MS Word clip art are wonderful resources) to the steps to finish the pages.

As a culminating activity, The Most Awesome Teacher and Librarian used the students’ created directions to make pancakes—a true test to the accuracy of their work. We made it through an intruder drill and a tripped fuse in our power strip to make the pancakes during writing time.
Every student had a hand measuring ingredients so it was truly a class project. Take a look at these pictures to see our fun.

Ingredients

• 1 cup all-purpose flour
• 1 tablespoon sugar
• 2 teaspoons baking powder
• 1/2 teaspoon salt
• 1 egg
• 3/4 cup milk
• 1/4 cup shortening, melted

Directions

1. In a small bowl, combine the flour, sugar, baking powder and salt. Combine the egg, milk and shortening; stir into dry ingredients just until moistened.
2. Pour batter by 1/4 cupful onto a greased hot griddle. Turn when bubbles form on top of pancakes; cook until the second side is golden brown.

Daring Bakers - Tuiles!

This month our Daring Baker challenge was to create tuiles. Tuiles are thin, crisp cookies that have a lacy texture. The traditional shape is a curve, much like a pringle.

Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1xumruehren bitte aka - Kochtopf are the hosts this month. Check out their blogs for full recipes and much better writing.

This recipe was quite easy--only a few ingredients and quick mixing and baking times. The challenge was to come up with a great design and accent flavor. I chose to make plain tuiles...no chocolate or other special flavors this month. I do have a few ideas up my sleeve, but an upcoming move to a new classroom (with 18 five-year-olds in tow) is hampering my cooking ad dreaming time this month. I can't wait for summer when I can go back to all the challenges from this year and try them again...variations galore!

I made some tuiles in the traditional curve shape and rolled the rest. Each was drizzled with homemade caramel sauce...a perfect accent to the light flavor of the cookies.

Thank you to Karen and Zorra for a fun month!

Please look at the Daring Bakers blogroll to see how the tuiles turned out for others.

This month's challenge is brought to us by Karen of Bake My Day and Zorra of 1x umruehren bitte aka Kochtopf. They have chosen Tuiles from The Chocolate Book by Angélique Schmeink and Nougatine and Chocolate Tuiles from Michel Roux.

Daring Bakers - Lavash Crackers & Toppings

It's time for the Daring Bakers again!

This month's challenge was presented by Natalie from Gluten A Go Go, and co-host Shel, of Musings From the Fishbowl. They wanted to have us make something savory so they chose Lavash Crackers from Peter Reinhart's The Bread Baker's Apprentice (pp 178 - 180). Please see their blogs for full recipes and directions.

I was excited to see this challenge because Lavash is a favorite treat served at a great restaurant down the road from me. It is one of the reasons my friend Kelly and I continue to go back. Yes, the rest of the food there is wonderful, but Kelly was right when he said that the crackers are the best part of the dinner. We have so much fun eating the crackers and 'dipping' them in the raspberry vinegar and oil they serve with it.

On to my story...I carefully chose a day when I had little else going on to bake the crackers. I wanted to put my full attention into the project because I knew this was a recipe I would want to make again often...especially for Kelly's birthday.

Well, things never work out exactly as planned. The windy remnants of Hurricane Ike hit Louisville on that chosen Sunday morning and by noon I had lost power. Most of the city lost power throughout the afternoon. The crackers didn't get made. On Tuesday when my power finally came back, I decided to make the crackers. I didn't have to work so there was plenty of time to bake and enjoy.

I pulled out the recipe and my ingredients and found that they didn't match. The recipe called for bread flour (I did not do gluten-free on my first go-around). I accidentally measured out whole wheat flour. Not wanting to admit a mistake even to myself, I bravely continued on with the recipe. I followed it exactly, except that my dough needed twice as much time to rest and rise.

I rolled out the dough until it was paper thin. Some of it I kept whole, planning to break it into pieces after baking. Some of the dough I cut with cookie cutters. I learned that mini flowers are not the best shape choice for these crackers. As I picked up each piece, the petals stretched and repositioned themselves until I couldn't tell some were supposed to be flowers. Not a problem, though, as I was more interested in the natural break-apart crackers ayway.

I ended up with 4 pans of cracker dough. Two pans were paper thin and baked for 12 minutes. They both turned out dark brown and much crispier than I would choose. I made the dough in the second two pans slightly thicker and baked them for only 8 minutes before turning on my eagle eye to watch for doneness. These crackers turned out much better--a perfect golden brown. Half of the crackers were sprinkled with sesame seeds (I have no idea why) and half were sprinkled with sea salt (my favorite).

