Delicious France and other goodness!

So, I haven't written in here in like 2 weeks?? I was out of the country!!! I was indeed! I went to France for my sisters wedding. We have family that lives in paris and my sisters husbands family lives in the Cotentin which is in the Normandy part of France. It was a beautiful wedding, but the weather sucked! Rain rain rain rain rain all week long!!! But it's all good because love was the sole purpose of this trip, and nothin beats love :)

Since being back I've baked a lot, like a lot! It was crazy of me to bake in this crazy heat Philly got hit with! A 3rd floor walk up, no AC, and using an oven.. hot diggity dawg! Hot hot hot! I survived though! I made 2 batches of croissants... that was a tough challenge! On Days 2 and 3, rolling out that dough, wooo! so hard! Well, by day 3 I had installed my AC in my bedroom (realizing that I now need to buy one for my living room if I plan on doing any more cooking this summer... which I do :) ). So, the smartest thing to do was to do the roll out and shaping of the croissants in my bedroom with the AC on blast! And my dear friends, that is what I did (below is the picture for evidence).

(my room is now titled the croissant factory, until further notice)

I dragged my kitchen table into my room, set my AC to 65 and bam! rolled and shaped away. It was still a mess though! The dough was proofing while I was shaping and it was sticky... ugh, my croissants look crazy "special." But I got a whole batch of plain croissants and half a batch of almond and half of chocolate croissants.... I hope they turn out deliciously :)

I not only made croissants but I also did a trial run for a wedding cake I'm doing in July. I had the bride and groom do a taste test last night between 2 recipes I tweaked and the decision was happily made! Yay!

Anyways, I'll focus on writing a post of that cake when the time comes around.

Back to France!!!

France! Delicious France! A few things I want to mention. Of course I ate a croissant within the 1st hour of being there, thanks to my Uncle Leon (big props to him :) ). I ate half of a personal sized raspberry tart by the 3rd hour I was there, kudos to Paul. Later on that day I had generic Nutella on a baguette, which I might add, had more of a hazelnut flavor than Nutella does, yum!!!

Food at the wedding!! I wish I took photos of the cocktail hour! I took photos of everything else but the cocktail hour! The cocktail hour had delicious, amazing, melt in your mouth foie gras! AMAZING! mm! Apparently there was some grilled foie gras I didn't get around to tasting. There were fresh oysters (I didn't hit that part, not an oyster fan), smoked salmon and some other kind of fish, there were endless glasses of champagne. Little chinese soup spoons with a piece of steak and a pear sauce (? I think), or soup spoons with some kind of shrimp thing (didn't try that one). There were waiters walking around with trays of mini croq-monsiers, or fried dumpling type of things, there was just so much I know I'm forgetting things! But, that was by far, the best cocktail hour... (well it was 2 hours long)... I ever experienced. DELICIOUS! I took photos of the dinner we had.. I forgot to take a photo of the appetizer which was a glass with layered crab salad, shrimp salad, some kind of green sauce, I think there was a lobster salad too? All very delicious! Here are the photos I did take of the dinner:

1.  

2.

3.

Okay!!!!

#1- The place setting with the menu and a piece of bread :)
#2- Dinner!! Sea Bass with a most amazing, delicious cream sauce. Top Right corner was a little mound of veggies, like a little almost sorta ratatouille mix. Top Left yummy risotto! Bottom Left a hazelnutty buttery/oily garnish.
#3- Dessert!!! (my favorite part!!!) Top Right- mini fruit tart, no big. Middle- a delicious opera cake!!! The difference was that the bottom was a pecany, carmely mixture, sooo delicious!!!!! Bottom- a delicious citrus mousse with a thyme glaze on top, the combo was seriously amazing.

The next day we went to this little restaurant at Lindbergh Beach called Le Bac a Sable. It's run by a British guy and he's got some banging fish and chips! (that's the only good link I could find for it!) Or you can try this link too!

