Baking Bouchon - Recipe 97: Tropezienne

These French words really baffle me.  I think I'm too American to figure out where these names come from.  Lord knows what I'm going to do with Korean words.  I may just order food blindly in restaurants and hope that what shows up isn't still moving.

A Tropezienne is a disc of brioche that is filled with pastry cream.  I have no problem with that.

Brioche is kind of awesome.  It's bread with extra butter in it.  How can that be bad? 

This particular version isn't a "roll" like most brioche are - this one is flat and has pearl sugar on top of it.  This makes it look like a hamburger bun.  Forget sesame seeds, I'd rather have my hamburger buns covered in sugar.

To make this look even more like a hamburger, he roll is sliced and filled with a brown substance - the "meat"... and it's not just plain old pastry cream.

The filling is pastry cream (yum) mixed with Nutella (extra yum).  This combination is just ridiculous.

They should sell these at McDonald's.  People would die (literally, if you ate this and a Big Mac, you would bite it earlier than scheduled).  Heck, I'd trade this for a regular hamburger any day.

Luckily, the pastry cream recipe in this cookbook is not aggressively sweet so when it's mixed with the Nutella it doesn't get really sick sweet.  The brioche is awesome and light and the combination is freaking amazing.

I wish I could remember what chapter in the cookbook this recipe came from because it would win the chapter favorite hands down.  It potentially wins "best in show" for the favorite of the whole cookbook, it's that good.

Yummy, happy food day.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 96: Savarins

CA, Sconnie and I are flying to Korea today.  Holy smokes.  As I'm writing this post, it's still a few days away but I'm already getting nervous.  Mostly about putting my sweet puppy in a crate for 20 hours.  I'm worried he'll be scared or completely freak out and attempt to claw his way out.  I want to cry thinking about it.  Instead I will think of baking, it's much happier.

I have never heard of or seen Savarins before.  They are brioche that are soaked in syrup - often times liquor syrup, but in this case, fruit flavored syrup.

The fruit was supposed to be passion fruit, but I couldn't find any fresh passion fruits, frozen passion fruits or passion fruit puree.  I settled on frozen tropical fruits.  I wish this was liquor syrup instead of fruit syrup.  Liquor makes things taste better.

The brioche rolls are made with flour eggs, yeast, butter and a lot of eggs.  It is mixed up and left to rise in a muffin tin.  The recipe suggests using a savarin mold which is something I was not prepared to buy.  Had I made these in the traditional savarin shape, they would have looked like little doughnuts.  Too bad.

The next step is to make the fruit syrup.  I blended up the frozen fruit and cooked it with water, sugar and vanilla beans and then strained it to create a tropical fruit flavored simple syrup.

The final step was to soak the brioche in the syrup.  The book advises that the syrup must be just the right temperature.  If it's too cold, the flavor won't absorb into the bread, but if it's too hot the bread will disintegrate.

My syrup was the exact right temperature when I put my brioche in it to soak but it didn't soak in AT ALL.  I submerged them in the syrup for several minutes even though the recipe didn't indicate that was necessary but it still didn't soak up much syrup at all.  I even tried poking holes in them to get the syrup to seep inside and got zero results.

The savarins are served with whipped cream and diced fruit - in my case mangos.  Unfortunately the savarins were dry on the inside with absolutely no fruit flavor.  I would have been just as happy (which was not very) if I'd just had whipped cream and mangos.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 95: Dutch Crunch Baguettes

There are two more bread recipes after this one.  The proportion of bread recipes to other types of recipes in this cookbook is too high.  It feels like 2:1 - I needed 1:1.

At least this bread is fairly interesting.  The base of the bread is a standard dough but it gets topped with a mixture that is made up primarily of rice flour.  It has other stuff in it that makes it into a thin batter but I have no recollection of what that actually was. (You're all in for some really informative posts as we finish this cookbook where I can't remember what the heck I did - thank God for the pictures I take of all the ingredients or I'd hardly know what was in these baked goods.)

I had zero confidence that the batter on top would actually stay there when I baked it.  I pictured it running down the sides of the dough and depositing itself in the bottom of my oven.  Luckily, I was wrong and it stayed put.

The rice flour batter baked into a crunchy topping that added some really great texture to this bread.  It made it a huge difference in the bread.  The dough itself was a little bit dense for me, but I loved the crunchy topping.

I have a feeling I'll be taking a break from bread baking for a while.  It's just not my favorite thing to make and I don't think it ever turns out that great.  The Bouchon Bakery is famous for its bread, so I don't think it's the recipes, I think it's me.  Maybe I'm just not a bread baker.  I have much better success with things that are full of sugar.  Darn.

Enjoy!
Julie

Spiced Pumpkin Bread

We just dodged a bullet here.  Until three minutes ago, I had no idea where I got the recipe for this pumpkin bread.  It is packed up with all my recipes and cookbooks on a boat in the Pacific Ocean.  I didn't think about setting it aside before we moved and didn't remember that I didn't have it until I sat down today to write.  I had a few other things on my mind.