I chose to make guacamole for my dip. Guacamole is my favorite dip and I order it whenever I can. Because of the price of avacados these days, I rarely make it for myself, but today was an exception--great crackers call for great dip. I can't give an exact recipe because I generally throw things in a bowl until it 'feels right,' but I used 2 ripe (soft but not mushy) avacados, 1 Roma tomato, a slice of white onion, lemon juice, 1 habanero pepper, and salt. Everything was diced and mixed, then chilled for a few minutes while I broke the crackers apart.

I need to make these crackers again, but doubt I will get to it before posting day. I want to make them with bread flour like the recipe calls for. My crackers tasted wonderful, but whole wheat is not the same as a finely milled flour and I want to see if I can get my lavash to be even more similar to the kind at our favorite restaurant. I also want to try other spices on top. The sea salt was great with the guacamole, but there are so many spices, seeds, and salts that would be good. Finally, I want to try the gluten-free option given in the challenge. There just isn't enough time in the day (or the month) to do everything. It's good that I have a running to-do list...this is on it again!

TWD: Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters

These cookies are great! Thanks to Stefany of Proceed with Caution for choosing these yummy cookies.

I need to finish this post but there's not much to say. The recipe for Chunky Peanut Butter and Oatmeal Chocolate Chipsters can be found on page 73 of Dorie's cookbook or at Stephany's blog.

I took most of these cookies to school. When I bring treats, I usually put them in the lounge when I get to school and they are often gone by the time I get back to the lounge before picking up my students. This time I got smart--I took them to the lounge when I went down for lunch. Everyone there at that time took a few and commented that these were the best cookies yet. I agree. Chocolate chip cookies, peanut butter, and oatmeal all together in one package. YUM!

Daring Bakers - Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé

Chocolate Éclairs by Pierre Hermé

I do love the Daring Bakers and their challenges. Luckily I have a great group of coworkers who eat everything I share...the eclairs were gobbled up before school started on the day I brought them in. My coworkers continuously thank me for joining the baking groups I have as they reap the benefits on a regular basis. Last month I said that a purpose of joining the Daring Bakers and Tuesdays groups is to stretch my skills and try new techniques in the kitchen. I have not yet started working on stretching my food photography or writing skills...I'm hoping that comes soon.

This month our challenge is hosted by Tony Tahhan and MeetaK . Check their blogs for great stories about the baking and for the eclair recipe.

I have made eclairs or close variations a few times this year. This time the pastry came out perfectly browned and airy. The chocolate sauce and pastry cream were delicious! I am a big fan of all dark chocolates and this was almost chocolate overload. I wish the glaze/sauce had spread a little better...it looked more glopped than glazed on most of the eclairs.

Thanks to Tony and Meeta for a great recipe.

TWD - Granola Grabbers

Yeah! I'm back. The neck pain is gone, school is in full swing, and I still have time to bake. This week's Tuesday recipe was Granola Grabbers, chosen by Michelle of Bad Girl Baking.

While I heard many people say these are good as after school snacks, I'm using mine bright and early in the morning. Actually, it's chilly and dark. I get up at 4:45 for my daily trip to the Y. Going that early is the only time I can have some quiet 'me time' each day. I've been eating a cookie or two (they are quite small) on my way downtown and they give me the boost I need to get my day started.

The cookies are packed with yummy things...granola, wheat germ, raisins, peanuts, almonds, and more.

Some of the cookies ended up a bit crumbly. I think the next time I make these (and there will definitely be a next time), I'll add a touch more liquid. I'll also play around with the combinations of fruit and nuts depending on what's in my cupboard...peanuts, almonds, walnuts, pecans, craisins, dried fruit...endless possibilities.

Thanks, Michelle, for a great recipe. This one will be a staple in my house.

Daring Bakers: Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream

I joined the Daring Bakers this month. In addition to baking from Dorie Greenpan's book each week, each month I will be making a "daring" recipe along with all the other Daring Bakers.
A purpose in doing these daring recipes is to stretch my skills and try new techniques in the kitchen.
Chris at Mele Cotte chose the Filbert Gateau with Praline Buttercream from Great Cakes by Carol Walter for this month's challenge. This was a very tasty introduction to the Daring Bakers. I wish I had written this post as soon as the cake was finished, but a busy summer schedule prevented that. As I am not confident with my writing skills when trying to remember something I baked 3 weeks ago, here instead, are some pictures of the gateau-ing process.


I actually needed (or chose to use) two mixers for this. It's been a long time since I've brought out the old Sunbeam.

Hazelnut mixture being processed.

• hazelnuts
• cake flour
• cornstarch

Egg whites coming to soft-peak stage.















Combining the egg yolk and white mixture with the hazelnut mixture.












Ready to bake. I don't have a picture of the baked cake, but it fell as it cooled. I still tried to torte it into three layers. The third layer ended up looking more like a ring of cake instead of a complete layer. Once torted and layered with the scrumptious praline buttercream, I covered the cake with an apricot glaze...











and then ganache. I think ganache is my most favorite way to ice a cake. I used extra bittersweet chocolate, which made for a deep, smooth-tasting ganache.


