French Confit

Happy New Year! I know it's almost February but I only waited three months to post.  I have "almost" kept up with my blog and one of my new year resolutions to post more entries onto my blog this year.  I have to start somewhere and here it is.  I became very intrigued with the French practice to confit clementines when my brother found a picture of one that is sold in a Paris bakery and immediately sent me the link.  If you have seen this blog you will see a previous post of candied sour orange pith from a family recipe.  Really good and interesting because I've never seen it anywhere else.  Then my brother finds this and sends it to me so I simply had to try it.  It is just as complicated as my family recipe except that it takes about 2 weeks to complete.

I started the clementine confit around mid-December and knew it would only be complete around the first week or so, of January.  Here it is!  It was a success and I must say I had to wing it as I could not find many recipes for French clementine confit.  I found one, in French and about 2 more with very vague instructions.  So here I go.  It is very easy to find clementines at this time of year and I found a nice big box at the grocery store.

First, the clementines must be pricked by a long needle to ensure that the boiling liquids get inside the fruit thoroughly.  I didn't have one so I used a thin knife.  First you boil the clementines in plain water to soften them up.  I don't know how long this took or how much water I used, I simply covered them and boiled them till my kitchen smelled orange-y.  Then you add sugar and some corn syrup to prevent the sugar from crystalizing.

As soon as the syrup comes to a boil, remove from the heat immediately.  Pour the syrup and the clementines into a large bowl and cover.  Leave the clementines in this syrup and soak for 2 days.  Remove the clementines and add the syrup into a pot, add about half cup of sugar and bring the syrup to a rolling boil.  Pour the boiling syrup over the clementines and soak again.  Repeat this step, every 2 days for 14 days.  I had to do this for a few more days because, my guess, is that I didn't boil the clementines long enough in the first boil without the sugar.  And here they are:

They become translucent and candied all the way through.  They should remain in the syrup and become candied as the clementine would otherwise be much to bitter to consume.  It is uber sweet but very delicious.  The one my brother sent me is covered in dark chocolate and looks a little drier than mine.  I think I should have pricked them with pins instead of a knife, however, it was pretty fantastic for just winging this recipe.  If anyone should come upon this please let me know how you are doing and how you did it.  I want to try again!

It's a holiday today and won't have another for a few months.  I want to make entries to my blog a little more often than once a month so let's see what else I can come up with.

Cheers!

Whipped Cream

Whipped cream is everywhere lately. It is my friend's birthday today.  His favorite dessert is tiramisu.  I had to make this for him but also do not like to serve raw eggs to people.  Most of the recipes called for folding raw egg yolks into softened mascarpone and sugar.  So I made the egg yolks, sugar and some chocolate liqueur into a zabaglione and that was it.  I made a chocolate zabaglione and folded in whipped cream.  The rest is a traditional tiramisu with the espresso soaked lady finger-style cookies and topped with coffee and rum flavored whipped cream unsweetened cocoa and shaved dark chocolate.  He tried it and and seemed happy!

I made powder puffs a few weeks ago.  They are almost like tiramisu except for the chocolate and coffee. Lady finger-like cookies (homemade this time), filled with sweetened whipped cream and raspberry jam.

I want to make different desserts now because with the holidays approaching traditional desserts will grace my table. 

Eclairs

Have you ever had a freshly made eclair? It's all in the dough. Eclair dough is pate choux and it is not difficult to make. Unlike most baking it is not contingent on weather, humidity or heat. It is like a pop over only lighter. It starts with the usual suspects in dough making like flour, butter, water and a pinch of salt. First you cook this lightly over the stove and then add your eggs. That's it. Then pipe the dough onto a baking sheet and bake into the lovely boat shape for eclairs or round for cream puffs. I prefer a combination of pastry cream "lightened" (HA!) with whipped cream for my filling and they must be covered in bittersweet chocolate glaze. All culminating into a perfect eclair.

I used to think desserts like this were impossible to make at home. But don't be afraid! Try them! You will not be disappointed and if you don't get it right the first time, try again. It is worth it.

Doughnuts

You know what I love about working with dough? The weird fact that even though most doughs for breads, sweet breads, even pizza, etc., are basically all the same ingredients that are introduced just a little differently. That makes all the difference in texture in the end product and during the process. Most doughs for sweet things are soft and tender even when they are raw. Bread and pizza doughs are firm and hearty. This is fascinating to me and I love it when everything clicks and I can "feel" how the product will turn out.

I love all sweets but my favorite home made sweets have to be doughnuts. I make some pretty mean cookies and cakes but doughnuts always turn out beautifully. There is one particular chain of doughnut shops that has a flashing sign that alerts all in the vicinity that they are removing fresh doughnuts from their fryers. I used to drive about 20 miles on the off chance that the sign was blinking. Sometimes I would even make the drive and just loiter around the area until the sign flashed. This all came to an end when I discovered home made doughnuts.

Have you ever had a home made doughnut? They are not difficult to make. As a matter of fact the ingredients are quite simple. You take some AP flour, a little sugar, dash of salt, little bit of butter, milk or water, maybe eggs and yeast. That's it. Those innocuous ingredients merge to create a heavenly little bite. Yeast raised doughnuts are my favorite. They even smell like doughnuts when the dough is raw. Creepy, trippy and absolutely maaaahvelous. These cuties come together in about 3 hours with most of your time spent waiting for the dough to rise. The actual cooking time is over in about 4 minutes in 365 degree oil.

My sister put these together today and I made the toppings. I had to have glazed. The glaze is just confectioner's or icing sugar and a little water, some were topped with chocolate icing, or a cinnamon sugar mixture. The filling today was either cherry or raspberry preserves. The jelly doughnuts weren't really filled. I just took a bite of the doughnut, either icing glazed or sugar coated and slathered on the raspberry jam (my fave!!). The chocolate glazed got the cherry preserves, sort of like a black forrest doughnut. They may not have had the perfect round shape of those you can buy at the store but I must say they are definitely more delicious because a fresh doughnut is something everyone must try. You can use any doughnut recipe. My sister "M" followed The Joy of Cooking recipe for these doughnuts.

Sweet Corn Pudding

This actually turned out very well. I am surprised. It started with fresh, tender, and very juicy yellow corn, that I did not get a picture of (sorry), then you have to grate the cobs until all the kernels are squeezed of their contents. Then squeeze the cobs some more, milk the cobs of all their liquid. Then add milk (or coconut milk or a mixture of the two) and strain, strain, strain until the mixture is perfectly free of any particles. Add a touch a vanilla and sugar to taste. Corn is very sweet anyway, so be careful! Then cook over medium low heat, stirring constantly, until thick but not too thick. This will not be the hurried madness of making a pudding using cornstarch because the natural cornstarch does not seize up at the raising of temperature the way the powdered cornstarch does. The natural cornstarch in the corn liquid yields a lovely result. The taste is a rich vanilla custard without eggs but much softer with the added benefit of no cholesterol. You get the hit of corn but it is a subtle aftertaste that manifests as richness rather than...corniness. I tried to bake one in a bain marie but the lack of eggs didn't allow it to work :-) I think I will try a savory version next time!