Puff Pastry

Hello to everyone who's reading my blog now :)

Well six weeks down one more week till my college starts again.

This summer vacations I baked alot and tried alot of new things, new recipes will be posted soon.

And recently I watched Julie and Julia I just loved every bit of that movie because I am also a foodie who loves to cook/bake. 

The funniest part was when Julie was cooking crabs, I just couldn't stop laughing :).

Anyways I recently wanted to make chicken paties but for that you have to make the puff pastry, which is quite difficult but it all comes with practice.

A nicely made puff pastry is a delight in the French cuisine. Its buttery, flaky, rich and very light with many layers.

The idea of making the puff pastry is to create many layers of the dough and the butter to be folded and turned within the dough.

Be sure that you do this work in a cool place and the area where you are making the dough should not be cluttered.

If you want an evenly layered pastry then you have be keep this in mind to roll the dough with the same thickness every time you fold it and again I will say it comes with practice.

The ingredients are as follows:

Flour  1/2 kg

Salt    1 tsp

Oil     2 tbsp

Water (for Kneeding)

Masterpuff or unipuff  (200 gm)

And for those who don't know what's masterpuff/unipuff its a kind of substitute for butter which is used in the layers while folding and it does not melt, so it makes your job much easier.

For the residents of Karachi you'll find this in Empress Market, and for the people who live abroad you can find it by the name of Crisco (all vegetable shortening).

  

Method:

Sift the flour into a mound in a big bowl and make a well in the centre. Add the salt, water and oil to the well.

Mix with four fingers until the salt dissolves.

Use your hand or an electric beater with dough attachment to pull the flour into the well and mix until blended, adding rhe remaining water if the pastry is dry. 

Work the pastry into a sticky ball.

Wrap it in lightly floured baking parchment or tea towel, then refrigerate for about 30 minutes.

I did this in easy way cut small pieces of masterpuff and after 30 minutes of refrigeration of the dough take it out and roll it into a rectangular shape with straight edges, then spread the small pieces of masterpuff which you made earlier in the center.

The picture below will help you:

Fold the bottom third of the rectangle up toward the centre, carefully aligning the edges. Brush off any flour.

Fold the top third down to make a neat square and brush off any flour.

You will have a neat square of pastry with the fold on the bottom.

Keep it for rest for atleast ten minutes. 

Roll out the pastry into a long rectangle. Again fold into thirds. Gently press 2 fingertips into the pastry to indicate that 2 turns have been completed.

Wrap the pastry and let it rest for another 10 minutes.

Give the pastry 2 more turns in the same method. Then mark it with 4 fingerprints to indicate a total of 4 turns have been completed. 

Then wrap and refrigerate it for 10 minutes more before rolling out for shaping and baking.

And that's how you make the Puff pastry it might be a little time consuming but you make make variety of things with it.

And making it at home is all worth it.

Will make your family happy.

Hoping you liked the recipe don't forget to give in your feedbacks. :)

Eclairs

Hey Everyone,

I made eclairs like a week ago and my family totally loved them especially my sister she ate most of my bite-sized eclairs.

Eclairs are the ultimate thing to make. I first had eclairs in a wedding the small bite-sized ones. When I saw them on the platter the eclairs looked like they were hard but the moment I popped it in my mouth it felt like I have been put into Food Heaven I mean it literally.

Bursting the flavours of bittersweet chocolate and perfectly balanced with the sweetness of the cream filling.

Ahhh and the choux pastry was amazing they are just so soft, light weighted and melted in my mouth.

Then I decided why not make these at home it can't be that difficult.
So I got the recipe and I was good to go.

Eclairs may look very difficult and complicated to make but honestly you will make them easily even if your not a pro.

Eclairs consist of three main parts first comes the choux pastry which consists of (eggs, butter, water, flour). The second is the cream filling and third is the chocolate ganache topping.

They are absolutely divine and are perfect to impress your guests and make any meal special and definitely worth a try.

The ingredients are as follows:

FOR THE CHOUX PASTRY:

Butter 100 g

Water 1 cup

Salt     1/4 tsp

All-purpose flour  1 cup

Eggs   4

FOR THE FILLING:

Cream  300 ml

Icing Sugar  1 cup sifted

Vanilla Essence 1 tbsp

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

Dark chocolate  60 g

Butter 2 tbsp

METHOD:

FOR THE CHOUX PASTRY:

Preheat the oven at 200 degrees. 

In a medium saucepan, melt the butter in the water on the stove. When the butter completely melts let it come to a boil and the add the salt and flour and stir until a sticky ball is formed. Then take it off the heat and beat in the eggs one by one until a smooth thick batter is formed.

Transfer the batter into a piping bag and pipe out 4 inch fingers onto the prepared baking sheet.

And bake for 20-25 minutes or until  its goldens brown and bigger in size. They should be light in weight when you lift it and should have a hollow inside just like the image below.

Take it out of the oven and let it cool.

FOR THE FILLING:

Usually the filling for eclairs is a classic vanilla custard but instead I used whipped cream for the filling.

For the filling make sure your beater attachment, the bowl and the cream itself is really chilled or it won't be whipped properly.

So beat the chilled cream until it forms soft peaks then gradually start adding the sifted icing sugar and vanilla essence until it forms stiff peaks when the beater attachment is raised.

FOR THE CHOCOLATE GANACHE:

For the ganache melt the chocolate and butter together in a double boiler until they form a uniform mixture and has a shiny appearance. Set aside.

Note: Make sure you use really good quality dark chocolate or you won't get the same results.

ASSEMBLING:

Fill the piping bag with the cream filling. And make small hole at the back of the eclairs and insert the pastry bag in the hole and fill it with the filling or you can also split the eclairs vertically in half. Spread the filling between the halves and place the halves together. 