Here's the end product. I made a whole recipe and shared with two neighbor couples, my aunt and uncle, and a few good friends. There was a lot of cake!

TWD - Summer Fruit Galette

I'm on vacation this week, but was able to complete our recipe. Michelle from Michelle in Colorado Springs selected Summer Fruit Galette, which can be found on pages 366-367 in our book. I didn't even get to taste the creation this time, but my family called it a big hit.

End notes:

• "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan can be purchased here: Amazon
• Tuesdays With Dorie site is here: TWD

TWD - Rhubarb Cobbler

It's Tuesday again. I have a late post this week (still Tuesday, though) because I am on vacation. Yes, I have been on vacation all summer, but this week I finally drove up to Wisconsin to visit my family. It was a great week to do so because my parents have rhubarb in their back yard. Tonight when I was finally ready to make my cobbler, I just stepped out back and cut some stalks for myself.

I cut too many stalks, of course, so I'll have to make jam tomorrow...too bad ;)

For this week's baking delight, Amanda from Like Sprinkles on a Cupcake selected …. Cherry Rhubarb Cobbler, which can be found on page 415 of your Dorie cookbook.

Did I mention I got fresh rhubarb from the back yard? I'm excited!

This is the first Dorie recipe I have had to make some adjustments to. I am not a cherry person and we have raspberries growing next to the rhubarb so I used those instead. I did not have whole wheat flour or ginger available, and ... OH NO ... there was no butter in the house. I had to use margarine. A trip to the store for proper ingredients was not possible today so I had to do a "make do recipe." I think it still turned out pretty good.

I liked the dough balls topping concept of this cobbler. They soaked up lots of the raspberry juice as the cobbler was baking. I would like to try this recipe again using whole wheat flour and real butter to see how the texture changes.

End notes:

• Next time I need to add more cornstarch or another thickening agent as the raspberries are JUICY
• "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan can be purchased here: Amazon
• Tuesdays With Dorie site is here: TWD
• I'm having technical difficulties working with a camera and computer that are not mine. I will attempt to reformat the pictures and update the writing on this blog when I return to my own computer.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Double Crusted Blueberry Pie

It's Tuesday again and that means another Dorie recipe!

This week Amy of South in Your Mouth selected Double Crusted Blueberry Pie as the recipe of choice. I've loved every recipe so far, but WOW this one was great. I'm not a huge blueberry fan so I was apprehensive about making and then eating the pie. I took it to my aunt's house so we could have first tastes together and was glad I was able to leave the pie with her family--I would have eaten the whole thing myself. I am now a blueberry lover.

My pie is not round this week. When I went to get my pie pan I remembered I had dropped and broken my only pan earlier this year. Not wanting to borrow dishes from a neighbor, I took the next best dish--my bread pan. A rectangle pie tastes just as good as a round one.

The construction of the pie was similar to all other pies I've made...no special skills needed this week. I did learn one trick, though. To keep the blueberry juices from seeping into the bottom crust, we sprinkled bread crumbs on the crust before adding the filling. Two days later when we cut pieces of pie, the crust was still white and was not soggy from juice. The crust was magnificent. I used the recipe for a single crust since I was working with a small pan. I wish I had made just a bit more dough as I couldn't quite seal the edges all the way around. It was crisp and flaky and turned a beautiful brown color.

Happy eating, everyone!

Tuesdays With Dorie - Apple Cheddar Scones

A very quick post this week...

This week's recipe was Apple Cheddar Scones, chosen by Karina of The Floured Apron. At first, I was not very excited to see this recipe--for the simple fact that my friend Martha is the scone baker in my world and I didn't want to have something better than her.

Although I ended up not seeing Martha this week and was unable to share my creation with her, I think she would be proud. I made the recipe on Thursday evening and it became my dinner that night as well as my breakfast the next day. So I wouldn't devour every scone, I took the rest to the Habitat build where everyone who tried one said they were great!

The only change I made to the recipe was the apples. I was unable to find dried apples at my stores this week so I used fresh apples. After chopping them, I placed them on a paper towel for a few minutes to help drain some of the excess liquid.

The scones were wonderful. The apple and cheddar were a wonderful, bright combination. They were not too dry, even after sitting out on the counter for a day.

End notes:

• Fresh apples are good, but I will try this recipe again and use dried apples.
• I think I will cut the scones in triangles next time. The 12 squares the recipe said to make made HUGE servings.
• Apple and cheddar are a great combination. If you haven't tried it, go for it!

