Lentils feature fairly regularly in our meals, and last week I picked up a bag of French green lentils at the supermarket. I haven’t used green lentils before, but they seemed to be the common variety on the shelves.
I didn’t think any more of them until I got them out to cook dinner this evening. They are just so pretty with their mottled blue-green skins. They almost look like tiny blue stones.
French green lentils
Christmas is just around the corner. The decorations are up, and the Christmas events are in full swing. But, until yesterday, there was something missing – our traditional Christmas gingerbread snowflakes.
We started making gingerbread three years ago (I think), when we received the gorgeous snowflake cookie cutters pictured below, and it has become our little Christmas tradition.
Gingerbread dough, cutter, and rolling pin
Gingerbread snowflake shaped cutter
Snowflake shaped gingerbread biscuits
Cooked gingerbread biscuits on a cooling rack
Last week, I picked up some cute little blue and white ramekins. I’ve wanted dessert-size ramekins for a while, and have been fantasising about all the wonderful desserts I’ll be able to make now I have some. I knew the first thing I had to make was a French custard-based dessert, but there are so many to choose from: crème brûlée, petits pots de crème, crème caramel.
After much indecision, I settled on crème caramel. But that meant caramelising sugar; something I have never done before, and have always been a bit scared of.
Caramel in ramekins for crème caramel
My first attempt did not go well. The recipe called for 2/3 cup of sugar and 1 tablespoon of water, shaken in a saucepan until it caramelised. Instead of caramel, I ended up with a solid white lump stuck to bottom of my saucepan (which, thankfully, dissolved in hot water).
I turned to YouTube for help, and for my second attempt decided to try caramelising just the sugar without any water. With just sugar in the saucepan, I watched with amazement as it started to melt around the edges, and eventually became a pool of golden brown liquid. I had just made caramel for the first time!
Burritos are a Friday night special at our place, and over time we have replaced the kits you buy at the supermarket with our own tortillas and spice mix.
My spice mix has evolved over time. It’s not an exact science, so feel free to use this as starting point and experiment to find the perfect combination for you.
Put all of the ingredients in an air tight jar and shake well to mix.
I add about 2 teaspoons of the spice mix to the beans and vegetables as they cook.
Decadent chocolate truffles are surprisingly simple to make. They are great with coffee, or packaged in a pretty box as a gift.
Homemade chocolate truffles
You will need:
Break up the chocolate, put it in a small saucepan with the cream, and stir over low heat until the chocolate melts. Turn off the heat and stir in the liqueur. Pour the chocolate mixture into a bowl, cover, and put it in the fridge overnight to set.
Take the chocolate mixture out of the fridge, shape teaspoons of the mixture into balls, and roll in the cocoa powder until completely covered (don’t try to do this on a hot day or your truffles will melt).
Your truffles are done. Store them in an airtight container in the fridge between layers of baking paper.
I recently discovered that fresh cream freezes well.
Cream is not something we use often. I had a lot leftover after making some chocolate truffles, so decided to try to freeze it.
I froze 1/4 cup portions in a silicone muffin pan. Once frozen, I turned the portions out of the muffin pan, wrapped them individually in plastic, and kept them in freezer.
Frozen cream in a silicone muffin pan
The cream did separate as it defrosted, but came back together nicely after a good shake, and accompanied some delicious chocolate cake.
Yesterday, while the rain poured down, I decided to make a batch of Chinese steamed buns, or Baozi. Our favourite variety are filled with sweet red bean paste. The buns are like fluffy white clouds with a gooey sweet centre.
The first step is making the dough. The dough is a simple mix of flour, water, yeast, sugar, and salt.
Flour for steamed buns
Yeast mix for steamed buns
Kneading the dough
Dough after kneading
Leaving the dough to rise
After leaving the dough to rise, you add baking powder to it before shaping the buns.
Steamed bun dough after rising
Adding baking powder to dough
Steamed bun dough after kneading in baking powder
The dough is rolled out into small circles. You put some filling in the centre (in this case, some red bean paste I picked up from our local Asian supermarket), and then fold the edges together to seal the filling inside the dough. Twisting a piece of dough off the top of the bun makes sure it is well sealed.
Rolling out dough for steamed buns
Preparing to add filling
Adding red bean paste
Steamed bun dough with red bean paste
Folding in the dough to close the bun
Steamed bun dough with all edges folded in
Sealing a steamed bun by twisting the top off
Sealed steamed bun
The buns are placed on squares of baking paper and left the rise again before steaming them. The baking paper stops the buns from sticking to the steamer.
Sealed steamed bun left to rise
Steamed buns after rising
Steamed buns in the steamer ready for cooking
We keep our left over buns in the freezer and reheat them in the microwave as we want them.
You can find the recipe I used here.
Our croissants are out of the oven, and smell delicious.
We will, of course, enjoy one fresh from the oven, and the rest will go in the freezer for many wonderful weekend breakfasts.
Cooked croissants
The Recipe
If you want to make your own croissants, I used a recipe by Pino Ficara. I recommend watching the video before you start.
This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below:
Our first batch of croissants have just gone into the oven.
The warm weather delayed us. The morning sun streaming through the window made it too hot to handle the dough. It was melting in our hands thanks to the high butter content. This afternoon, we have had more luck.
Layered croissant dough
We rolled out the parcels dough, shaped it into croissants and pain aux chocolat, and left it for the final rise. Croissants start out as long triangles of dough, which are rolled up and tucked into their crescent shape. Pain aux chocolat are simple rectangles with a piece of dark chocolate rolled in the middle.
Rolled and cut croissant dough
The warm weather has at least been helpful with the rising; by the time we finished shaping our last batch of dough, the first croissants we made were nicely risen. We gave them a final coating of egg wash before going in the oven.
Shaped croissants and pain aux chocolat
This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below:
The yeast in the dough has spent the day working away, and turned the cling film parcel into a balloon.
Risen croissant dough
The next step is layering the dough and butter. This is how all those wonderfully flaky layers are created in the finished croissants.
Rolled butter layed on croissant dough
We divided our dough into four portions to make it easier to work with. Using a lot of flour, we rolled it out into a large rectangle, then layered the butter sheets on top, and folded it up like a letter. Another round of rolling and folding, and it’s wrapped up in cling film again, and put in the fridge overnight.
Rolled and layered croissant dough
We have four parcels in the fridge ready to be turned into croissants tomorrow morning.
Rolled and layered croissant dough in fridge
This post is part of a series about making croissants. You can find the other posts below: