Weekend Cooking: Cream Puffs

On 02.21.10, In Book Blather, Mad Ramblings, By Natalie

I’ve made (and posted about) these cream puffs before–they are always a crowd pleaser.  Though a bit time consuming (baking the shells, cooling the shells, piping in the filling), they are worth the effort.  In a fresh twist for my nephew’s birthday yesterday, I made a chocolate ganache (chocolate mixed with heavy cream) to cover some of the puffs and powder sugared the rest.

I found the recipe for the shells in a cozy mystery–Cream Puff Murder by Joanne Fluke–and am sharing it in conjunction with Candace’s Weekend Cooking Challenge at Beth Fish Reads.  Enjoy!

Cream Puff Shells

(from Joanne Fluke’s Cream Puff Murder)

  • 1 cup of water
  • 1 tablespoon white granulated sugar
  • 1/4 teaspoon salt
  • 1 stick (8 tablespoons) UNSALTED butter
  • 1 1/2 teaspoons baking powder
  • 1 cup flour, packed down
  • 4 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 400 degrees.  Line cookie sheet with parchment paper.

On medium heat in a small pot or sauce pan, pour in water.  Chop butter into pieces and put into water.  Let it melt.  Add salt and sugar.  Bring to a boil.

In a bowl, mix flour and baking powder.  Once water mixture is boiling, turn heat down to low and dump in flour/baking powder mixture.  Stir quickly for about 30 seconds–mixture will form a dough ball.  Remove from heat and let the dough cool for about 20 minutes on the counter.

Once dough is cool, break one egg and mix it into the dough until smooth.  Repeat with remaining eggs, one at a time until mixture has a smooth, taffy-like consistency–about 3-5 minutes with mixer.  Don’t overmix.

For mini-cream puffs, drop a teaspoon of batter per puff on to the parchment-lined cookie sheet.  You can fit 12-15 per sheet–don’t crowd them.  Cook them for about 25-40 minutes depending on size; when you take them out of the oven, pierce the sides with sharp knife to prevent collapses.  If you’d like to make large puffs, cook them for about 55 minutes.  Let the puff shells cool away from drafts.  Yield 25-50 mini puffs or 10-14 large ones.

When they are cool, cut the top 1/3 off and remove any stringy dough.  Fill with custard or the simple filling I use.

Easy Cream Puff Filling

  • 1 3.5 oz box of Jell-O INSTANT vanilla pudding
  • 2 cups heavy cream

Pour heavy cream and instant pudding mix into a bowl.  Whip with a whisk or mix master until it’s the consistency of whipped cream–light and fluffy.

Scoop filling into a quart-sized Ziplock bag.  Cut off the bottom right corner of the bag.  Pipe filling into shells.  Add lids.  Sift powdered sugar on top of cream puffs or dip them in chocolate ganache.  Watch them disappear.

Chocolate Ganache

There are many variations of this recipe but all you really need is some heavy cream and good chocolate.  I used a bit less than half of a 12 oz. bag of Ghiradelli semi-sweet chocolate chips and half a cup of heavy cream.

  • 1/2 cup heavy cream
  • 4 oz. chocolate (chips, chopped bar, etc)

Chop chocolate (if using a bar) and place in heat-proof bowl; set aside.  Over medium heat, bring saucepan of heavy cream to a boil.  Remove from heat and pour over chocolate.  Whisk until smooth.  (You can add additional chocolate if the ganache is too watery.)

Enjoy!

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Tomato Sauce: A Religious Experience

On 02.06.10, In Mad Ramblings, By Natalie

*FYI: This post takes a circuitous route to a wonderfully simple recipe for tomato sauce.  Visit Beth Fish Reads, host of this challenge, for more Weekend Cooking fun!*

For many people, making tomato sauce for spaghetti or pasta is as effortless as twisting the lid off of a jar of Prego.  Not where I come from.  My mother’s family is Italian, more specifically, Sicilian, and when she (and my aunts and uncles) make sauce, it becomes an almost religious experience that takes whole days and requires invoking the names of the saints, muttering novenas under one’s breath, and making the sign of the cross at regular intervals.

My aunts and uncles learned everything they know from the matriarch of our family, my Nanny, who ruled with a wooden spoon.  Nanny was the quintessential Italian nonna, with her floral print house dresses and snowy white hair.  Nanny’s been gone for 21 years, but her sauce lives on through her children.

I’ll never forget the first time I realized that not everyone made tomato sauce like Nanny.  In third grade, a classmate invited me over after school and I stayed on for dinner.  I was excited because her mom was making pasta, something that my family only made on holidays because it was so labor intensive.  We sat down at the table and I was immediately struck by the fact that there was a tall, sweating glass of milk in front of my plate.  Milk and pasta, an ominous harbinger of things to come.  Suffice to say that my friend’s mom made a great effort, but I just wasn’t acclimated to tomato sauce that featured giant, oily hunks of poached sausage floating atop it.

