Brioche buns with chocolate pastry cream (translation from French recipe)

I wanted to make some chocolate eclairs for a friend who came for lunch yesterday but it seems I simply cannot make them in an electric oven... So I had to improvise and I looked on one of my favorite French website for ideas. I found the recipe of what we call a Chinois (Chinese) which is roughly a chocolate pastry cream rolled into a brioche pastry and cut into buns. It is simply delicious and so easy to make. The most difficult part is actually waiting for it to cool enough so you have some.

Mice looks very messy but to be honest once you have tasted it, you don't care. I had so much pastry cream and I didn't want to have any leftover so I covered the Brioche with the rest. I think this recipe also either calls for a bigger dish than the one I used or make 2 small ones.

So here is the recipe:
Ingredients (8 people):

400 g flour
1 ½ sachet of dry yeast
80 g of salted butter
100 ml lukewarm milk
20 g of sugar.
2 eggs
1 handful of chocolate chips

Preparation:

Mix the flour with yeast. Add the melted butter and sugar to the warm milk. Incorporate this mixture into the flour and mix it with the hands. Add then the beaten egg and then work the dough and knead it for about 10 min. Form a ball and then let the dough rise in a warm place for 1 hour. Once the dough has doubled in volume, spread it on a slightly floured plan. Spread the pastry cream everywhere even at the edges and corners. Wrap the dough on itself to form a large roll. Cut into 8 sections and then place them in a mould. Sprinkle some chocolate chips and let rise again. Bake in a hot oven for 30 minutes at 180 °.


Source: www.lesfoodies.com

For the chocolate pastry cream:

200 g of dark chocolate
20 g cocoa powder
20 g corn starch
110 g powdered sugar
4 egg yolks
60 cl of milk.


Vigorously mix powdered sugar and egg yolks in a bowl. Add the corn starch and cocoa powder and pour boiling milk on it.

Pour it in a saucepan and bring to the boil, stirring vigorously.

Out of the heat, add chocolate cut into squares and stir with a whisk until well smooth cream is obtained. Cool and pour the cream.

Just like any pastry cream or curds, you will need to apply a plastic film over the surface of it when it cools.

Source: www.lesfoodies.com

Chinois a la creme au chocolat

Une de nos amies ADORE John ( mon petit dinosaure d'un an) donc nous l'avons invitée a venir dejeuner pour qu'elle puisse passer un peu de temps avec lui. J'avais un reste de creme patissiere au chocolat et je voulais faire des éclairs mais pour une raison ou une autre je n'arrive pas a les faire dans le four électrique... donc il m'a fallu improviser. Je suis allée sur un de mes sites préferé: www.lesfoodies.com et j'ai trouvé une recette de Chinois a la creme patissiere au chocolat. J'ai donc essayer et TADA....

Ok je suis la premiere a admettre que visuellement ce n'est pas le dessert le plus appetissant mais croyez moi, je pourrais en manger des tonnes... non en réalité ce dessert est tres riche et donc une petite part suffit; meme pour les gourmands.

Cette recette est réalisée avec du pralin. Je n'en avais pas et je ne suis meme pas sure qu'on puisse en trouver ici.

Donc voici la recette. Cést tres facile a faire et idéal pour le gouter.
Ingrédients (8 personnes):

400 g de farine
1 ½ sachet de levure du boulanger sèche
80 g de beurre salé fondu
100 ml lait écrémé tiède
20 g de sucre
2 oeufs crème pâtissière
50 g de pralin + un peu
1 poignée de pépites de chocolat
confiture abricot-girofle + eau

Préparation:

Mélangez la farine avec la levure. Ajoutez le beurre fondu et le sucre au lait tiède. Incorporez ce mélange à la farine et mélangez avec les mains. Ajoutez ensuite les oeufs battus puis travailler la pâte et pétrissez-la pendant 10 min environ. Formez une boule puis laisser la pâte lever dans un endroit chaud pendant 1 heure (allumez le four 2 min puis éteignez-le et placez-y votre pâte dans un saladier). Une fois que la pâte a doublé de volume, étalez-la sur un plan légèrement fariné. Etalez ensuite la crème pâtissière un peu partout même au niveau des bords et coins. Saupoudrez de pralin. Enroulez la pâte sur elle-même de façon à former un gros rouleau. Coupez en 8 tronçons puis les placer dans un moule. Saupoudrez de pralin et de pépites de chocolat puis laissez gonfler à nouveau. Faites cuire dans un four chaud pendant 30 min à 180° Ajoutez un peu de confiture diluée avec un court filet d'eau, pour lui donner du brillant.

Brioche burger buns- updated

We were watching TV not long ago and on the show they were going on and on about those brioche burger buns and how good they were so I felt I needed to give them a try. I had a look around and I have found this recipe on www.smittenkitten.com

Light Brioche Burger Buns
Adapted from Comme Ça restaurant in Los Angeles, via the New York Times

I was asked to add some pictures. I have tried to take them step by step but at one stage of the recipe my hands were covered in dough which rendered the operation impossible. Hopefully you find the pics helpful. I have also added the end result: tonight's dinner- Beef Burger and Fries :)

Even the plate for the little one:

Makes 8 4 to 5-inch burger buns

3 tablespoons warm milk
2 teaspoons active dry yeast
2 1/2 tablespoons sugar
2 large eggs
3 cups bread flour
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 teaspoons salt
2 1/2 tablespoons unsalted butter, softened
Sesame seeds (optional)

1. In a glass measuring cup, combine one cup warm water, the milk, yeast and sugar. Let stand until foamy, about five minutes.

