puff the magic "pâte à choux"

cream puff parade

Inspired by my friend Astrid at La Cerise, I made cream puffs and it wasn't nearly as bad as I thought. Despite my pathetic piping, the pâte à choux magically puffed into gloriously light, round, golden puffs. It was so exciting! I topped them with Hagel Zucker ("hail" sugar) so they could be eaten plain as chouquettes. I made a chocolate pastry cream to fill the others. They were yummy and the perfect party dessert - no utensils required. Next time I want to try eclairs, but I'll definitely need to practice my piping.

I thought these small piles would make medium puffs,
but they baked up huge

I piped tiny bits for the second tray and
they turned out perfect one-bite size morsels

the beauty of disposible pastry bags

Recipe: pâte à choux

Adapted from "The Secrets of Baking" by Sherry Yard

1 cup bread flour or all-purpose flour (I used Halbweissmehl)
1 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon salt

1/2 water

1/2 cup whole milk (I used 2% and it was fine)

6 tablespoons unsalted butter

4-5 eggs (I used 4)

for egg wash: 1 large egg + 1 yolk

1. If you plan to bake these right away, preheat oven to 425F (215C) and adjust rack to center of oven. You can refrigerate the dough at various points for later baking.

2. Sift together flour, sugar, and salt in a bowl. Set aside.

3. Bring water, milk, and butter to a boil in a large saucepan over medium heat. At the boil, remove the pan from heat and add the flour mixture all at once. Using sturdy spoon, stir vigorously to combine.

4. Return mixture to medium heat and stir constantly in figure eights for at least 4 minutes, or until the mixture has a smooth. mashed-potato-like appearance. (I found this figure eight motion impossible as the mixture is too thick - I just mushed it around with my spoon) This helps break down the starch and develop the gluten. Remove from heat.

5. Transfer hot mixture to bowl of stand mixer with paddle attachmet. Mix on low speed for 1 to 2 minutes until dough cools to under 180F (so eggs won't cook when you add them). Add 4 of the eggs, one at a time. Be sure to let the batter absorb each egg and scrape down the sides of the bowl with a rubber spatula before adding the next. Before adding the last egg, check for consistency. Pinch off about 1 teaspoon of dough with your thumb and index finger, then pull apart your fingers. The dough should stretch rather than break. If it breaks, add the last egg. Mix on low speed until thoroughly incorporated, about 2 minutes. The dough should be shiny and smooth. Now it's ready to be piped. To store for later us, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate for up to 2 days.

6. Line baking sheets with parchment paper. Using large plain tip (#6), pipe mounds of the dough, remember that they will grow significantly during baking.

- For small (my favorite), pipe 1/2 inch diameter, 1/2 inch high, about 1.5 inches apart.

- For medium, pipe 1.5 inch diameter, 1 inch high, 2 inches apart.

- For large, pipe 2 inches in diameter, 1 inch high, 2 inches apart.

At this point, the unbaked cream puffs can be frozen on the baking sheet. Cover with plastic film and freeze for up to 2 weeks. Defrost at room temp for about 30 minutes before baking.

7. Make egg wash by whisking 1 egg and 1 yolk in small bowl. Brush lightly but evenly over the puffs. (I often skip the egg wash because I'm lazy and don't like "wasting" eggs. But I did it this time and I think it really enhances the final product.)

8. Place puffs in the oven. Bake for 10 minutes, or until puffs begin to rise. Turn the oven temp down to 350F(175F) and prop the oven door slighly open with a wooden spoon. Cook until puffs turn a nutty brown:

- For small, cook 10 to 12 minutes more

- For medium, cook 15 to 18 minutes more

- For large, cook 18 to 20 minutes more

(The recipe also suggests place a pan at the bottom of the oven and filling it with hot water when you first place the puffs in. This will create steam, allowing the crust to stay soft longer. I'm lazy and my oven is small so I skipped this step. My puffs were still soft and delicious).

9. Remove from oven and cool completely on a rack, about 15 minutes before filling and serving. At this stage, you can freeze the baked puffs for later use. Place cooled puffs in an airtight plastic bag and freeze for up to 2 weeks. They will also keep for 24 hours at room temp before being filled.

"I make you drunk, I make you hot"

this guy works at the store and
is very helpful, in German of course

Or so goes the tagline for Heuberger, a great food store I stumbled upon a couple weeks ago in the Werd quartier, near Bahnhof Selnau. While one side of the shop sells wine, the other sides offers an enormous array of spicy things: chile powders, salsas, speciality spices. But the really fantastic thing is that right now theyare selling chile plants! They carry 19 varieties, including Jalapeño and Serrano, which I purchased yesterday. I'm crossing my fingers that they'll flourish on my little balcony so I don't have to run across town to El Maiz every time I want to make salsa this summer. In combo with my tomato and coriander plants and trusty tortilla press, I'm approaching self-sufficiency for my Mexican cooking needs. Yay!

serrano on the left, jalapeño on the right

Heuberger, Morgartenstr. 12, 8004 Zurich, Te;. 044 281 11 61
Di-Fr 11:00-19:00, Sa 10:00-17:00

swiss grilling

Perhaps this is common practice with sausages,
but I've never seen it before. I like it.

When we were invited to an outdoor grill party, we thought about bringing steak but wisely brought sausage instead. While we cooked peppers & onions on our grill, everyone else had sausage on a stick. Of course, the other members of our party walked to the grill site, while we drove (we have our excuses, we're not just lazy Americans with too much equipment). We also brought s'more fixings and wire hangers but they weren't quite the hit we thought they'd be. We have a lot to learn.

open-faced s'more

what not to eat

I've entered the 3rd trimester and the acid reflux is now in full swing. Yay. To reduce the symptoms, apparently I'm supposed to avoid almost all my favorite things:

• spicy foods
• chocolate and peppermint (no more mint chip???)
• foods high in fats
• milk and milk-based products
• eating shortly before bedtime
• large meals
• sugarfree chewing gum
• acidic foods like oranges and tomatoes
• cruciferous vegetables like onions and broccoli

So much to look forward to.

happy mother's day

bluecheese coleslaw

As is probably tradition for many families, my husband made dinner for Mother's Day and it was delicious. He is an excellent intuitive, impromptu cook (completely unlike me), making even fried eggs and toast into a scrumptuous and attractively presented meal (he always adds a garnish, I love it!). But he doesn't often cook more elaborate meals from recipes (more my style). So I'm always excited when he cooks for a special event. This time he made braised ribs, blue cheese cole slaw, and banana-macadamia nut muffins, an extra-special treat since he rarely bakes (that is my domain entirely). It was all soooo good. Thanks T - I love you!

braised ribs

banana-macadamia nut muffins

minty fresh

mint chip ice cream sandwiches

This time I made Fresh Mint ice cream with Stracciatella, then sandwiched them between chocolate cookies. The Fresh Mint ice cream was great! As you can imagine, the flavor was totally different from commercial mint chip. It tasted just like fresh mint smells, not artificial at all. The minty milk tasted so good by itself that I wanted to just drink it before I made the custard. However, my milk never turned "emerald green" as promised by the recipe. Not even a hint of green. Perhaps I need to bruise or chop the mint leaves before steeping? Also, I skimped a little on the mint (60g instead of 80g) thinking it might be too strong. I was wrong; definitely use the whole amount.

mint steeping in milk ... decidedly not green mint chip

For the stracciatella, I was supposed to melt a bar of chocolate (I used 55% dark) and pour a thin stream into the ice cream at the end of churning, creating chocolate streaks. This was impossible. No matter how hot the chocolate was, it never got to a "thin stream" consistency. It would crawl toward the spout, then plop off in big drops. Plus it would always hit directly on the dasher, never in the ice cream, no matter what I tried with the timing. It was huge mess. Finally, I stopped the churning and just dropped in small bits and slashed it around quickly with a spatula. This worked perfectly. I just had to work quickly to prevent the chocolate from freezing into big chunks instead of thin streaks. I really liked the end result, which added the perfect complement to the mellow mint.

ramikin perfect for pressing dough balls ... cookie too thick, ice cream too thin

Lastly, I made chocolate cookies to make ice cream sandwiches. My son and I were disappointed with the end result and we've been scraping off and eating the ice cream by itself. The flavor was good, but there were many problems (most self-inflicted):

A) ice cream layer was too thin (see pic above). In retrospect, I think the ice cream should be 2-3 times as thick as the cookie layer.

B) the cookies were too thick (see pic above). The ice cream flavor was completely obscured. I made them as prescribed the recipe (I even weighed the dough to make sure each ball was exactly the same). But seeing them action, I would recommend making them half as thick (of course, reducing the baking time).

C) let the ice cream set in the freezer for an hour or so before assembling sandwiches. I assembled them immediately after churning and the ice cream started oozing all over. The ice cream needs to be pliable enough to spread but hard enough to keep its shape.