In the late 1990s, my cousin married a wonderful guy who hails from Ohio and isn’t Italian.  She relayed a story to me about how her mother-in-law wanted to make her feel at home on Christmas Eve and so she made a pan of lasagna.  Again, another person with her heart in the right place, but using cottage cheese and provolone in place of ricotta and mozzarella borders on sacrilege to us.

So believe me when I tell you that I’m extremely skeptical of any recipe for tomato sauce that doesn’t involve an armload of fresh ingredients and/or hours of my time.  For 35 years, I’ve  bought into the myth (perpetuated by every Italian I know) that good sauce can’t be achieved without lots of aggravation.  And then I spied a recipe on Smitten Kitchen that promised delicious, flavorful tomato sauce with only three (!!) ingredients and 45 minutes of your time.

Initially, I scoffed at the mere notion that this could be true.  I called my sister and we shared a good laugh over the recipe–a can of tomatoes, one onion, and 5 tablespoons of unsalted butter.  But I’d made other Smitten Kitchen recipes in the past and Deb has never steered me wrong.  The first tentacles of doubt began to creep into my brain… maybe tomato sauce doesn’t really have to be difficult.

Later in the week, I visited my sister and brought up the sauce again.  “Maybe we should try it just to prove her wrong,” I kidded.  To my surprise, my sister agreed, which is how we found ourselves, an hour later, devouring pasta covered in one of the best tomato sauces we’d ever eaten.

Two nights later, I made the recipe again for my Italian husband, who shook his head dubiously when I showed him the ingredients.  (His family is from Naples and they call sauce gravy, but that’s a whole other story!)  An hour later, he too was a believer.  Will you be next?

Tomato Sauce with Onions and Butter
(adapted from Marcela Hazan’s Essentials of Italian Cooking via Smitten Kitchen)

28 ounces (800 grams) whole peeled tomatoes from a can (San Marzano, if you can find them)
5 tablespoons (70 grams) unsalted butter
1 medium-sized yellow onion, peeled and halved
Salt to taste

Put the tomatoes, onion and butter in a heavy saucepan over medium heat. Bring the sauce to a simmer then lower the heat to keep the sauce at a slow, steady simmer for about 45 minutes, or until droplets of fat float free of the tomatoes. Stir occasionally, crushing the tomatoes against the side of the pot with a wooden spoon.  As the sauce cooked, I picked out the little pieces of tomato stem and any stringy pieces I spied.  Remove from heat, discard the onion, add salt to taste.  This recipe makes enough sauce to lightly coat one pound of pasta.

*Note: I made this sauce twice–once with short rotelli and once with long fusilli.  We preferred the short pasta because the long fusilli holds water even after draining it and made the sauce watery (you can see it in the photo).  So, if you opt for the long fusilli, make sure to drain it thoroughly.

Buon Appetito!

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Weekend Cooking: Cream Scones

On 12.07.09, In Book Blather, By Natalie

Gesine Bullock-Prado’s memoir, Confections of a Master Baker, tells of her decision to leave Hollywood and all its trappings–she was working for her sister, actress Sandra Bullock–to move to Montpelier, VT and open a bakery.  The book was a fun read, and Bullock-Prado generously included several recipes.  I was compelled to whip up a batch of Cream Scones a few weekends ago but fond memories and photographs, which I’m sharing with you as part of Beth Fish’s Weekend Cooking Challenge, are all that remain! 

I don’t do much baking over here–my oven is primarily used as a storage unit for my cookbooks–but my kitchen is outfitted like a Williams-Sonoma store.  I can’t help it…I love baking accoutrements.  Sanding sugars, wooden spoons and spatulas, every type of baking tin and pan known to man, cookie cutters, professional quality mixers and choppers.  It’s a compulsion, really.  Listen, you never know when you’re going to need a pastry decorating kit, donut filler, sprinkles in every shade of the rainbow, mini-cupcake pan, or a 8-quart mixer.  My motto: Be Prepared (for baking Armageddon!).

But back to the scones!  Even though I’m not a huge fan of crumbly baked goods, these delights almost gave me the vapors!  Yummy!!  Dried cranberries and a handful of other ingredients was all it took to set me swooning.  I popped four into the oven straightaway and put the remaining four into the freezer for a snowy day.  My husband was a happy man.