The last 2 days of the trip was spent in Paris. Hanging with the family. One night my cousins and I went to this delicious fondue joint by where they live, called Le Chalet. Really yummy fondue and an interesting way of doing raclette, which is the original way of doing it (but I never did it this way). Here David Lebovitz has some good pics of racletting!  I love cheese, and melted cheese is almost even better!!!! So delicious!!!!

I was just about to finish this post up and remembered that I had one more important thing to mention!! Something that has apparently existed in France for a while and my brother just learned about it from browsing through David Lebovitz's site.... this is the most amazing thing you could ever try... no doubt, hands down, delicious!

 It is called Speculoos! sigh.... do you enjoy eating graham crackers? If you ask me what my favorite part of a cheese cake is, I'd probably tell you that the graham cracker crust is.... because it is!! It's just so freakin delicious!!!! Now, if you are a graham cracker crust (or non crust) lover, this is the spread for you. Imagine a graham cracker spread. Yup, let it sit with you for a second. It's like peanut butter, but its not, its a spread made out of these delicious cookies... Biscoff cookies..... it's fucking amazing. AND! GET THIS!!! THEY SELL IT IN THE STATES TOO!!!!! Two days after coming back to the states and me cursing myself for forgetting to buy jars upon jars of this wonderful goodness, my brother gets back from the market with a surprise for me, SPECULOOS!!!!!! But! In the states it's called Biscoff Spread. Now, not all super markets carry this, but my brother happened to find it sitting right next to the Nutella! So friends, please do yourself a favor and search every market in your area and buy this thing, it's truly life changing.

I was asked if I was stranded on an island and had to choose between Nutella and Biscoff, which would I choose.. I really couldn't answer.... and most of you who know me know how much I love Nutella, so that says a lot.... This is what the jar looks like... keep an eye out for it, PLEASE!

It's actually a Belgian product. So let's give those Belgians a big HIGH-FIVE!!!!!!!!!

okay!

The end!

ENJOY!!!!!!

Lemon Cookies

(WARNING!!!! These are super delicious cookies!)

nom nom nom nom nom

seriously, these cookies are too diiieeeee for (said in operatic tone)!!

whenever we make them at school, my classmate Syd and I gobble up the dough... mmm! so goooood (gremlin voice)!!! Anyways, it really is delish ish ish! It's not too soury and not too sweet and just the right amount of butteryness! mmmmm ... i need to calm down, it really is a good thing that I don't have any butter with me at the moment or else I'd be baking some more of these! sigh... I once again tweaked their recipe :)



Lemon Cookies!

2 1/4 c  AP Flour
1/2 tsp  b. powder
1/2 tsp  salt
1 c        butter
3/4 c     sugar
1           egg
2 tbsp   lemon zest
1 tbsp   lemon juice
1 tsp     vanilla extract

Glaze
1 1/2 tbsp   lemon zest
1 c        10X
4-5 tsp   lemon juice


(key: 10X = confectioners sugar)


- combine sugar and zest

- using the paddle attachment,  cream the butter with the sugar and zest mixture! (aren't those cubes the cutest!) Cream until its all nice and fluffy!! .... and light in color :)

  

- add the eggs, vanilla, and lemon juice and scrape down the bowl from time to time

- sift the rest of the dry ingridients, flour salt, b. powder and pour it into the butter mixture until all is deliciously combined!

- scoop the cookies out, i just grabbed the dough and made little balls, there isn't too much spread to the cookies so just make balls and press them down a bit.. it should bake with a nice round moundish dome.

- oh! bake at 350! until it's done.... you know, not burnt and not raw :) normally a golden edge is the sign of doneness for these bad boys!

- while the cookies are baking, time to make the glaze!!! In my butter pic you can see the zester and lemon zest in that measuring cup... I really just zested a full lemon and used some for the glaze and some for the cookies and had some extra for my delish turkey burgers :)

- glaze!! mix all the ingredients and BAM!!!! you've got yourself a delicious glaze!

- once the cookies are done, put them on a cooling rack... and when they've cooled down, just dip the tops of them in the glaze and VOILA! Deliciousness!!!!!

(you might want to freeze them once the glaze has hardened, because they are so seriously delicious you could eat 10 in one sitting and not even realize... or you might realize... and also feel really low about yourself and your lack of will power..... I speak from experience ;) I've never had 10 in one sitting though... maybe 5... or 6?)