Repeat this method with all the eclairs and at the end drizzle the chocolate ganache on top of the eclairs.

Chill until its ready to serve!

Donuts

Long time i have been busy with lots of stuff first I got over with exams and now half of my vacations went by just like this but any how i got admission at Agha Khan College where I always wanted to go. And from next week I'll be taking baking classes so really looking forward to that.

But I still have a recipe to share with you guys so here it is: 

Ingredients:

Milk                        1/2 cup

Yeast                       1 and a 1/2 tbsp

Butter                      1/3 cup

Castor sugar            3 tbsp

Egg                         1

Flour                       1 cup

Baking powder        1 tsp

Salt                          1/2 tsp

Method:

Mix yeast in warm milk and set aside for five minutes.

Beat the butter and sugar until pale then add the egg and baet for another 20 seconds.

Add in the flour, baking powder. salt and the yeast mixture and knead into a dough.

Keep it in a warm place for an hour till its double the size.

Then roll the dough in 1/4 inch thick and cut donuts by using 2 cookie cutters, large to cut the donut circle and small to cut the centre. Place donuts in a large tray, cover and let it sit for another 3o minutes.

Heat oil in a deep pan and fry the donuts until golden brown.Let them cool.

CHOCOLATE ICING:

Ingredients:

Cream                      2 tbsp

Cooking Chocolate   1 cup

Cocoa Powder         1 tbsp

 Melt the chocolate in the double boiler along with the cream.

When its melted stir in the cocoa powder and let it cool so that it comes to the right consistency to ice the donuts.

When cooled dip one sid of the donuts in the chocolate mixture, this will also set in a few minutes.

Now you donuts are ready to serve! 

Butter Cookies

Hey everyone,
Hope you all are doing good and yeh I am back with another recipe which I tried today only and seriously the whole house smells like bakery.
Butter cookies! Ah the name tells it all these cookies are as heavenly as they sound they are sweet, buttery and delicious. The more it tastes good the more it is easier to make. You can make these two ways either make a log and cut it with a knife or roll it out and cut what ever shapes you like. So starting off with the ingredients we have:
Butter                75 g (at room temp)
Castor sugar      2 oz
Flour                 2/3 cups (if the dow is still sticky you can always use a bit more of it)
Vanilla Essence  1/2 tsp
Salt                   a pinch
Egg yolk            1

Method:
Beat the butter with an electric beater until creamy then add the castor sugar and salt till its smooth and creamy. Then add the egg yolk before adding it to the butter beat it separately with a drop of vanilla essence so that the smell goes away then you can add it to the butter mixture and bat till its incorporated in the butter.
Then you can sieve in the flour and make it into a dow. Now make a log out of the dough and cover with butter paper and refrigerate for atleast 1 and a half hour.
After that slice it into cookies and bake in a preheated oven at 220 C for 10 to 12 m till the edges are firm and golden brown.
You can bake this in the preheated stone oven too but on top of the stones place a wire stand then the baking tray or your biscuits will get burn. in this the biscuits will take atleast 15-20 minutes to bake.
Let them cool and its ready to serve.

Like I said its all worth it at the end.

Pizza

Hey everyone,
                     hope everyone is doing well and wish you all a very Happy New Year may this year bring us lots of happiness and peace.

So since I am back after two whole months I will share a pizza recipe with you guys and during these two months thats what i did baking and baking. My new found obsession!
This recipe is especially for those people who don't have an oven
For the Pizza Dough:
Flour                    1 cup (heaped)
Instant Yeast        1 tbsp
Milk                     1/2 cup
Sugar                   1 tsp
Salt                      a pinch
Cooking oil          1-2 tbsp

For Pizza Paste:
garlic                    1 clove (chopped)
onion                    1 (sliced)
tomatoes               4-5
oregano                2 pinch
chilli flakes            1 tsp
salt                        to taste
sugar                    1/2 tsp
oil                         2 tbsp

For Topping:
boneless chicken   50 g
salt                        to taste
chilli sauce             2 tbsp
capsicum               1 large (sliced)
olives                     8-9
mushrooms            5 (sliced)
chilli flakes             1 tsp
mozarella cheese    1/2 cup grated
cheddar cheese      1/2 cup grated

Method:
Dissolve the yeast in luke warm milk along wid sugar and keep aside for 5 minutes until it gets frothy
After that mix it wid rest of the ingredients and knead them with warm water. After that brush it with some oil and keep it in room temperature until it gets double in size.

For the paste:
in boiling water make slits on the tomato from the top and put it in water for just 20 seconds (not more than that), then peel out the skin and slice it, take the seeds out and make a pury out of it.
Heat the oil and saute the garlic in it until golden brown, then add onions saute it more until its soft then add tomato pury you just made cook it until the extra water drys then add oregano, chilli flakes, salt and suger.
Cook it till its thick in consistency.

Topping:
After the dow is double in size punch it and take the air out.
Roll it with rolling pin in the size of your pizza pan spread the sauce that you just made add a little cheese the the rest of your topping and finally spread all the cheese over it.

Now that's how it looks after doing all the topping
Now here comes the baking part people who dont have an oven can use a big saucepan fill the surface with stones of same size cover it with a lid and tuen on the heat of the stove on high preheat it for atleast 45 minutes before baking
Then you can put the prepared pizza in the saucepan and close the lid and turn the heat to medium.
Let it cook for 20 to 25 minutes.
And the oven owners can bake this at 230C for 5 minutes until it rises ythen lower the heat at 180C until the cheese melts and its nice and crusty.

This is how it looks after being baked. I personally baked it in a stone oven.
hope you'll try this recipe and give me your feedbacks.