Tag: baking

The Christmas-time milk bun in parts of France and Belgium

They are known in northern and north-eastern France as cougnous or queugneux or coquilles. Some of those names probably originated from old local languages. My sister also finds them in Belgium, where she lives.  You will see the Christmas-time milk bread bun in bakeries around Christmas. The queugneux are individual Christmas-time milk buns or brioches shaped in the form of a swaddled newborn child.

Recipes vary slightly, some being more milk buns, others more brioche.  This recipe is more a milk buns, brioche having twice as much butter.

They are served warm at breakfast on Christmas Day, ideally with a nice hot chocolate.  The Christmas-time milk bread buns will keep for 2-3 days in a bag. I like to heat them up before breakfast, you can also toast them when they get to day 2.

Christmas milk bun

These buns are best done with a dough mixer (KitchenAid or other), see my note at the end to make it without a mixer

Ingredients:

Yields about 25.

  • 1 kg plain flour (use baking flour if you have any, else the standard supermarket flour works well too)
  • 4 eggs (200 g shell excluded, if your 4 eggs weight of egg white and yolks is over 200g, reduce the milk to 380g)
  • 250 g soft butter
  • 100 g caster sugar
  • 30 g of fresh yeast (dilute in the milk) or 3.5 teaspoons of dry yeast
  • 400 ml milk
  • 18 g salt
Method:
  1. In the mixer bowl, place flour, eggs, milk and yeast.
  2. Mix to a rough dough for less than a minute on slow and rest for  15 minutes.  This step is just to combine flour and liquids and allow the flour to hydrate.
  3. Now on medium-high speed, add the salt and the sugar progressively over 3 minutes. Progressively add,  the soft butter over another 3 minutes.  In this recipe, we will not be developing the dough as much as in a brioche. So we can stop here and allow the dough to rest and rise. Remove the hook and if wished transfer to a clean bowl, cover the bowl with a clean tea towel and allow to rise.
  4. Rising time will depend on your room temperature. In Sydney, it can be 40 minutes, but i a old room, it would be up to 2 hours.
  5. Once risen, gently transfer the dough to the kitchen bench. At this stage, you may want to have flour nearby to use to prevent sticking on your hands. Be careful to use as little as possible for your hands, not to introduce more flour into the dough. I find the kitchen bench doesn’t need any.
  6. Deflate the dough by pressing gently on it. Be mindful that you are not aiming at squashing the dough, only to release some of the gas. Using a dough scrapper, divide the dough into balls of about 80-90g, which would be about the size of a tennis ball.
  7. First, gently spread the dough into a circle, pulling gently on the dough; it does not have to be regular.
  8. For each ball, we are now going to shape the bun
    • Consider the dough has 4 cardinal points and bring each to the middle of the circle. Repeat.
    • Bring all the extremities together and pinch them a little together (to “close” the ball).  Turn the ball over, stitching down.
    • With your fingertips of each hand touching each other and placed on the kitchen bench (the little fingers are touching the bench, the others are over it), you form a wall behind the dough ball that you will pull toward you 15 cm or about without lifting the hands from the benchtop.
    • With this action, the dough will spread in length and tighten around.  Repeat a few times.
    • Once you get a length of 0f about 15 cm, use your right or left thumb when doing a last pull to form the head of the newborn shape by constricting a little the dough 1/3 into the shape.
    • Now, transfer and place over a sheet of baking paper on a baking tray.
  9. Once all the shapes are ready, cover with a tea towel and allow to rise (about double).
  10. Heat up the oven to 180ºC. In the meantime, break an egg, placing the yolk in a small bowl or cup and adding 1 teaspoon of water, mix. Brush this over each shape before placing the tray into the oven.
  11. Cook until golden brown and cool down on a cooling rack.
Using a manual method:

If you are without a mixer, it will take a bit more time. Because the recipe does not require strong gluten development, it is entirely feasible to make by hand.  Once your flour has hydrated, do a well (or a hole into the mix) and add the rest of the ingredients all at once (sugar, salt, butter).  From here, you can choose to knead for 10 minutes or place in a big bowl and “punch” the dough every 10 minutes. Punching the dough is a method used in bread making where you consider that your ball of dough has 4 corners and you pull each corner at a time, up and into the centre. Do that twice each time, and turn over the dough.  During this time, the dough will slightly rise at the same time, so if it is hot in your kitchen, you may want to bring the interval closer to 5 minutes.

Christmas milk bun

Christmas milk bun
Queugneux or cougnous, here with a different shape as sometimes seen in bakeries

Easter 2020. Pear and no chocolate overdose!

