Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry (Delia Smith)/Chocolate Turnovers

I would always hesitate whenever I think of making flaky pastry because of the amount of work that would entail in kneading, rolling and dealing with melting butter. Delia Smith has this so-called "cheat" version which promises to be easier than normal. 

I gave it a try and it was fairly easy indeed as no kneading was required and all I had to do was stir the mixture. I had some trouble with the butter which was melting away even as I grated it due to the warm and humid weather in Singapore. The dough was also broke fairly easily when I rolled it out. I am wondering if its because I did not put enough water. However, the result was a very flaky and crumbly pastry which was quite delicious. 

I was a little disappointed though that its not quite like the puff pastry I bought from the stores. But I guess one can't complain much since this is a lazy man's version. For these turnovers, I simply filled it with bits of chocolate which melted while they baked. I'm glad I overcame my fears of making flaky pastry and will try other recipes in future. 

This is for Cook like a Star, Delia Smith blog hop event, hosted by Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids, Baby Sumo from Eat your heart out and Mich from Piece of Cake. Grab the HTML Code for the event here.

I am submitting this to Bake-Along hosted by Joyce of Kitchen Flavours, Lena of Her Frozen Wings and Zoe of Bake for Happy Kids.

Quick and Easy Flaky Pastry

A Delia Smith Recipe

Ingredients

• 4 oz (110 g) butter
• 6 oz (175 g) plain flour
• pinch of salt

Method

• First of all remove a pack of butter from the fridge, weigh out 4 oz (110 g), then wrap it in a piece of foil and return it to the freezer or freezing compartment of the fridge for 30-45 minutes. 
• Then, when you are ready to make the pastry, sift the flour and salt into a large, roomy bowl. Take the butter out of the freezer, fold back the foil and hold it in the foil, which will protect it from your warm hands. Then, using the coarse side of a grater placed in the bowl over the flour, grate the butter, dipping the edge of the butter on to the flour several times to make it easier to grate. What you will end up with is a large pile of grated butter sitting in the middle of the flour. 
• Now take a palette knife and start to distribute the gratings into the flour – don't use your hands yet, just keep trying to coat all the pieces of fat with flour. Now sprinkle 2 tablespoons of cold water all over, continue to use the palette knife to bring the whole thing together, and finish off using your hands. If you need a bit more moisture, that's fine – just remember that the dough should come together in such a way that it leaves the bowl fairly clean, with no bits of loose butter or flour anywhere. 
• Now pop it into a polythene bag and chill for 30 minutes before using. 
• Remember, this, like other pastries, freezes extremely well, in which case you will need to defrost it thoroughly and let it come back to room temperature before rolling it out on a lightly floured surface.

Note: I baked my pastry for about 20 mins at 180 degrees C.

Green Tea Chocolate Eclairs

I came across Jo the Tart Queen’s Chocolate’s Matcha Eclairs recently and thought this would be something interesting to try out as its different from the normal chocolate eclair filled with cream. Chocolate and green tea is one a favorite combination of mine and I am always very intrigued by recipes which marries both these ingredients. 

The choux pastry crust is really good, though I think baking it for the recommended time seems rather long. When I took it out to check at the 50-minute mark, it smelled very slightly burned. Thank goodness after putting in the cream and coating it with chocolate, the smell was no longer evident. I think that the eclairs should be checked if its done after 45 minutes. 

I am not sure where I went wrong with the pastry cream. It’s supposed to be of a thick and piping consistency but mine remained liquid even after I cooled it down in the refrigerator. Nonetheless, it was a very delicious cream. Paired with the lovely chocolate coating, my family enjoyed these eclairs very much. There’s just a slight hint of green tea fragrance, so you may want to add more green tea powder if you like it stronger.

