Chocolate Cream puffs

The cream puffs I made the other day have been in my dreams. So yesterday I decided it was time to make another batch. Even though this was my mom's recipe I decided it could be improved upon, just a bit. I decided to add 1 teaspoon of sugar, a pinch of salt, & 1 teaspoon of vanilla, it made a huge difference. Not that Moms' recipe wasn't good, it actually was fantastic, I just decided it could use a little update. Love you Mom.

I added the sugar and salt in when I added the flour. The vanilla I added in after I put the dough into the mixer, but before I added the eggs.

I changed the baking also. I baked them at 420° F for 25 minutes instead of high temp them low temp. Cut them open and let them sit in the cooling oven cut side up for 15-20 minutes to dey out. Worked great. 

I made a chocolate ganache pudding to fill the cream puffs, instead of the vanilla custard I used last time. I still topped the cream puffs with whip cream. So, the top half of the cream puffs had whipped cream and the bottom half had the chocolate ganache pudding. Then they were sandwiched together. 

Topped with a hot fudge sauce that I made from scratch. It's a super easy recipe. All it is is one can of condensed milk, 1 Cup of grated chocolate, 2 tablespoons of butter, 2 tablespoons of water, and a touch of salt. Put all of these ingredients to a saucepan and slowly warm it over medium low heat until everything is melted together. That's it!

They were so yummy

No idea why this took so long!

Let me start by saying we're all sick here again. Thus, soup was in order. I decided to pull out my trusty old cookbook, and see what I could find.

I found a recipe for shrimp bisque soup. It sounded easy enough, and only had 6 ingredients. Even in my sick haze I can make this! I would need the help of the kids though.

Jasmine started on peeling the shrimp. Benjamin started on shelling the garlic. I was reading through the recipe and it called for two cans of tomato soup. I thought why use canned soup if I have lots of tomatoes here how hard could it be to make real tomato soup. Turns out not that hard!

Benjamin's job got rerouted to dicing 4 cups of tomatoes, as I diced 1 small onion. The tomato, onion, plus 2 cloves of garlic went into a large pot with 2 cups of chicken broth. Bring this to a boil and allow to boil for about 20 minutes or until the tomatoes are soft. Put it into a blender and blend it until smooth. In the same pot I add 2 tablespoons of butter and 2 tablespoons of flour. Cook this until it is a light brown color, then slowly pour in the blended tomatoes. That's it homemade tomato soup. I almost wanted to stop here because the soup was so good, but on I went.

Jasmine wanted to help again at this point. I let her continue on with the shrimp that she had finished peeling the shrimp and cubing.  She cooked the shrimp on a skillet with 1 tablespoon of butter and just a little bit of salt and pepper. She did this perfect. She has seasoning down! There is some shrimp juice, pour this off and save.

The soup went back in the stove. I added 1 cup of heavy cream and brought to a very low rolling boil. In a separate pan I had Jasmine boil 2 tablespoons of brandy. Once it boiled for 5 minutes we added it too the tomato bisque. Also add the shrimp juice. Turn to simmer for 5 minutes.

As we were finishing this Benjamin was making us some garlic parmesan bread. The bisque is put into a bowl then top with shrimp and chives. Really turned out amazing.

Cream puffs

Growing up one of my favorite things to both eat and make with my mom was Cream Puffs. I remember helping her mix the "slimy" eggs into the batter that was roughly the texture and smell of Play dough. I knew that once done we would have a creamy fluffy treat. It was always fun and worth the work!

Today I got to share that tradition with my daughter. It is a tradition that I waited over 12 years to share with her. It was worth it.

I did not realize how easy they are to make, as a kid I felt like they took a whole day to make. In all fairness if I had 3-4 little kids "helping" me instead of one very proficient helper, it might have taken the whole day and not just over an hour.

Ok so how to make them. Take 1 cup of water, bring it to a boil. Add in 1/2 cup of Butter and melt it in the boiling water. Once the butter is melted, add in 1 cup of flour and 1/4 tsp of salt. Now mix this all up, it will make a play dough looking ball. Funny it even kind of smells like it too. It is a scent I remember as a child and did not let me down. I had to grin when my daughter said are you sure we are not making play dough?

Once you have the dough part done, the slimy part is here. At this point I transferred my dough from the pot to my KitchenAide mixer. You will be adding 4 eggs at this point. I had my daughter crack one egg at a time into a bowl. One egg at a time she would crack the egg then slowly add it to the dough. Mix it really well between each egg. You want the egg really incorporated before adding the next one. Do this for each of the eggs. 

THAT is it as far as making them goes. All that is left is put them on a cookie sheet. I make them about a heaping Tablespoon size. They will grow! Make sure they are spaced about 3 inches apart and away from the side.

Cook them in the oven at 450 F for 15 minutes. They will be golden on the tips only. KEEP them in the oven but turn the heat down to 325 F and cook them for another 25 minutes.

