Pages

Tuesday, March 23, 2010

Chouquettes and First Steps!

First, I must ask that you take 8 seconds out of your life and watch this video :)


My last baby’s first steps! Doesn’t a Faerie get her wings or something? Oh, that’s for the first laugh? Well, maybe a faerie gets a new dress or something.

chouquettes

So, it’s a dark, dreary, rainy day here in Maine. (So imagine how pretty those would look with a little sunlight shining on them, mmm-kay?)  I love it. I like rainy days, just so long as there isn’t too many of them strung together. They give you an excuse to stay in your jammies all day. Or watch movies all day. Or bake all day. Or all three! Stay in your jammies, watch movies and bake all day! That’s what we’ve been doing! I was going to make a cookie recipe my grandma sent me, but then I caught up on Baking Bites. And these caught my eye. But  I didn’t have pearl sugar, so I used my crystallized sugar. YUM! The first batch had some learning curve to it, but the kids and I ate it in about 2.7 minutes anyway. So I decided to make a second batch. Yummy yum yum.

Seriously, why am I not making choux pastry more often? It really is easy and I’ve been making it for years! I just forget about it. Well, not anymore! By the way, Nicole’s recipe calls for you to use your mixer when adding the eggs. BRILLIANT. Truly, beating those eggs in by hand was probably what’s been keeping me from cream puffs and eclairs all these years. Anyway, these little babies are going to be on the breakfast menu the next time we have houseguests. They only take a few minutes to whip up and they’re so pretty and sparkly and yummy! And they have eggs. And eggs are a breakfast food. So I can serve these for breakfast. So there!

This is Nicole’s recipe, but doubled. Unless you’re making them for just yourself, you’re going to want to double it.

Chouquettes
Adapted from Baking Bites
1/2 cup milk
1/2 cup water
7 tablespoons butter
3 teaspoons sugar
1 teaspoon salt (I used Kosher)
1 1/2 cups flour
4 eggs
1/2 cup crystallized sugar

Preheat the oven to 400 degrees. Line two baking sheets with parchment paper.
In a medium pan, stir together the milk, water, butter, sugar, and salt over medium heat.
Add the flour and stir until the dough comes together in a ball. Continue cooking another minute. 
Remove dough to your mixer’s bowl.
Using the paddle attachment, stir the dough for a minute to let it cool a bit.
Add the eggs, one at a time on medium speed, incorporating fully before adding the next.
Turn the speed up to medium high and beat until the batter becomes smooth and shiny.
Drop by the tablespoonful onto the parchment.
Here's where my method differed from hers (because I wasn’t using pearl sugar): Roll each lump of dough into a ball and dip HALF of it into the crystallized sugar. If you do more than half, the extra sugar will run down to the bottom of the pastry and BURN leaving you will a perfectly cooked pastry with a nasty burned bottom. Not cool. Learn from my mistake.
Place sugary dough ball dough side down back on the parchment. Lather, rinse, repeat.
Bake for 18-25 minutes. (My first batch was done at 18, my last batch took 25. Just keep an eye on them, you’re aiming for golden brown)

Now you’ll have to excuse me, I’m being summoned to watch Sleeping Beauty.

8 comments:

Carol said...

Yum! Have a fun pajama day!

~ April ~ EnchantedDandelions said...

Oh, that video was SO cute! Way to GO Jilly!!

Mmmmmmm.

Megan said...

That video is just precious! And these chouquettes look delicious. I love the sparkle!

Lilipadella said...

I love the pictures you take of your goodies...those look tantalizing! I wish I had the time to bake these days, but I will surely keep your blog around for an e-recipe book!

I am so excited and sad and the same time for you about your last baby walking...I am scared to see mine walk, let alone crawl, which she is threatening to do any day now...*sniffle*

oneordinaryday said...

Adorable. She's so little! My baby is 5 and getting taller by the day. I want to put a brick on her head to slow her down a little.

By the way, I think an apt reward for that faerie would be to get some of those chouquettes! The look wonderful!

Jennie said...

I like putting a brick on her head to slow her down! Smart! I told my mom that if we just block my sister's birthday off all the calendars then she wouldn't be able to turn 12, right? Right? lol!

Rhea, when Jilly started sitting up I'd knock her over. And push her back down when she started to crawl! Just kidding. No, really, I did. Sorta. Sometimes. lol! I just wanted to savor her first year and then so much happened, it just flew by when my back was turned!!! P.S. I was just talking about you, were your ears burning? :)

Jen said...

okay, I could cry! I miss my babies. They are all big now. So sad but okay too. And yummy, yum, yum. We are totally trying this recipe. I love that just cuz there are eggs in them they are breakfast. I have been known to say that about popsicles. How is that different than drinking juice! Great work girlie!

Kristi and Dave said...

I can't wait to see her walk up a storm on Easter!!!