Chocolate Green Tea Eclairs (Makes about 20)
Recipe from Jo the Tart Queen

Choux pastry (eclairs)

Ingredients

• 188 ml tap water
• 65 ml full cream milk
• 100 g unsalted butter, cubed
• 8 g sugar
• 3 g salt
• 150 g plain flour
• 3 tsp matcha powder
• +/- 150g whole eggs, room temperature

Egg wash: (or use your preferred egg wash)
1 egg yolk
dash of full cream milk
pinch of salt

Method

1. Prepare trays for baking the choux by greasing it with butter so that they would not stick on the tray.
2. Place water, milk, butter, sugar and salt into a pot and bring it to a rolling boil. It should be bubbling furiously.
3. Remove the pot from the heat or turn down the heat and pour in all the flour and matcha powder at once and stir immediately and vigorously with a wooden spoon/spatula.  Ensure that there is no lumps of flour in the *panade. Cook out the mixture over low heat for another 2-3 minutes. You should have a glossy panade that can be formed into a ball that comes away from the sides of the pot easily.
4. Remove the panade and place it into your machine mixer bowl. Using a paddle attachment, put the machine on low speed in order to cool the panade down for about 5  minutes. You wouldn’t want to add in the eggs when the panade is still hot. You may end up scrambling the eggs. Remember that eggs start cooking at 60°C (140°F).
5. When the panade is not hot to touch, with the paddle attachment still on, start adding the eggs one at a time at medium speed (speed 4 on the Kitchenaid mixer). The mixture may look like it has cuddled and split at first but be patient and allow the machine to do its job to emulsify the mixture. It will come back together in a while.
6. Continue adding the eggs until you get a smooth, thick, glossy paste. When you lift up your spatula, it should fall after roughly 3 seconds. It should be able to fall from the spatula on its own but not be too wet that it can’t hold its shape. You may/may not require the entire amount of eggs as stated in the recipe, depending on the consistency of the choux paste.
7. Place choux paste into a piping bag with a plain nozzle/star shaped nozzle. Pipe them as evenly as you can and spacing them apart,  about 12-13 cm  length, about 2 cm width. Do not flick the piping bag or when it bakes, it will form ugly cracks and seams and it would not rise neatly and evenly.
8. Egg wash the choux pastry with a brush and at the same time flatten down the little tips. This is to ensure that the tips do not burn.
9. Bake immediately at 180 degrees C in a pre-heated oven for about 50 minutes to an hour. Choux pastry must be thorougly baked. if the sides of the walls are moist, when removed from the oven, steam will condense back into water and the still-wet walls will recoil. This will cause the choux pastry to collapse/ and flattened itself.
10. You can check if the choux pastry shells are properly baked by removing a shell from the oven and tear it apart to see if the entire choux is dry. Only remove the entire batch when they are dry.
11. Fill these choux pastry with the matcha crème patissière only after they have cooled completely. You can either slice off the tops with a serrated knife or using toothpick to poke a hole at the bottom of the choux pastry before piping the filling.

Matcha crème patissière (Matcha pastry cream)

Ingredients

• 500 ml whole milk
• 1/4 vanilla bean (I used 1/4 tsp vanilla essence)
• 100 g egg yolks
• 100 g caster sugar
• 60 g cornflour, sifted
• 2 tsp matcha powder, sifted
• 35 g butter, cut into cubes

Method

1. Prepare and measure all the ingredients before you start.
2. Scrap the vanilla bean into the milk and bring milk to a boil.
3. In the meantime, whisk egg yolks with sugar until well-combined before adding the cornflour and matcha powder. Whisk till mixture is uniform.
4. When the milk boils, you will see the milk in the pot bubbling furiously. Take the milk off the heat and pour it into your egg mixture. At this point, whisk quickly to incorporate the milk mixture.
5. Pour the milk and egg mixture back into pot and continue to whisk without pausing. This step is crucial to prevent lumps from forming in the crème patissière.
6. Ensure that you whisk under low to medium heat until a smooth paste. Allow the crème patissière to cook for at least 2 minutes before taking it off the heat.
7. Stir in the cubed butter until well-combined.
8. Pour the crème patissière onto a tray lined with cling wrap. Ensure that the cling wrap covers the crème patissière completely. Cool it down in the fridge before using it.

Dark chocolate ganache glaze

Ingredients

• 55 g dark chocolate,  chopped ( I use 70% valhrona chocolate)
• 65 ml cream
• 1 tbsp glucose
• 10 g butter

Method

1. Heat the cream and glucose in a small pot over medium heat. Stir occasionally  Allow the cream to come to a boil.
2. Pour the cream over the chopped chocolate and butter. Stir to combine until uniform.