Tuesdays With Dorie - Mixed Berry Cobbler

Beth of Our Sweet Life chose Mixed Berry Cobbler as our recipe of the week. I was excited to see this recipe as I had just gotten fresh raspberries and blackberries at the fruit market, but I do have mixed reviews about the results. As others noted in the Q-and-A section of TWD, there were issues with the topping.

I chose to make the cobbler in individual ramekins. I used the raspberries and blackberries and mixed them with a bit of sugar and a splash of lemon juice. I piled the fruit into the ramekins, knowing that it would all bake down in the oven.


To make the topping I mixed flour, sugar, butter, and milk until it was "soft and sticky." I tested the mixture and it tasted pretty good at this point. I rough-rolled it into circles to cover the ramekins and laid each on top of the fruit.


The cobblers were baked for 30 minutes at 375 and came out bubbly and spilling over the edges a bit--perfect!



Jacki came over and helped me taste the creations. Her first reaction was that the topping tasted like raisin bran. I'm not sure that's exactly what I would say, but the dry part of the topping did taste plain. Digging into the dishes, however, we found topping that had started to sop up the berry juice. That part was wonderful...pink/purple, hot, juicy...just what a cobbler should be like.

End Notes:

• I will definitely be making this recipe again...with a few changes
  --almond or vanilla flavor in the topping
  --sugar sprinkled on top
  --lots of strawberries--the juice will soak into the topping
• "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan can be purchased here: Amazon
• Tuesdays With Dorie site is here: TWD

Each time I go into the kitchen to bake something, Joey comes in and wants to be near me. Since my hands are usually full and my attention is on the baking activities, he had resorted to jumping on the only available place--my back. I have some nice scars to show where he has dug his claws in. I recently moved a stool to the middle of the kitchen so he can safely watch the activities without hurting me. Here he is on his stool waiting for me to finish the day's work.

Tuesdays With Dorie - Peppermint Cream Puff Ring

Here we go...my first TWD.

I've been looking forward to baking since I came across TWD entries on other blogs and now it's my turn to join in the fun. This week's recipe, Peppermint Cream Puff Ring) was chosen by Caroline of A Consuming Passion. I still have not received my book so I scrounged up a recipe on epicurious.com. (Edited to add -- The book arrived in the mail today. It's wonderful.)

I originally planned to just watch the action this week and start the action next week since I don't have the cookbook yet, but excitement got the better of me and Saturday night found me at Kroger buying the ingredients I didn't have on hand.



Ingredients needed:

Pastry

• water
• whole milk
• unsalted butter
• sugar
• salt
• flour
• eggs

Peppermint cream

• heavy whipping cream
• fresh mint leaves
• chilled crème fraîche or sour cream
• sugar
• peppermint extract (optional)

Glaze

• bittersweet or semisweet chocolate, chopped
• whipping cream
• light corn syrup
• sliced almonds, toasted
• additional fresh mint leaves

I began by starting the peppermint cream. I boiled and steeped the cream and mint leaves and then chilled it overnight. In the morning, I strained the cream and whipped it. Then I folded in a mixture of sour cream (no crème fraîche at my Kroger) and sugar. The pale green tint from the mint leaves was a great color.

Instead of making the pastry in a ring shape, I chose to make individual puffs. I had a brunch to attend on Sunday morning and the puffs were easier to serve at the location of the party. To make the pastry I mixed the water, milk, butter, sugar, and salt and brought it to a boil. I then added the flour and stirred, continuing to cook the mixture for 2-3 minutes...long enough to dry it out a bit. Next, I put the mixture in my stand mixture and turned that on the lowest setting to stir for a few minutes (tip received from steph (whisk/spoon) and others at TWD). This allowed the steam to escape before I added the eggs. I always have a fear of adding eggs to hot mixtures and the tip to let steam out was a great one.



When all the eggs were mixed in, the dough was "silky and shiny." I used a piping bag to make the individual puffs on parchment paper and then baked them for about 15 minutes. When done, I turned off the oven, leaving the puffs inside. This helped them dry out completely and not be too eggy-tasting.

After filling each puff with the peppermint filling, I made chocolate glaze with bittersweet chocolate, corn syrup, and more cream. I drizzled this over half of my puffs, leaving some plain for the crazy people who don't like chocolate.



End notes:

• Thank you to all the TWD people for the great welcome and inspiring blogs. I'm glad to be here with you.
• The cream puffs were well-received at the brunch.
• I would like to flavor the filling with raspberry, strawberry, or orange next time.
• This was a fun recipe to make. I hadn't made cream puffs in a long time even though they are pretty simple.
• I need to remember to take more pictures...and work on my photo techniques. The light in my kitchen is not favorable to good pictures.
• "Baking: From My Home to Yours" by Dorie Greenspan can be purchased here: Amazon
• Tuesdays With Dorie site is here: TWD