Take them out and cut them in half. They cool VERY quickly. Turn the oven off, but keep it closed you will need the heat for just a few more minutes. Cut each Cream Puff in half and put them back on the cookie sheet cut side up. Put them back in the oven for about 5-10 minutes or until the insides dry out.

All that is left to do is fill them. You can really fill them with what ever you want. Tonight we made filled them with Vanilla pudding (homemade) and topped that with Whipped cream. 

Jasmine had her own style of filling them. I think I like the way that she did it better then I remember doing it. She filled the bottom half with pudding. It was overfilled, but not too far. Then she took the top half and WAY over filled it. She then put the top and bottom together. It was perfect, brilliant and beautiful!

After they were all assembled, we drizzled chocolate syrup we had made on top. This was the finished product. Just over an hour of work, and what seemed like my whole kitchen worth of dishes. These tasty puff were ready to eat. So worth the work. I would make them tomorrow again if my family requested them

Brownies!

Many of you that know me and my family know that we have not had egg in this house for 12+ years. When our daughter was about a year old we found out that she is HIGHLY allergic to eggs and egg byproducts. This was a major shock to us and a huge hit to my baking. I LOVE TO BAKE. It is a passion that I have always had. When we found out about her allergy we had to purge egg from our house. No cookies, no cakes, no brownies, no pies, no store bought breads, no store bought pastas, the list goes on and on and on. 

From that day on 12 years ago she has never eaten eggs. She has not come into contact with them. She has not even touched an egg to decorate it at Easter. It has been an adjustment that we happily made for her safety and wellbeing. 

I taught myself how to make everything egg free. I can make a mean egg free cake, egg free cookies (chocolate chip, sugar and gingerbread), I make an awesome loaf of bread. Waffles, not perfect, not fluffy, but pretty darn good. There are not many things that she has missed out on, because if she wanted it I would figure out how to make it egg free.

We had been told as long as she NEVER came into contact, cross contact or accidental contact with any egg or anything that had come into contact with egg we could test her again at around 12 to see how her allergy has progressed. 

Today is that day. We could take her in to the Dr. with a crappy store bought cookie and let her eat it, but as a woman who LOVES to bake, I did not want her first REAL baked item to be store bought. SO off to school I sent her this morning, and off I went to the store to buy everything I needed for some good old fashion chewy, gooey, chocolately brownies!

MAN it was amazing to mix that batter, break an egg, watch as the batter took form and was shiny and creamy. Pouring it into the pan and watching it raise the way only egg products can almost brought tears to my eyes. 45 minutes in the oven and out they came, perfect candied top. Carmalized edging and chewy center. They are perfect. I still have it. I have to admit I ate quite a few pieces before the kids even got home from school.

After a moment of panic because I have a substance in my house that has been deadly to my daughter for so long, I scrubbed everything down, counters, pan, pots, bowls, oven, stove, floors and cabinets, just in case. Then I sat back and enjoyed the smell of baked brownies.

My daughter came home, we took her and tested her. EVERYTHING WENT PERFECT! No reaction. Nothing! No breathing issues, no rash, no snot, no coughs, no hives, NOTHING! At this point I have to admit I cried. Unless you have had a child that has been on a medical plan since birth, you will have no idea how liberating and frightening it is. I am not tossing the medical bracelet just yet. The Epi Pen will still be following me around and she will not be eating eggs for breakfast tomorrow, but heres to the beginning of a new life for us!

My cooking will be taking a very different form from now on. 

Chicken tacos

Again it has been too long since my last post. Tonight I decided to make chicken tacos from scratch. In theory this was an easy project, in reality, not quite so much.

I started by making tortillas. That in itself was harder than I thought it would be. The cool part was once I had the tortillas made, I have lots of tortillas. I took 10 of the tortillas that I had already made, I wrapped each individually in a damp paper towel, then microwaved them for 30 seconds. Now they were all warm and soft.

I took the warm and soft tortillas and brush a very thin layer of extra virgin olive oil on both sides of the tortillas. Next I took out the top rack of my oven, and draped the warm and soft tortillas over two wires of the oven rack. Here is a picture of what I'm talking about.

I baked the tortillas for 7 minutes at 375° F. Then took them out, rack and all, and set them over the sink too cool. The sink has a nice negative space so they could still drape while cooling.

Next I took chicken breasts and cut them up into little small pieces and boiled them in about a cup of white wine, white onions minced, and sprinkled with garlic salt. I put the lid on the pan and let it cook for about 5 minutes without flipping the chicken. After about 5 minutes I flipped the chicken an added just a little bit of beer, about 1/4 cup. I then put the lid back on the chicken and let it cook for about another 5 minutes. Then took the lid off and let it sauté a until all the juices and garlic and onions and the two alcohols dried up and caramelized. The chicken is done!

All that was left to do was to dice the tomatoes, lettuce, avocados, fresh chives from my garden, and shredded cheese to top the tacos with.

Because I draped the tortillas over two wires in the oven they had a nice flat bottom. We could fill them however we like without having to worry about them falling over. I have to say it was one of my better meals, but time consuming. That being said, I would definitely make them again.