I could have just skipped telling you about it, even if it is my go-to pumpkin bread recipe but I had already edited and uploaded all the photos, scheduled this post to show up on the blog today and set up a dozen other posts to show up in the coming weeks (that I still need to write).  Deleting this post would have meant that I would have had to go into all the future posts and edit the dates on them which seemed like a lot of work.

Luckily the Internet is freaking amazing and I was able to locate the recipe given what I know about the recipe websites I frequent and the photo I had of the ingredients.  Score!

I made this recipe to get rid of the final can of pumpkin puree I had in my pantry.  I got a little aggressive with the pumpkin purchasing in the lead up to pumpkin week last Fall and needed to use it up.  The recipe is pretty straight forward... oil and sugar are mixed together, add eggs and pumpkin, add flour, spices, salt  and baking powder, throw in some nuts or pumpkin seeds and bake it up.

This recipe makes two loaves which is pretty awesome.  You can eat one which will happen very quickly and give one away.  Or, if you're being selfish, stick the second one in the freezer and eat it too.

I think this pumpkin bread is pretty perfect.  It is super moist, has a great warm spice component and is full of pumpkin flavor.  Exactly what you want in pumpkin bread.

Spiced Pumpkin Bread
from Epicurious

Ingredients
3 cups Sugar
1 cup Vegetable or Canola Oil
3 Eggs
1 16oz. can Pumpkin Puree
3 cups All Purpose Flour
1 tsp Ground Cloves (you can also replace the cloves, cinnamon and nutmeg with 3 tsp Apple Pie or Pumpkin Pie Spice Blend)
1 tsp Cinnamon
1 tsp Nutmeg
1 tsp Baking Soda
1/2 tsp Salt
1/2 tsp Baking Powder
1 cup Pumpkin Seeds, coarsely chopped Walnuts or Pecans (optional)

Instructions
Preheat the oven to 350 degrees.  Spray with non-stick spray and flour two loan pans.

In a large bowl, beat the oil and sugar together.  Mix in eggs and pumpkin puree.

In a medium bowl, stir together the flour, cloves, cinnamon, nutmeg, baking soda, salt and baking powder.

Stir the flour mixture into pumpkin mixture in 2 additions. Mix in seeds or nuts, if desired.

Divide batter equally between prepared pans. Bake until toothpick  inserted into center comes out clean, about 1 hour 10 minutes. Transfer to racks and cool 10 minutes. Using sharp knife, cut around edge of loaves. Turn loaves out onto racks and cool completely.

Enjoy!
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 94: Hazelnut Streusel Spiced Caramel Chiboust

My hiatus lasted a little longer than I expected.  Stuff happened, it happens.

For those of you who remember my last post know that I spent a week in Kansas at "wife school" which was actually pretty good.  I didn't learn anything about being a wife in the sense of how to cook or clean or iron or curl my hair in the perfect 50's hairstyle but that wasn't exactly the point.  I did learn a lot about how to support Captain America in the new role he'll be taking when we get to Korea (which is happening in 3 days people - I don't know how that snuck up on me) and how to support all the families of the people working with CA.

I also learned a lot about myself.  For example...

• I took a personality test that told me I'm an extrovert (obviously, considering I can't find enough live people to talk to so I talk to all of you), I'm sensing (given that I often miss the big picture by obsessing with details, I'd say that's right), I'm feeling (my brother in laws don't call me a face faucet for no reason) and I'm judging (which has nothing to do with being judgmental and everything to do with the lists I make for everything.  Except that I'm totally judging you).  This combination of traits makes me a caregiver.  I'm dependable and warm but I'm also very sensitive and need structure in my life so that I don't completely freak out.  Maybe that's why CA makes fun of me all the time for needing a plan.
• I took another test that told me my conflict resolution style which I could have told you before I took the test is avoidance.  I hate conflict.  It's fine if you don't agree with me, just don't except me to agree with you either.  Let's talk about something else.
• The other test I took was my leadership style which it turns out avoids everything that has to do with me taking all control or giving up all control.  I like collaboration.  What do you think?

You may have forgotten this is a food blog, I did for a minute too.  I desperately need to tell you about the final recipes in the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook including this Hazelnut Streusel Spiced Caramel Chiboust which is a terrible title that tells you nothing about what it actually is unless you speak bakery.

This thing is essentially two layers.  The base layer is a Hazelnut Streusel which is a shortbread made with primarily hazelnut flour, but it has cake flour and almond flour mixed in as well.

The next layer is a Spiced Caramel Chiboust.  Chiboust is pastry cream that is lightened with whipped egg whites.  I made this a long time ago so I don't really remember how the heck I made it.  Unfortunately, the movers packed my beloved cookbook so I can't go back and read the recipe to remind me.  What I do know is that it took just about every bowl and pot in my house to make this stuff. 

I believe the pictures above show me making the spiced caramel to incorporate into the pastry cream but I can't be sure.

I'm more confident that these pictures show me finishing the pastry cream and folding in the egg whites to finish off the Spiced Caramel Chiboust which gets frozen into a nice flat circle.