Meanwhile, beat one egg.

2. In a large bowl, whisk flours with salt.

Add butter and rub into flour between your fingers, making crumbs.
I had forgotten to take the butter out to let is soften. It is something I almost always forget to do but Thanks to Nigella Lawson I have the trick: grate it:

Check out that yeast mixture!!!

Using a dough scraper, stir in yeast mixture and beaten egg until a dough forms.

Scrape dough onto clean, well-floured counter and knead, scooping dough up, slapping it on counter and turning it, until smooth and elastic, 8 to 10 minutes. The dough will be on the sticky side so it can be a bit messy, but keep in mind that the more flour you knead in, the tougher the buns will get. Try to leave them tackier than you would a round loaf.

It was very messy but I tried my best to not add too much flour which in the end paid off.

3. Shape dough into a ball and return it to bowl. Cover bowl with plastic wrap and let rise in a warm place until doubled in bulk, one to two hours.

4. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Using dough scraper, divide dough into 8 equal parts. Gently roll each into a ball and arrange two to three inches apart on baking sheet. Cover loosely with a piece of plastic wrap lightly coated in nonstick spray and let buns rise in a warm place for one to two hours.

5. Set a large shallow pan of water on oven floor (I have found that it's best not to do that but I guess it depends on the oven). Preheat oven to 200 degrees Celcius with rack in center. Beat remaining egg with one tablespoon water and brush some on top of buns.

Sprinkle with sesame seeds, if using. Bake, turning sheet halfway through baking, until tops are golden brown, about 15 minutes. Transfer to a rack to cool completely..

I have to admit that when I had a look at the recipe I though: "that looks like too much work". But we had a friend coming over for lunch and it motivated me to make them. So I did and they turned out to be great (if i can say so myself). They turned out to be light and according to my husband the same consistency as Kaiser rolls and very tasty. I actually didn't take any picture of the buns so well I guess I have to make some more. The ones we have made on Saturday were chicken ones but tonight we went for beef. We had: homemade beef patties, lettuce, beetroot, caramelized onions, avocado and homemade tomato relish (my husband's secret recipe).

Petit Prince a ma facon

Récemment j'ai demandé a ma chere Maman de m'envoyer des Petits Prince au chocolat pour que mon fils puisse decouvrir les gateaux de mon enfance. Verdit: il adore. Le probleme: mon mari aussi. Apres une semaine a regarder les paquets de biscuits dans le placard, je l'ai autorisé a en prendre pour lui... Deuxieme probleme: quand on y a gouter, on ne peut pas s'arreter.
De nos jours, on trouve de tout sur Internet et j'ai donc décidé de faire des recherces et j'ai trouvé une recette sur ce site: http://mes-recettes-pour-mes-enfants.over-blog.com/article-biscuits-petits-prince-aux-3-cremes-faits-maison-65844280.html

J'en ai donc fait hier. En tout je n'ai eu le courage d'en faire que 8 (16 biscuits en tout) car la pate sablée est un peu difficile a travailler. Aujourd'hui (meme pas 24 heures apres les voir fait), il en reste 2... et mon mari m'a demandé d'en refaire. (je vais faire des minis la prochaines fois :))
La seule chose que je changerai, c'est que au lieu de faire une creme patissiere pour le milieu je ferai une ganache au chocolat noir. La creme patissiere, malgre le fait qu'elle se fige reste glissante.

J'avais un reste de pate que j'avais mis au congelateur et une amie est venue dejeuner a la maison aujourd'hui donc j'ai fait une version mini pour manger avec un café:

Yogurt and semolina cake

My Sister- in Law and I had organized to meet on Sunday last week. A little while ago she gave me some lemons to make the lemon curd I needed for the Retirement cake I made in July. So I thought to say Thank you I would bring her some freshly lemon curd with the last lemons I had but I didn't want to bring the lemon curd on its own so I made a cake. I wanted something quick and easy to make with the ingredients I already had at home. So I made this wonderful yoghurt cake that inspired from a recipe found on a French website.
Here is the original recipe:
- 1 pot of yogurt (I use Yoplait Trim, then use this pot as a measuring cup for the rest of the ingredients,
- 2 pots of sugar (I actually only used one and I have found that to be enough)
- 1/2 pot of oil
- 3 eggs
- 2 pots of flour

Preheat the oven to 200 degree C.

Mix all the ingredients and pour in a greased tin.

Bake for about 30 minutes.

when I made this one, I actually burnt it. Doesn't happen too often luckily and I didn't want to bring a burnt cake to my Brother and Sister- in Law so I made another one... except I ran out of flour... BUT I had some semolina flour and I thought I could put the same quantity of semolina that I had flour missing. I started with /2 cup of flour (to 1 and a half cup of self- rising flour) and it was just great. The cake was moist and still very light.

Because the cake was so successful (even the burnt one at home), I decided to make it into muffins. I added some lemon and orange zest for some more flavor and here they are:

My 13 month old son had some when he woke up and I had to give him a second piece. I hope you enjoy making and eating this as much as we do :)

Cowboy theme Birthday cake

Here is the second cake I made a little while back. I got badly hit by sinusitis and it took me a while to recuperate, hence the delay in posting it.
The cake is banana and very very good (if I may so myself, not being a big fan of making or eating banana cakes) with vanilla frosting.
Unfortunately, because my house is very humid the hat cracked before I could deliver it. Luckily it didn't break but still I was very disappointed.