The Dog Days are Over

Summer has officially ended. School is starting, college applications are looming and days at the beach are slowly becoming a wistful memory. My brother has been talking about baking éclairs (using this recipe: http://www.foodandwine.com/recipes/chocolate-frosted-eclairs) since the beginning of summer. For some reason, we decided that they were much too difficult to just try to whip up and would require many hours of planning and executing. This morning, seeing as we had a few free hours, we decided to make this dream into a reality.


David took the lead on this challenge. When I woke up (at 12:30pm, I might add), he immediately asked what he could do to get everything set up so when I came downstairs after getting ready, we could start baking. I just said to read the directions and get all the ingredients ready.

Ten minutes later I came downstairs and found everything mise en place. For those of you who are not familiar with this term, it basically means that all the ingredients were out, measured in little bowls ready to be mixed, baking sheets lined with parchment paper and the oven was preheated. Needless to say, I was quite impressed.

After reading the recipe about five times to make sure we had a general idea of what we were doing, we went to work. First, we made the pate aux choux, or the pastry dough for the éclairs. 4 ingredients and about five minutes later, we were stuffing the pastry into the bag to pipe it into the éclair shapes. Then, disaster struck.

The pastry bag split right down the seam as we were finishing our second éclair. Thanks to some quick thinking on David’s part, we stapled the pastry bag shut, and then taped the bag together. Finally, we circled blue painters tape around the whole pastry bag for extra reinforcement. Somehow, we made it through piping twenty two éclairs with our invention.

While the éclairs were baking, we made the filling called St. Tropez crème. This step was a little more complicated. It required us to scald milk, pour it over a sugar and cake flour mixture with an egg and an egg yolk, fold it quickly, and then transfer it back to the saucepan to heat it up. Then, empty it back into a bowl to stick in the refrigerator for a few hours. Needless to say, this part involved lots of running back and forth between the stove and counter, with flour flying everywhere and panicked comments about scalding the milk versus boiling it. Somehow, we pulled through, and managed to place a seemingly perfect bit of St. Tropez crème in our refrigerator.

Four hours later, we brought out the pastry and the crème. David made the ganache while I folded some whipped cream into the crème to make it extra light and fluffy. Then, came the assembling of the pastry and crème. One éclair pastry was dipped in the chocolate ganache while the other was spread with the crème. Then, we placed the two together.

David and I looked at each other, then at our little pastry, chocolate and crème confection, then back at each other. We nodded and then took a bite out of our éclairs. Warm chocolate collided with light vanilla crème which was supported by a fluffy pastry. We had done it.

“Sammieo,” David said to me as we licked the ganache off our fingers. “This was the best way to end the summer.”

Chemistry in the Kitchen

Last summer I took a chemistry class. Why am I telling you this? At one point during the class, my professor told us that chemistry has many practical applications. I raised my hand and asked, “such as?” He responded, “Baking. Cooking is science, but baking is chemistry in the kitchen. If anyone wants extra credit, bake something tomorrow and bring it in.”


Due to being a type A student and doing every single extra credit opportunity that has come my way, there I was in my kitchen at eleven o’clock that night, desperately trying to make French éclairs. Looking back, I probably should’ve chosen something a little less ambitious for my first real baking attempt. After three more desperate attempts at the éclairs, I gave up. I just decided to make a cake out of funetti cake mix and cover it with frosting from a jar.

In my flour filled tizzy, I discovered something: I love to bake. From that point on, I decided that I was going to start from that funfetti cake and work my way up to those disastrous éclairs.

This summer, I have been baking up a storm. I’ve tweaked some recipes I had baked last year, like the salted chocolate caramel cookie bars, and tried a bunch of new ones. My current favorites are:

1. Homemade Oreo’s (probably the most requested item by my friends and Mummsies for dinner parties. Recipe: http://www.food.com/recipe/homemade-oreos-flour-bakery-cafe-399813)

2. Salted Chocolate Caramel Cookie Bars (the classic. Recipe: http://www.marthastewart.com/343294/chocolate-caramel-cookie-bars)

3. S’mores Pie (when real s’mores just aren’t an option. Recipe: http://www.howsweeteats.com/2011/02/smores-pie/)
4. Salty Caramel Cupcakes (Labor intensive, but oh so worth it. Recipe: http://www.sprinklebakes.com/2010/05/triple-salted-caramel-cupcakes.html)

5. Buttermilk Biscuits with Cheddar and Chives or Gruyere and Thyme (the perfect breakfast biscuit. Recipe: http://www.foodnetwork.com/recipes/ina-garten/buttermilk-cheddar-biscuits-recipe/index.html)

Another thing that I’ve noticed this summer is I’ve gotten bored with the whole “cereal for breakfast or maybe toast if I’m feeling extra adventurous” routine. That’s my school routine, and I wanted something different for summer. This has led to bacon scrambles, biscuits in the morning and even breakfast crepes. I’ve tried to vary up the mornings with fun things to eat. It even motivates me to get up before my usual wakeup time of eleven so I can wake up, make a yummy breakfast and get my day started. Honestly, the things a good breakfast can do for you!

Any suggestions on what I should bake next?