Once the Chiboust is set, it is placed atop the Hazelnut Streusel and garnished with peaches.

After all that work and all the dishes I had to clean I absolutely hated this dessert.  The hazelnut streusel was fine but the chiboust was one of the weirdest things I've ever tasted.  It was like licking the bottom of a Chai latte where all the dredges of the spices are but with the consistency of flan.  I also don't understand how the peaches relate to the other flavors at all.  I hated it.  CA didn't like it either.  All he said was "this is weird."  I did not subject anyone else to this dessert, it got tossed in the trash.

This is the last recipe in the Tart section of the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook and it was not my favorite chapter.  A lot of the recipes were really complicated and time consuming to execute.  My hands down favorite was the Caramel Nut Tart.  Making it was a complete disaster, but once I executed it the result was really incredible.

I'll be back tomorrow with something that you might actually want to make.

Enjoy!
Julie

Around here...

A lot has happened around these here parts and none of it has to do with me writing informative future posts about all the cooking I've been doing.

Not that I haven't been cooking - I've baked up a storm in the last few weeks and actually finished the Bouchon Bakery Cookbook.  I still can't believe I actually accomplished this goal I set for myself last year but I did.  Yeah me.  Unfortunately, with the mad rush to finish the cookbook and everything else going on my writing has suffered greatly.  So what else is going on?

We're moving and not just a regular move across town or to another state, we've moving to a whole 'nother freakin' country.  The movers came to start packing out stuff exactly one week after I stopped working.  I thought I had another week to prepare but things moved much more quickly than I expected - which is better than the alternative.  I spent 4 days sitting in my house watching other people pack my stuff and load it into trucks which is ridiculously boring.  Plus, watching other people work is completely exhausting.

In preparation for the move we had to separate everything into 2 shipments, one that will come to Korea with us and another that will stay in the States in storage.  My mom and dad came up to help us and thank God they did because we wouldn't have been able to get it done by ourselves in the short amount of time that we had.  We also had to sell a car, get our rental house cleaned, take the dog to the vet 4,000 times to get him cleared to travel, get roof rails installed on the other car so that we could fit all the crap in it that we're taking on the airplane and storing at my parents house for the next couple of years (the best part of which was parts of it flying off my car as I drove away from the dealership), drive said car 12 hours to my parents house, then drive another 4 hours each way to take the aforementioned car to the facility to be shipped to Korea (are you done forgiving me for not writing yet?)  Luckily CA did most of the driving but it was still exhausting for me (read watching other people work, above).

Now I'm sitting in a hotel room in Kansas where CA and I start a class on Monday where I learn how to be his wife.  (I'm actually hear to learn how to support him and the families of the people who will be working for him in the job he'll have in Korea but it kind of feels like I'm being sent to wife school.  I guess we'll find out on Monday how much I have to learn).

Anyway, that's about the longest excuse ever to apologize for the fact that the next couple weeks will be completely lacking in I'll Bake It, You Eat It posts.  Hopefully, when I get back to my parents house from Kansas, I can write about all the yummy stuff I made and you can read it while I'm on a 14 hour airplane flight.  I may or may not cry the entire trip because I have to put my dog in a crate under the airplane for 14 hours but that remains to be seen.

Talk to you all again soon.
Julie

Baking Bouchon - Recipe 93: Pastry Galettes

The Puffy Pastry Chapter is done and this was the easiest recipe yet!  It helped that I had already made the puff pastry dough because that is a huge pain in the butt and to be honest with you, I don't think I'll ever make my own again.  The frozen pastry is just fine with me.

These little treats are slices of puff pastry that are covered with royal icing and baked.  They're really very tasty.  The puff pastry is nice and buttery, but there's no sugar in it so the icing adds just enough sweetness to make these a nice little bite.

The royal icing is super easy to make, it's just a combination of powdered sugar, egg whites and lemon juice.  That gets stirred up, spread on top of a rolled our sheet of puff pastry and frozen.  Once it's frozen, it's sliced into little bars and baked.

Unfortunately, these things are hideous.  The icing ran off the sides while they were baking and pooled on the sheet pan.

The picture in the book (above) shows them as perfect little rectangles, mine certainly were not.  However, their looks didn't stop us from eating them.  I'm not joking when I tell you that CA ate 20 of them over the course of 15 minutes.  The next morning, I told him that he didn't need to take them to work since he liked them so much we could keep them.  He said "absolutely not" and took them all to work.  That's what late night binge eating will do to you.

Reflecting on this chapter of the cookbook, my favorite use of the puff pastry was in the Pithiviers.  These were round of pastry filled with a mixture of pastry cream and almond cream - delicious!  I also loved 3 of the 4 versions of croissants - traditional, chocolate and almond.

The worst were the Palmiers a la Framboise which probably would have tasted fine if I could have finished the recipe without screaming in frustration.  I also was not a huge fan of the raisin croissants for obvious reasons.

I'm starting to actually believe that I'll finish this cookbook before the move which is a huge motivator!

Enjoy!
Julie