D) The cookies were not soggy (as promised by the recipe), but they didn't soften either. Some might consider this a plus, but I would prefer a softer, chewier cookie that gives a little when I bite in. These cookies were all crunch. (P.S. My husband told me to wait a few days for them to soften up and he was right. The sandwiches are much better a few days after assembly.)

All recipes are lazily abbreviated from The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz.

Fresh Mint Ice Cream

Warm 1 cup milk, 1 cup cream, 3/4 cup sugar, and pinch of salt in small saucepan. Take off heat and stir in 80g (2cups loosely packed) fresh mint leaves. Let steep for an hour. Then strain into larger saucepan where you will make the custard. Pour another 1 cup cream in a separate bowl, where you later pour the finished custard to cool. In separate bowl, whisk 5 egg yolks until combined. Warm minty milk mixture, then slowly pour into eggs, whisking constantly so they don't cook. Pour mixture back into saucepan and warm, stirring constantly until custard coats back of spatula, about 175F (77C). Pour custard through strainer into into cream bowl (from above) and place over ice bath, stirring to bring custard to room temp. Place mixture in fridge or freezer to chill completely (about 40F) before churning. Churn with ice cream machine according to instructions.

Stracciatella

Melt 5oz chocolate in double boiler until smooth. After ice cream is done churning, slowly drizzle warm chocolate into ice cream and quickly use spatula to streak chocolate, breaking up any large chunks. This can be done in the machine itself or as you layer ice cream in container.

Chocolate Sandwich cookies

coming soon

2% butterscotch ripple

my perfect scoops

Since books published in America are usually 50-200% more expensive in Europe (The Bread Bible would have cost me $51 here, as opposed to $25 in the US), I often wait for a generous and strong visitor to truck over a pounds and pounds of new reading material. But this time I couldn't wait. I paid the extra $10 and ordered The Perfect Scoop by David Lebovitz from Amazon.de and I am one happy cook. Besides the inspiring array of ice cream and sorbet recipes, the toppings and mix-ins recipes practically had me swooning.

I started with Butterscotch Pecan and wow, the flavor packs a punch. The texture was fantastic and I loved the butter flavor - so much more intense and real than anything I've ever had at an ice cream parlor. But something was a little off. I think perhaps it was the extra dark (practically black) brown sugar I used - a bit too molasse-y.

ice cream is even cuter on a cone ... melted cuz I was taking too many pics

In a last ditch effort to gain another 30 pounds before my baby comes in July (to match the weight of my first pregnancy), the very next day, I tried the basic Chocolate Ice Cream recipe. But I didn't let my ice cream maker freeze long enough (I knew it but I did it anyway - will I ever learn?); thus the ice cream was more like ice cream soup. Of course, this didn't stop me or my son from slurping down a couple "scoops" worth. But the flavor is very promising. So I'm freezing everything again tonight and I'm going to process it again tomorrow. I can't wait to eat it for real.

Next on my list is Fresh Mint Stracciatella (aka Mint Chip), my favorite flavor when I'm pregnant.

Butterscotch Pecan Ice Cream Recipe

Lazily abbreviated from The Perfect Scoop, by David Lebovitz

5 TB butter

3/4 cup packed dark brown sugar

1/2 tsp coarse salt

2 cups heavy cream

3/4 cup whole milk

6 large egg yolks

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

Buttered Pecans (recipe below), coarsely chopped

1. Melt butter in medium saucepan, then stir in the brown sugar and salt. Whisk in 1 cup of the cream and milk. Warm this mixture. Meanwhile, pour the remaining 1 cup cream in a separate bowl and set a mesh strainer on top.

2. In a separate bowl, whish egg yolks until combined. Slowly pour warm brown sugar mixture into egg yolks, whisking constantly (careful not to scramble them). Scrape warmed yolk back into saucepan. Stir constantly over medium heat until mixture coats the back of a spoon, about 160-175F. Pour mixture through strainer into reserved cream and stir to combine. Add vanilla, then stir over ice bath to stop cooking.

3. Cool mixture thoroughly in fridge (under 40F is best) then freeze in your ice cream machine according to the instructutions. Add pecans in the last minute of churning.

Buttered Pecans

1.5 TB butter

1.5 cups pecan halves

1/4 tsp coarse salt

Preheat over to 350F(175C). Melt butter in skillet. Toss pecans until well coated, then sprinkle with salt. Spread evenly on baking sheet and toast in oven for about 10 minutes, stirring once during baking.