Daring Bakers: Piece Montee

The May 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Cat of Little Miss Cupcake. Cat challenged everyone to make a piece montée, or croquembouche, based on recipes from Peter Kump’s Baking School in Manhattan and Nick Malgieri.

I was beyond excited for this challenge. I've always wanted to tackle the croquembouche ever since the first time I watched my aunt make profiteroles for my cousin's wedding (that woman is a goddess in the kitchen). I wanted to go bigger though. I was going to make three different fillings for mine that would all be good in their own right but even better when eaten together. Such big plans! I even decided to hold an impromptu tea party so I wouldn't have to eat all of those puffs myself (and you know I would have).

Last Wednesday, I spent an hour locked in the meat department at the gorcery store waiting out the tornados that decided to blast through Tulsa. I baked my first two batches of puffs through tornado warnings and sirens going off. By midnight, I had 24 flat cream puffs with no bottoms (my first mistake was forgetting to purchase more parchment paper while on lockdown at the store). I was miserable, hot, tired, and just ready to go to bed. Of course that meant only one filling got made, but I just didn't care at that point.

I came home during my lunch break the next day (the day of my tea party) to make new puffs, with the parchment paper this time. This time they were light and airy with bottoms. Yay! These ones could actually be filled (and special thanks goes out to hubby for pulling them out of the oven since I had to go back to work). Hubby and his sister filled them with my banoffee pie filling that I made (take all of the ingredients that goes into a banoffee pie, minus the crust, mix it all together, and now you've got your filling).

It didn't come out quite as big as I wanted, nor did it look very pretty, but everyone loved them. My mom even asked me to make a croquembouch for her birthday cake (finally, someone who doesn't want another chocolate cake). I'll use my aunt's recipe for that one and will attempt to make an actual cone shaped masterpiece. For now, here's my oozy, messy piece montee. Bon apetit!

Pate a Choux (Yield: About 28)
¾ cup (175 ml.) water
6 Tbsp. (85 g.) unsalted butter
¼ Tsp. salt
1 Tbsp. sugar
1 cup (125 g.) all-purpose flour
4 large eggs
For Egg Wash: 1 egg and pinch of salt

1. Pre-heat oven to 425◦F/220◦C degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
2. Preparing batter: Combine water, butter, salt and sugar in a saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil and stir occasionally. At boil, remove from heat and sift in the flour, stirring to combine completely.
3. Return to heat and cook, stirring constantly until the batter dries slightly and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan.
4. Transfer to a bowl and stir with a wooden spoon 1 minute to cool slightly.Add 1 egg. The batter will appear loose and shiny. As you stir, the batter will become dry-looking like lightly buttered mashed potatoes. It is at this point that you will add in the next egg. Repeat until you have incorporated all the eggs.
5. Piping: Transfer batter to a pastry bag fitted with a large open tip (I piped directly from the bag opening without a tip). Pipe choux about 1 inch-part in the baking sheets. Choux should be about 1 inch high about 1 inch wide.
6. Using a clean finger dipped in hot water, gently press down on any tips that have formed on the top of choux when piping. You want them to retain their ball shape, but be smoothly curved on top.Brush tops with egg wash (1 egg lightly beaten with pinch of salt).
7. Bake the choux at 425◦F/220◦C degrees until well-puffed and turning lightly golden in color, about 10 minutes. Lower the temperature to 350◦F/180◦C degrees and continue baking until well-colored and dry, about 20 minutes more. Remove to a rack and cool. Can be stored in a airtight box overnight.
8. Filling:When you are ready to assemble your piece montée, using a plain pastry tip, pierce the bottom of each choux. Fill the choux with pastry cream using either the same tip or a star tip, and place on a paper-lined sheet. Choux can be refrigerated briefly at this point while you make your glaze.

Daring Bakers: A British Pudding

You remember in my last post how I said I made the maramlade for a recipe in a sweet little cookbook full of Lancashire recipes? You remember how I mentioned that a lovely friend from Leeds sent me that cookbook? I don't think I ever truly thanked her as well as I should have for that cookbook. THANK YOU, ANNE!!! This little cookbook is very small but filled with great recipes that I like to imagine being served in a small cottage in the middle of England with a cup of tea and a story from an old granny. It's home cooking that I pretend my Nana would have made for me if we lived across the pond.

  

The April 2010 Daring Bakers’ challenge was hosted by Esther of The Lilac Kitchen. She challenged everyone to make a traditional British pudding using, if possible, a very traditional British ingredient: suet. We were given free-range to make whatever pudding we wanted so long as it was steamed. We could go savory or sweet, prepared for breakfast or dessert. Nothing else mattered.

I of course was scared to death. This was my first baking challenge. I didn't know where to get suet from. I don't even have a regular butcher that I can go to with these crazy requests (I think it's time for me to find one though). I decided to go with a dessert pudding and came across the one I used in the little Lancashire cookbook. Since I had also come across the marmalade recipe only a week or two ago I knew it would be perfect for my challenge. Now, the pudding truly was not my favorite thing in the world. It actually worked even with all of my reservations about it, but I just wasn't loving the texture. I even asked my hubby, "Is it a fail if the recipe worked but you didn't like it or a success that you just didn't happen to enjoy?" He says it's a success, and who knows. Maybe you'll like it better than I did.

Millers Marmalade Pudding

Recipe from Favorite Yorkshire Recipes, adapted by me

3 Tbl orange marmalade (or rhubarb marmalade if you've made it yourself)

4 oz flour

4 oz granulated sugar

4 oz soft margarine (1 whole stick, I used butter)

1 tsp baking powder

2 medium eggs

Sauce

4 Tbl orange marmalade

1/4 pint water/orange juice mixed (I forgot the orange juice but it was fine)

2 tsp arrowroot (I couldn't find any and therefore left this and the next ingredient out)

2 Tbl cold water

1. Place a large pot, big enough to hold your pudding bowl, on the stove filled about halfway (you want enough water to come about halfway up the pudding bowl but not so much that it submerges it). Place a ball of foil or other item that will keep the bottom of the bowl from touching the bottom of the pan (this was not a step in the original that I knew about from reading up on puddings; I just used a large biscuit cutter made of metal that worked perfectly). Begin to heat water on medium heat.
2. Grease a 2 pint heatproof pudding basin and place 3 Tbl marmalade in the base. Put the flour, sugar, butter, baking powder, and eggs into a large bowl, mix, and beat well for 2-3 mintes until soft and of a smooth consistency. Alternatively, use a food processor and process for 30 seconds.
3. Put the sponge mixture on top of the marmalade in the basin. Cover with a circle of greasproof paper and then seal with foil (I didn't have any parchment paper and was forced to cut a circle out of aluminum; it worked just fine but stuck a little so grease it first if you have to do the same).
4. Cover and steam for 2 hours. Prepare the sauce while the pudding is steaming by warming together in a saucepan the 4 Tbl marmalade and water/oj mixture and simmer for 5 minutes. Blend the arrowroot and cold water to a smooth cream and stir in some of the marmalade mix. Return this to the pan and heat, stirring untilt he sauce thickens and clears.
5. Turn out the pudding onto a warm plate and serve hot with the sauce.