My Bakery Favorite...

Hellooo!!

So September is here!! Everyone starting school again. I start College again very soon, which I can't wait for! That sounds so weird, someone wanting to go college! But I get to see all my friends again and my new timetable is really good :) Mondays have gotten a lot better!!

So anyways this post is all about the wonderful cheese straws!!! I love these however where I live no one can do them as good as the people of the north!! Lets get on with this post shall we...?

Aaahhh!!

What Do I Need?

• 225g Plain Flour
• 1/2 tsp Salt
• 250g Unsalted Butter- Cold
• 150ml Ice Cold Water
• 200g Cheese

What Do I Do?

1. Sift the flour in a bowl, add the the salt. Place in the fridge. 
2. Cut the butter into cubes, then takes the bowl of flour out and using a spoon cover the butter in the flour. Pour the water in and use a knife to bring the ingredients to a dough. Add the cheese. 
3. Turn the dough onto a floured work surface and shape the dough into  a fat, flat rectangle, without handling it too much. Place in cling film and chill in the fridge for an hour.  
4. Turn the dough on a floured surface and using a rolling pin, roll the dough in one direction until it's about 1cm thick and is three times as wide. Fold a third of the pastry towards the middle then again on the opposite side. Your should be layered now, roll out until it's the same measurements as before and repeat the process another 5 times. You should see buttery streaks, a marble effect, which is what you want. 
5. Then chill your pastry again in cling film for another hour. Preheat the oven to 200c.
6. Roll out your dough and cut into the desired shape and place on a greased baking tray and place in the oven for 30 minutes or until they are golden brown. 

Can you see the layers?

Let me know how yours turned out, I would love to hear from you, comment below. 

Post soon!

Bye!

Swan Lake

Hi guys!

This post is for the more experienced bakers...swans made from choux pastry. These look amazing when they are done!! Definitely a table center piece and the best thing it's dessert. 

Strawberries + Cream + pastry = Yum! 

Ta Da!!!

What Do I Need?

Choux Pastry-

• 100g Plain flour
• 1/4 tsp Salt
• 75g Unsalted butter, diced
• 175ml Cold water
• 3 Large eggs at room temperature, beaten

Chantilly Cream-

• 250ml Whipping cream
• 2 tbsp Icing sugar, sifted
• 1 tsp Vanilla essence

For The Swans- 

• 1 Quantity of choux pastry dough
• 1 Beaten egg, to glaze
• 10 Large strawberries, thinly sliced
• 1 Quantity of chantilly cream

Raspberry Sauce-

• 250g Fresh raspberries
• 1 tsp Lemon juice
• 4 tbsp Icing sugar

What Do I Do?

To Make The Pastry- 

1. Put the butter, salt and water in a medium sized pan and heat gently until the butter has melted- Don't let it boil!! Then quickly bring the mixture to the boil and add the flour in one go. 
2. Take the pan off the heat and beat furiously with a wooden spoon, the mixture will look like a lumpy mess but keep beating, you will get a smooth heavy dough.
3. Put the pan back on a low heat and heat gently to slightly cook the dough until the dough comes away from the sides and is glossy. 
4. Tip the dough in large mixing bowl and allow to cool until barely warm, then using a electric whisk add the eggs gradually. (A wooden spoon won't be effective enough.) You may not need all of the egg but the dough should be very shiny and almost paste like dough, if the mixture is too wet, it won't hold it's shape in the oven.

To Make The Chantilly Cream-

1. Whip the cream, sugar and vanilla essence together until soft stiff peaks form. 
2. Cover with cling film and place in the fridge until needed. 

To Make The Swans- 

1. Preheat the oven to 200c and place some of the dough into a piping bag with a plain nozzle and pipe 12 S shapes about 9cm long onto baking paper, allow room for expansion. Brush lightly with beaten egg to glaze. Bake for 15 minutes until golden brown, don't open the oven door! Allow to cool when baked. 
2. With any left over dough spoon the dough the make 10 oval shapes onto another baking sheet about 8cm long, 4cm wide and 2.5cm tall. Again allow room for expansion and glaze with egg and place in the oven for 30 minutes until a golden brown colour. 
3. Reduce the oven temperature to 180c and open and close the door quickly to let out steam, then bake for an extra 5 minutes. Once removed from the oven prick holes into the shapes to allow steam to esacpe and allow to cool. 
4. Cut the ovals in half horizontally then slice the top half lengthways to make the wings. Place the sliced strawberries in the base of each oval. Spoon the cream into a piping bag with a star nozzle and pipe over the strawberries. Gently stick the neck into one end of each oval then set the wings onto the cream each side of the neck and dust with icing sugar. 

To Make The Sauce- 

1. Put the raspberries, lemon juice and icing sugar into a food processor and puree. Press through a fine sieve to remove seeds. 
2. Taste and add more icing sugar if needed. The place a spoonful into a small bowl and place a swan on top and serve right away. 

Ta Da!!! You've made your own swan lake! Yes these do take a bit of time to make but they look really impressive. 

Let me know how your swan lakes turned out, I would love to know, comment below!!!