Enjoy!

Croissants!

(WARNING!: This post is long, as is the croissant making process... enjoy:) oh, but I've got pretty pictures so that should make up for it!)

Goooooooood morning to my Sunday hangover :)

Seriously, it came out of nowhere, really? after 2 beers I'd get wasted, what happened to the old me and where did this new, lightweight, me come from? yikes! The wastedness that ensued after those beers came out of nowhere, I even contemplated the possibilitiy of someone slipping something in my beer.... suspisions arise!!!! After my heart pounding in my head, and a brief encounter between my face and the toilet (yes), I woke up alive and semi- well this morning!!

Anyways, on to more important things!!! I love croissants! I do indeed. My dad's family lives in france and every time we visited, the second we got off that plane I first, thanked the lord I was alive, and secondly my uncle would pick us up and drive us to a boulangerie to get fresh croissants and breads! mm mm mm! So, now that I'm in school and I've learned how to make croissants, you bet your bottom dollar I'd started making them at home!

Whenever I make them, I freeze them, then pull some out saturday night to defrost and proof so that by sunday morning they'd be ready to bake and I'd have a delicious sunday brunch! Here are some photos of the making, proofing, baking process.

woohoo pretty pictures! So, I have a mac, and I'm not computer or tech savy or anything... so the only image editing software I have is this ComicLife! application, hence the comic feel? so here are the ingredients followed by the steps that will hopefully correlate to the above pics :)

Croissants!
(i got this recipe from here (note: I've done this a total of 3 or 4 times, the most recent turned out best so i'm going to explain my way :) ) )

dough a deer
1 # 2oz    AP Flour
5 oz         Cold Water
5 oz         Cold Milk
2 oz         Granulated Sugar
1 1/2 oz   Unsalted Butter
1tbs + 1/2tsp Instant Yeast
2 1/4 tsp   Salt

butter layer
10 oz        Unsalted Butter
1/8 c         Flour

(key: # = lb)

Steps!

day #1

1. Combine all the Ingredients for the dough in a mixer using the dough hook on low speed, once all ingredients are well combined, kick it up a notch to med speed and let it knead for 3 min. If your mixer starts to act up, like mine sorta did a bit, pull that sucker out and knead away for about 5-10 min.

2. Lightly flour a bowl or pyrex. Round out the dough, and plop that bad boy in the bowl/pyrex and cover it and stick it in the fridge over night.

3. Once the dough is in the fridge you can make your butter layer or make it the next day. Either way, I stuck the butter and flour in the mixer, using the paddle attachment, and I let it  cream away... then plop that butter mixture on to a piece of clear wrap you are going to use to wrap it up and shape it into a square a 5 to 6 inch square.

day #2

1. pull out the dough  in the morning and let the dough proof for a few hours. Pull the butter out an hour or two before you plan on doing the following steps. You need the butter to be at a nice soft room temperature, not melty though, so when you do the laminating process, the butter will be easily dispersed.


Picture time!

(these next steps follow the pictures! in case that little header wasn't clear enough for you) 



1-6. Lightly flour the surface of a table. Unwrap that ball of dough and slice an X on top. Then roll out each segment of the X to form a T. When rolling out each segment do not roll directly from the center, you want to leave a nice mound of dough in the center, at least an inch thickness. Then you place your butter layer on that thick part of the dough, the center, and pull each flap over to cover that delicious fatness up. When covering make sure that there is no way the butter can peek out and say hello. You want that sucker trapped in the layers of dough! Also make sure to brush away any excess flour that may be on each flap. As you can see in picture 6, you'll have a wonderful little square of buttery doughy goodness :)

7-9. The laminating process begins!! Now is the time where you search in your mind and try to find something or someone that pissed you off recently, channel that aggression and anger and with your rolling pin, pound that little square of butter and dough down! Pound away my friend, pound away! Then you'll want to roll it 8 x 24.... as you can see in my photo it's not exactly 24in long, so just make sure you have a good enough length to it so you can fold it in thirds, as shown in the picture. Once you've rolled it out and did the tri-fold, wrap it up, stick it in the fridge and let it rest for 20 min. You're going to do this 3 times. Also! An important thing, when rolling out the dough, make sure the seems are at the length.. see in picture 7 at the ends its ugly looking.... yeah so always roll the dough out leaving the seams at the ends and fold the ugliest looking seem when doing the first fold!


