In honor of Julia Child’s Birthday, what would have been a 100th celebration, I made her Choux Paste as a base for Eclaires. I added one too many eggs and the dough was very runny, but it still tasted amazing. If I do say so myself. They aren’t very pretty, however I’ll just say there wasn’t one left at the end of the day. Yes, we did share.
I made this dough with cake flour as I didn’t realize that I was out of all purpose and didn’t feel like putting off my ‘overdue’ baking projects. I made one with berries: blueberries, raspberries and a couple of strawberries. The other with a pear, raspberries and two strawberries. The first, I didn’t add enough berries. The second was perfectly filled, I liked the pear mixture better. I would make this again, it’s so easy and delicious!
I would have never thought to mix blueberries and nectarines together. To my surprise, it was pretty good! It was hot on Saturday and that was the day I decided to catch up with my baking. I refrigerated the dough over two hours and still had a most difficult time getting it onto the top of the pie. The bottom crust, no problem. Top crust for whatever reason just wasn’t happy. I’ve never had this happen but it split and I couldn’t get it and it just sort of fell apart. I pieced it together, put on my wash and sugar and popped it into the oven. It tastes the same, right? I waited until Sunday morning to cut into it, and it was wonderful. My boy who usually will eat berry pies didn’t like it and my other boy who usually doesn’t like berry pies did, go figure. My girls, well, they eat anything. I look forward to using the crust again, it had wonderful flavor and texture. PS: It just occurred to me, I just blanked: I would also guess because I didn’t realize that I had run out of All Purpose flour and only had Cake flour on hand…that is another reason my dough was SO SOFT…
These two projects were supposed to be: Semolina Bread and Hazelnut Biscotti…but they turned into Spelt Bread and Macadamia Nut Biscotti. I’m really sorry in the NON blogging, the late posting AND the blurry picture. But, you know when your husband is away things take on different rolls of importance, this is on the bottom of the list. I have to say the children and I loved both recipes, both have been eaten and are long gone. I would make them again anytime. I’ll say this one last thing, if you ever want to give someone a nice gift, but don’t have a lot of money…make them either of these recipes!
I will start by saying, I had high hopes for this recipe. Do you see my ingredients? Yes? Well, I forgot the vanilla and somehow forgot to preheat the oven. Can I blame my mistakes on my children underfoot? No? Well, I tried to pass the blame. My cake didn’t rise hardly, I tried my best and failed. I didn’t like the cake too well either. It was a lot like strawberry shortcake. A plateful of whipped cream and strawberries would have been better. I guess that’s why we are in this group, to try new things. I think my two mistakes hurt my overall results. Oh well.
I found this recipe straight forward and didn’t take much time. I meant to make some brown rice and lentils for dinner tonight to go with the Naan, but I lost track of time and we had it with leftovers. Either way, is fresh bread ever bad? My daughter, after taking this first picture, went on to assemble the rest of them and also came up with the idea to use poppy seeds. I used Greek and Turkish Seasonings from Penzey’s. I would make this again, and possibly use this dough for a thick crust for pizza. It was very easy to work with and so simple to put together.
I would have been off by one week in my posting with the group I’m baking with, but then our computer went all crazy and I’m just now able to use it again.
Let me start off by saying this recipe can be found in Baking with Julia and is one of the best things I have ever made. The shortbread wasn’t too dry, I give (ALL the) butter full credit, yet it was a perfect balance of flavors and textures. I look forward to another opportunity to make these wonderful bars again. I stuck with the exact recipe, and wouldn’t change a thing. One serving was more than enough as it was so rich. The rhubarb jam middle was amazing and the thick layer of powdered sugar gave it the right amount of sweet.
Might I just begin with saying, my husband LOVES LEMON CAKE. I was really excited to make this for him and to see what he thought. We gave the first piece a try, it naturally has a light lemon flavor but I decided to kick the flavor up a bit by adding a lemon icing over the top of each piece. YUM. This would be nice to serve at tea with your friends.
This was a most interesting dish. The sweet and savory combination was just balanced enough. I didn’t wait for it to cool completely, I did wait about an hour when everything else was ready to eat. My first bite I was skeptical, but as I kept eating I really enjoyed it. I would have never come up with this combination on my own! Just another reason I’m glad I signed up for this group!
I really enjoyed making this, and would have never done it if I weren’t in a group. This was A LOT of work, and then I baked them too long. They were still good however…