Assembling the parts

1. Slice the cooled eclairs with a serrated knife, lengthwise. Since they are baked thoroughly, they shouldn’t be soft and should maintain its shape so that they can be sliced easily.
2. Whisk the matcha creme patisserie until smooth. Fit your piping bag with a star shaped nozzle and fill your piping bag with the creme patisserie.  Pipe neatly over the bottom of the eclairs.
3. Dip the top half of the eclair into the dark chocolate ganache glaze. Use your fingers to clean away  the sides and assemble the top and bottom halves of the eclair.

Profiteroles with Whipped Cream and Chocolate Ganache

I have wanted to make profiteroles (also known as cream puffs or choux à la crème) for a long while since a baking demonstration I attended earlier this year. However, the recipe produces a large quantity of puffs and it was not possible for my family to finish them all even if I give some away to neighbours. A couple of weeks ago, I had a party at my place and I took this opportunity to try the recipe out.

It had been quite a few months since the class and I could not remember clearly the steps so there were lots of trial and error. I did not bake my first batch of puffs long enough and they deflated when I removed them from the oven. Then I over-baked the second batch! I finally got the third and subsequent batches right.

The term profiterole is traditionally used for small versions of cream puffs filled with whipped ice cream and topped with chocolate although the usage varies and can include other fillings. Profiteroles are usually eaten for dessert, often served from a large cone-shaped pile, particularly on special occasions.

As I was preparing this for a party, I filled this with whipped cream as ice cream melts quickly. This recipe for cream puffs produces a light and airy puff which was lovely with the light whipped cream and  topped with Chocolate Ganache.

Recently, Anuja of Simple Baking make these beautiful Choux Swans and I really wanted to do some as well. I used some of the batter to practise making these swans. It wasn’t easy to get the swan heads and I must have done at least 20 and only a few turned out right. I’m quite happy I made a few pretty looking swans.

Puff Pastry (about 100 small servings)
Recipe by PA Trainer Tay Tong San

Ingredients

• Unsalted butter or margarine 210 g
• 10 eggs (60 g each)
• 300 g cake flour, sifted
• 10 g baking powder
• 450 g water

Method

• Line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Cook water and butter on the stove till it comes to a boil. Switch off the fire.
• Add flour and baking powder to the butter and water mixture and stir till the flour is blended in and becomes a thick paste.
• Place the mixture into a mixer and beat on medium speed it till it cool to touch.
• Add in the eggs one by one, ensuring that it is well mixed in after each addition.
• Place the puff pastry batter into a piping bag and pipe them out in circles of about 2.5 cm. Or you can use a spoon to drop the batter onto the baking tray directly.
• Bake at 200 degrees C for about 17 minutes till the puffs are evenly browned. Do not open the oven door while the puffs are baking or the puffs will sink.

Cream Filling

• Non-dairy whipping cream 500 ml, whipped till it becomes stiff and fluffy.

Chocolate Ganache
Recipe from Joy of Baking

Ingredients

• 4 ounces (227 grams) semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, cut into small pieces
• Heavy whipping cream 90 ml
• Unsalted butter 14 g
• 1 tablespoons cognac or brandy(optional)

Method

• Place the chopped chocolate in a medium sized heatproof bowl. Set aside.
• Heat the cream and butter in a small saucepan over medium heat. (Can also heat the cream and butter in the microwave.) Bring just to a boil.
• Immediately pour the boiling cream over the chocolate and allow to stand, without stirring, for a few minutes. Stir gently (as you do not want to incorporate air into the ganache) with a spoon or whisk until smooth. If desired, add the liqueur.

How to make choux pastry swans

Here are notes from Anuja’s blog post.

• Using a ¼” (6 mm) tip on a pastry bag, pipe out the swan heads, aiming aiming for something between a numeral 2 and a question mark, with a little beak if you’re skilled and/or lucky (I used a toothpick for the beak).
• Remove the tip from the bag and pipe out the swan bodies. These will be about 1.5” (40 mm) long, and about 1” (25 mm) wide. One end should be a bit narrower than the other.
• After the puffs are baked cooled, take a swan body and use a very sharp knife to cut off the top 1/3rd to ½. Cut the removed top down the center to make two wings.