Pop on Over!

 

It just started snowing for our second big snowstorm this year. Can you believe it? The middle of January and this is only our second really big storm? I was told, by a certain someone who shall remain nameless, that New England is buried in six foot tall snowdrifts from October to April. Lies. All lies! I love snow, I was looking forward to snow. I’ve got a large chocolate stash and have been waiting with bated breath for a decent snowstorm so I can have a great excuse to make large pots of hot chocolate. I don’t know why, but I find falling snow SO comforting. Well, when I’m warm and cozy in my house watching it through icy windows anyway. And right now it’s perfect, falling thick and fast and pretty much demanding that I make something hot and comforting to go with it!

Have you ever seen the 1949 version of Little Women? I love that movie! I used to watch it when I’d spend time at my grandma’s house when I was little. Probably one of the reasons I loved it so much was that my grandma would make me popovers every time! Do you remember that scene when the girls go to visit a friend and Amy wants to eat all the popovers on the way over? I loved Amy. I must have sensed a kindred spirit in a fellow popover hog.

I love this recipe for popovers because you don’t need any fancy equipment or ingredients. You probably have all the ingredients on hand right now and you don’t stress about popover pans, just use a muffin tin! I make it in my blender, but you can just as easily whisk the ingredients together by hand. Try them today, they’re divine! And Amy and I promise not to judge if you want to eat them all yourself. 

 

Popovers

Yields 9 popovers

Adapted from Baking with Julia

1 cup flour

1 cup whole milk

1/2 teaspoon salt

2 teaspoons sugar (optional: I have a sweet tooth.)

3 eggs, at room temperature

2 tablespoons butter, melted

 

Preheat the oven to 425 degrees. Spray two 12-cup muffin tins with spray. (You can also make these in buttered ramekins.)

In a blender or food processor, combine all ingredients. Blitz until smooth.

Pour through a strainer into a liquid measuring cup. (You’ll have about 2 cups of batter.)

Pour about 1/4 cup of batter into the muffin tins, using every other cup. This is so the popovers have enough space to pop!

Bake for 15-25 minutes without opening the door. The popovers should be puffed and golden. (The original recipe says 25 minutes, and my oven might be running a little hot, but mine were perfectly golden at 15 minutes. You’re just working on the exterior at this point.)

Turn the temperature down to 350 degrees and bake for another 10-20 minutes to help dry out the interior. (Again, mine were done at 10 minutes, you don’t want to overcook them. Just keep an eye on them!) The centers will still be slightly underdone and eggy, that’s my favorite part.

Serve immediately. We like them dripping with butter and honey and served alongside large mugs of hot chocolate. Enjoy!

My Idea of Heaven

Can I just take a second to say: mmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmmm.

My mom used to make this pastry for Sunday breakfast when I was growing up. It’s divine. It’s like one part cream puff and one part pie crust, slathered in a yummy vanilla glaze. Only better. I used to make it all the time and bring it to work or to a friend’s house and people would think I was amazing :) But it’s really not hard to make, and I’ve made it even easier here.

I’ve been thinking of these pastries since I made chouquettes the other day. After making the pate a choux in the mixer and having it turn out so well, I wanted to try the same thing with this recipe. Then I decided to make it even easier by making the base in the food processor. (Since it left the same amount of dirty dishes anyway!)

This recipe is so amazingly yummy, and now amazingly easy, you should make it today! Your family will think you’re a rock star! I timed myself the last few times I made it and I had it in the oven and the kitchen cleaned up in under 15 minutes. Awesome!!!

 

Carol’s Danish Pastry

Adapted from Songberries

For the crust:

1/2 cup cold butter, cut into pieces

1 cup flour

a pinch of kosher salt

2-5 tablespoons cold water

 

For the pate a choux:

1/2 cup butter

1 cup water

1 cup flour

1 teaspoon almond extract

3 eggs

 

For the glaze:

1  1/2 cups powdered sugar

1  1/2 teaspoons vanilla (or the seeds scraped from one vanilla bean)

2 tablespoons butter, melted

1-2 tablespoons cream/milk

 

Preheat the oven to 350 degrees. Set out a baking sheet.

In the food processor: (or you could do this by hand with a pastry cutter or knife) Pulse the flour and salt a few times to combine.

Add butter and pulse until the mixture resembles coarse crumbs.

Add the water a few tablespoons at a time and pulse until the dough comes together and forms a ball.

Divide dough in half. Form each ball into a long ‘snake’. Lay each ‘snake’ on the pan and pat it out into a long wide rectangular shape.

Keep in mind that this is like a pie crust and it’s not going to bake up any bigger, this will be the size of your finished product. And it doesn’t have a ton of flavor, so you’re not going to want it very thick. Just thick enough to handle the weight of the pastry on top of it. So spread that dough out!

Okay, enough with the crust, onto the choux! Put a cup of flour and the almond extract into the bowl of your mixer, attach the paddle to the mixer. Crack the eggs into a bowl.

In a medium saucepan, bring the water and butter to a boil. As soon as it boils, take it off the heat and pour it into the mixer. Mix on low until the flour gets incorporated.

Add the eggs all at once and turn the mixer up to medium. Beat until the batter looks shiny and smooth.

Scoop the batter out onto the crust, use a spoon to spread it out. I spread it just  shy of the outer edge of the crust.

Bake for 60 minutes, or until golden brown and delicious.

While you’re waiting . . . add the sugar, butter, vanilla and milk/cream to a bowl and whisk to combine.

Oh, and take a minute to, at the very least, rinse your dishes. That stuff will turn to concrete if you leave it!!!

When the pastry is ready, remove it from the oven and drizzle the glaze over it. Let it cool a few minutes before cutting into 1” wide pieces and serving. You can serve this hot, warm, cold, room temperature, etc. It always tastes awesome!

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.



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.