Sweet Stuffs and Memories

Since it's quite late, I'll keep this one short. As I had mentioned in the previous post, I had baked some macarons and brioches at home when I did not have work. Last night, I baked some Italian butter cookies (finally not a French pastry!) that I have adapted from Soap Mom's Kitchen. I would have followed the recipe as it was but since I only had 8oz (2 sticks) of butter, I had to readjust the entire recipe. I also just used 2 full eggs as opposed to the whatever ounce it should have been. Anyhow, in the end, I find it to be a pretty good attempt at imitating those sold in Italian bakeries! Ah, one bite and it just reminds me of how mom used to buy them by the pounds. She'd come home with that white box tied up with the red and white bakers twine. Nomnomnom. I think I'd like to keep these homemade from now on!

Here's the recipe for just the basic butter cookie:
8oz (227g) butter, softened
4oz (114g) sugar
2oz (57g) confectioner's sugar
2 large eggs
pinch of salt
12oz (341g) cake flour
3/4 tsp vanilla extract

1. Pre-heat oven to 350°F (177°C). Beat butter in mixing bowl at medium speed with paddle attachment until soft (I heated my butter for a few seconds in the microwave to make the process easier). Cream granulated sugar into the butter until light. Add confectioner's sugar and continue to cream. Remember to scrape down the sides of the bowl if necessary throughout this entire procedure.
2. Add the eggs and beat until light and fluffy.
3. Lower the speed and beat in the salt, flour, and vanilla extract. Mix until homogeneous.
4. Prepare a pastry bag with a large star tip and fill it with the cookie batter. Pipe 2 inch logs (or whatever shape you prefer) onto parchment paper and bake for about 10 minutes. Turn tray and bake for another 7 minutes or until the edges are brown. Cool on rack.

For the Italian butter cookies: After the cookies have been cooled, spread your choice of preserves onto each cookie half and press them together. Melt semi-sweet chocolate (I used an entire Nestle's semi-sweet baking bar) into a bowl. Prepare another bowl with sprinkles. Dip sandwiched cookies into the melted chocolate first then roll them around in the sprinkles. Lay each cookie onto parchment paper for the chocolate to set. Resting these in the refrigerator can also quicken the process as well.

I hope it works out for whomever is going to try this recipe! I was fairly pleased with it. As was my family thankfully.

Work is wearing me out. Not to mention that I got another burn on my arm. Lovely. I definitely need to catch up on my sleep now. Have a good night all!

Belated Post on a Rainy Night

I am yet again very much procrastinating in updating this blog. July was national ice cream month so as I mentioned months ago, I made a Chai flavored ice cream. Didn't get to churn it properly since my container just wasn't cold enough so there were itty bitty pieces of ice in it. Sad news. Better luck next time. I'm not making that flavor again because no one in my household likes Chai apparently! The more popular item is the palmier so I made those again but this time with "European butter". I didn't spot much difference between using good ol American butter versus the European one. So it looks like I can be cheap and use the domestic butter.

Right now I am baking some brioche in the oven. It's too bad that I don't have any molds for them except for one loaf pan so there are 4 buns that look like Chinese roast pork buns. How deceiving! Pictures for these will probably be posted in 2 months at my blogging speed. I also made macarons 2 weeks ago for my company at ADM. It was a joint visit with my fellow pastry chef, Candy, who made Earl Grey cream puffs. Everyone at the office enjoyed them so we were happy! We have fulfilled our duty.

I have also started working at a restaurant last week and I'm already expected to do service solo this week. I better quicken up my pace or else I'll have some angry diners along with an angry chef. I should really be sleeping now or at least in half an hour.

On another note, I finally got to visit New World Mall at Flushing. Food court heaven! One of the dessert places was a replica of Honeymoon Dessert in Hong Kong. They used the same bowls and same menu but instead, it's called Manji Dessert. The Chinese name is still the same, however! I was disappointed to learn that there's actually no affiliation between the two but hey, bootleg is better than none at all. Here's what I ordered. Mango Pancake and Mango and Black Glutinous Rice in Vanilla Sauce (my favorite! but the mango could've been better).

Well, brioche is done. Time to clean up and hit the sack. Another closing shift coming up for the following 6 days. Dang.

Not 9:30AM but 3:30AM

It's been nearly 5 weeks since I've been back to New York and I'm definitely suffering withdrawal. Everything has become a "In Paris, blah blah blah. It's so different compared to here!" or "When I was in Paris, I did blah blah blah." I'm betting that most people around me are tired of hearing me whine about my short lived life in another country. It's too bad that I didn't even get a chance to blog here before I left! 

My boyfriend came to visit me and helped me clean up my mess on rue Dulac. I probably would have panicked more and broke down much earlier had he not been there with me to take my mind off things. Thanks boyfriend! 

So here I am sitting in the home I grew up in; typing this up at nearly 4AM. Quite obvious that I have plenty of time to spare and am in no rush for what normally people would be doing at this hour: sleeping and then waking up for work. Yes, currently still unemployed. This means more baking at home! I actually haven't kept up with my original idea of baking something once a week. I did bake twice and am in the process of making a Chai flavored ice cream. Here's a picture as proof.

I made two flavored eclairs with a crumble on top as opposed to fondant. Passion fruit flavored pastry cream and chocolate pastry cream with a hint of passion fruit (I do like the fruit indeed!). With the leftover egg whites from the pastry cream, I decided to make macarons with them. The shells were colored with Intense Red (the label was no joke; it was eye blinding-ly red) and flavored with lavender. I made a pistachio ganache filling but unfortunately it wasn't enough so I used the rest of the chocolate pastry cream. It was too sweet for my taste but some people liked it, which is all that matters!

I'll take a picture of the ice cream when (or if) it gets churned tomorrow. We're experiencing a heat wave for this week and our air-conditioner at home has decided to take multiple lunch breaks so it makes this into a pretty hot situation for ice cream making. Hoping for the best!

I'm getting a little lazy now so maybe I'll post up some other pictures for next time! I think I should also rename the blog as it's not really so etranger anymore.

Bonne Anniversaire!

I turn a quarter century 25 today! Does it feel any different? Not exactly. I am still young at heart and I am still a glutton. Maybe my metabolism has slowed down another notch.

Only 10 more days until I fly out of New York to Paris on British Airways for my culinary endeavors, which leads to the spawning of this blog! I had originally thought of using Word Press but I think Blogspot/Blogger is more trendy? Anyhow, I still have yet to pack all my necessities into the suitcases. Just the thought of it nags at me and when I get nagged, I feel even less inclined to carry out the responsibility.

With that, I end the post with a picture of some madeleines I had baked last weekend for my coworkers as a farewell and appreciation treat. The recipe was taken from the Culinary Institute of America book.