Behold, my Cream Scone:

scone

scone 2

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Weekend Cooking Challenge: Turkey Chili (That Doesn’t Suck)

On 11.08.09, In Mad Ramblings, By Natalie

bfrBeth from Beth Fish Reads recently created a new challenge–Weekend Cooking–and from the minute I read about it, I knew that sharing my Turkey Chili recipe with the book blogging community would be my top priority!  But first, a bit of background for perspective…

Cooking isn’t my strong suit–I’m first to admit this–my husband heartily seconds the fact–but to be fair, I get home after 7pm most nights and a showdown with my stove, empty fridge, and forlorn pantry is not exactly how I want to round out my day. What I can cook is great, but my culinary repertoire is limited to tacos, Shepherd’s pie, and pasta.  Oh, and I get a lot of mileage out of “Breakfast for Dinner.”  Is it any surprise that we eat out a lot? 

Compounding this is my palate, which has oft been compared to that of a 7-year-old’s.  Kraft mac & cheese would trump your grandmother’s homemade version any day of the week.  In my dreams, streets are paved with mashed potatoes and grilled cheese is the sun in the sky.  Spices, flavors, and anything from the ocean are my Kryptonite.  It’s easier for me to list the food I will eat rather than the stuff I won’t. 

But the moral of this diatribe isn’t to highlight my inflexibility when it comes to trying new things,  it’s to introduce you to a simple and delicious recipe for autumn!  Raid your larder for the following 9 ingredients:

Chili Cast

Roughly dice a medium white onion and three or four green bell peppers.  Toss them into a frying pan (mine is 14″) with some olive oil.  Saute until softened and a bit browned.

Chili peppers and onions

Once cooked, transfer onions and peppers to a Crockpot*.  Using the same frying pan, turn up the heat to High and get ready to fry up some turkey meat!  This is where the magic happens…IF you follow my instructions!  (Before adding ground turkey to the pan, I go through it by hand just to make sure there aren’t any weird gristly pieces or crunchy bits.  Feel free to omit this step if you’re brave.)  Depending on the size of your pan, you may have to brown the meat in two or three batches.  I use 3 pounds of ground turkey meat and season it with salt and a dash of pepper.

Chili turkey closeup

I apologize for the disturbing close-up but don’t want you to miss the most vital step of the recipe.  After tossing the turkey into a flaming hot pan, DO NOT TOUCH IT until one side browns/burns/caramelizes.  Caramelizing is what gives the turkey a nutty, red-meat flavor.  Note how the turkey gets a bit foamy as it almost cooks through.  Only flip the meat when it resembles this picture, 7-12 minute cook time.  (I flipped the piece in the middle so you can see what it looks like on the browned side.)

Chili done turkey

This is what the meat should look like when it’s finished cooking.  I usually break it up into smaller pieces before adding it to the Crockpot.  And speaking of the Crockpot, it should now contain the cooked peppers and onions, one box (26 oz) of chicken broth, 1 can (28 oz) crushed tomatoes, 2 or 3 cans of red kidney beans (RINSED and drained), 2 tablespoons of both sugar and chili powder, and a 1/2 teaspoon of salt.  To this, add the browned meat.

Chili everything in the crockpot 

The longer you cook this chili, the better the flavor–3 to 5 hours with the Crockpot lid snugly latched.  After that, I leave the lid ajar and cook it for another hour or two to allow some of the liquid evaporate, creating thicker chili.  Doesn’t this look tempting?  Come to mama…

chili close spoon

You can dish this up naked or with cheese, crackers, sour cream, and/or jalepenos.  Enjoy!

chili final

Nat’s Turkey Chili (That Doesn’t Suck) adapted from The Canyon Ranch

  • 3lbs. ground turkey breast
  • 28oz. can crushed tomatoes
  • 26oz. chicken broth (Swanson box has 26oz.)
  • 2 cans dark red kidney beans, RINSED
  • 3 green peppers
  • 1 medium white onion
  • 2 tablespoons sugar
  • 2 tablespoons chili powder
  • 1/2 teaspoon salt
  • olive oil for the pan

1.  Roughly dice onion and peppers.  Sauté in pan with olive oil until soft; transfer to Crockpot or pot.

2.  Turn up heat to high and brown/burn/caramelize turkey on one side.  DO NOT FLIP IT TOO SOON…it must caramelize for flavor!

3.  Rinse kidney beans and add to Crockpot.  Toss in peppers and onions.  Add box of chicken broth, crushed tomatoes, sugar, salt, and chili powder.

4.  After meat is completely cooked, add to Crockpot.  Set on high and cook for at least 3 hours.  The longer you cook it, the better the flavor!  If you want to cook it longer, watch to make sure it doesn’t burn.  Turn to low after 5 hours.  I leave my Crockpot lid ajar during the last hour of cooking to help the liquid evaporate a bit so the chili can thicken.

5.  Dish up with cheese, sour cream, crackers, peppers, or whatever floats your boat.  ENJOY!

*This recipe can be prepared on the stove top in a pot if you don’t have a Crockpot.  Watch and adjust the cooking time as the chili cooks much faster on the stove.

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