10-12. (apparently I suck at counting, haha not really, I just forgot to number picture 12, 12.) After the third time laminating, you pull the dough out after its 20 min of nap time and you roll it out to 24in, for real this time, and do the book fold! Wrap it up, stick it in the fridge and wait for day 3!

(cool semi-fact: I say semi- fact because I don't know the exact number, but by doing this laminating process of rolling and folding, you create something like 1,4?? layers of butter and dough! Cool hu?)

day #3

13. Pull the dough out, a rolling pin, and get your guns (i.e. your super strong arms!) prepared because you're now going to roll that piece of dough out to 44 in long! 8x44!  You can see I use a measuring tape for this part :) Don't forget to lightly flour the surface you're working on!

14a. Shit! I forgot to number the picture above #14!! ugh!! asdkjhas! So! Picture above 14, once you got to 44in, using a ruler or measuring tape, at the top of this long strip, put marks every 5 inches. Then at the bottom go in 2 1/2 in and from there mark every 5in (i.e. put a mark on the bottom part of this dough in the middle of the top 2 marks.... if that makes sense?!)

14b. The actual #14 so from that first bottom mark, with a knife or preferably a pizza wheel (it's easy and fun!) make a slanted line from there to the mark preceding that (from the left) on top . Does this make sense?! It's so freaking hard to write!!!

15. Once you have those slanted lines done in #14 you do them in the other direction making triangles.

(if this is all complicating sounding, like it is, maybe just do 5in marks on the top, and cut straight lines down from top to bottom, then just do diagonal lines through each little rectangle and bam you'd got your triangles. I'm going to try that next time and see  how it goes, easier i'm sure... i've just been doing it the way that site says and its just complicating for no freakin reason!)

16. Now you want to widen the top of the triangles and stretch out the length of it. As a note, if you're doing this and it's really hot in your kitchen, you want to work fast because heat and butter don't work well together. And when you're done stretching, in hot kichen, maybe stick these bad boys in the fridge for 20 min to rest and harden up a bit before rolling.

17-18. (once again i forgot to number a picture correctly) Once you have all the triangles stretched, roll them up yo! At school we make some ham and cheese ones, and almond ones and chocolate ones! The chocolate ones are done a bit differently, shape wise, but the others use this shape. So, either roll them up plain or roll up some kinda filling in them! In this picture sequence I rolled them up plain and stuck them in that pan, then stuck them in the freezer. Once frozen I put 2-3 in a plastic bag so I only eat a few at a time because my ass does not need to get any bigger ;)

So there ya have it!! Croissant making!!! I don't have a proofing picture.. well I do but it's pointless. Basically, when I know I want to have croissants for a certain day, I just pull out the frozen ones, stick them on a pan and let them sit overnight to defrost and proof. Sometimes they proof well and they puff up 2x the original size, and sometimes they don't. This is only because I don't have an actual legit proofing box or setting on my oven, so proofing for me is just letting it sit out over night.

Baking!

Set the oven to 425, once that's preheated and ready to go, brush some egg on the croissants,  stick the croissants in the oven and set your timer to 8 min. Once the 8 min is up, rotate the pan and set the timer for another 8 min. Then BAM! your croissants should be done! Don't be afraid if it looks like it's browning too much before the 8 min is up because that doesn't necessarily mean that the inside is done.  Also, my oven is most probably different than yours, so you might have to do a few trials before you figure out the right timing.


Trifecta!

This is what most of my Sunday mornings consist of: Coffee, James Dean, and a croissant or two! Along with an egg or salad but hands down, no doubt those 3 are always involved!

So, if you have any questions about this process or anything, leave a comment or shoot me an email!

Enjoy!