Easter 2020 and pear. And chocolate of course.  Did you manage Easter without a chocolate overdose?

Not to worry, there was chocolate involved in our household.  We made an Easter bunny, two large Easter eggs and a myriad of small eggs.  Tempering chocolate is a great introduction for children to chemistry. Very messy though!

Poached autumn pear and its zabaglione mousse

This Easter 2020, for the meals I aimed at using some beautiful autumn ingredients I had gathered (in the shops considering we can’t travel): chestnuts, mushrooms, beans, a nice joint of lamb, different types of pears.  What to do? Slowly this idea came up.  Pear was going to be the queen of Easter 2020.  I ended up poaching some pears in a mix of squeezed orange juice and spices.  I was not going to discard the poaching liquid! The poaching liquid was the basis for a zabaglione mousse.  The zabaglione was delicious warm, as a  mousse, it has a great texture and works well with the poached pear.  I  prefered it warm butone of my kids loves it as a cold mousse, so that comes down to personal preferences.

poached pear poached pear in zabaglione

Other pear recipes

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I cook a lot with pears at the moment, obviously peak season. Check out these recipes that may inspire you.

Pear tarte tatin – works for pear and apple. The trick is to cook the fruits in a very buttery water bath before making the pie. The method behind the recipe comes from a reknown French pastry chef, Christophe Michalak.  PS- you can find real butter puff pastry in Asutralian supermarkets now!

Pear and chocolate flan – a rapid and very easy recipe. It is a crowd lover and can be used to make use of those pears about to go off.

A bit more elaborate, this pear and chocolate tarte is a winner and always makes an impression.  You will need to make a shorcrust pastry. It is a great dessert to finish off a diner party! – the photo I have is not exceptional, a good excuse to do it soon!

I like this more conventional pear and almond tarte.

Last year, I made this chocolate and standing pear cake. It was pretty good. I will put it back on my list for this month.

My last idea, the very simple Poire Belle Helene, one of my favourite classic.  Here with a little chocolate twist.

I can’t  believe I was about to forget the good old simple rural pear tarte.  it is the same recipe as the classic apple tarte or pretty much.  The evening classic of many families.  I grew up with those!

Poached pears in autumn syrup

This poached pears in autumn syrup recipe aims at a not too sweet cooked pear with subtle earthy  flavours. To be eaten with a dry biscuit, or a crumble of roasted chestnuts or a cream such as creme anglaise or a sabayon. poached pear

A sabayon is more known in Australia as a zabaglione.

There are many ways with poached pears. None can be wrong, pears are so versatile! If you are after stronger flavours you can use white wine or red wine as a basis to your syrup.  Here the syrup is based on orange juice.

Ingredients:

For poached pear in autumn syrup, think what may be available easily. It is peak citrus season, the beginning of colder days where fresh ginger is a must have stapple against the eventual cold, rosemary is abundant (that can be said all year round really for rosemary) and summer fruits season with stronger flavours are over.

  • 4 beurre bosc pears, firm
  • juice of 6 oranges
  • juice of half a lemon
  • 1 string of rosemary
  • 140 g of white sugar
  • about 3 cm³ of fresh ginger cut in thing slices
  • 250 mL of water (1 cup)
  • 1 cinamon roll
  • 2 pinches of grated nutmeg
Method:
  1. Assemble all the ingredients in a saucepan and slowly heat up.
  2. In the meanwhile, peel the pears without cutting them. With the pointy end of the knife you are using  remove the core coring through the bottom of the pear. At the same time, ensure the bottom is flat so the pear can stand vertical, if not, trim slightly.
  3. Place the pears in the syrup (you may have to put the pears on their sides), bring to a simmer and cook for about 20 minutes.  Remove from the heat and allow to cool down in the saucepan.
  4. When ready to serve, remove the pear and place them on a plate to allow them to drain. Pass the syrup through a sieve and retain separately.

Tip: the syrup can keep more than a week in the fridge if you dont use it readily.  Use the syrup in a drink such as spiced hot wine, or a flavoured tea, or to make a semolina cake or as a basis for zabaglione.

poached pear

Churros, our newly adopted snack

Why suddenly churros?

Churros breadNbutterkids

A month ago I was there 20 minutes before dinner looking online for ideas of very quick desserts.  For a change I wanted to stir away from a chocolate cake, chocolate souffles and all other chocolate treats for that reason.

Maybe I had an overdose of chocolate, we had just been preparing our Easter chocolate eggs.  Making Easter eggs and a few bunnies has become a rite just before Easter. The children are the doers once the chocolate is tempered.  They love it. I do as well and I must say the chocolate eggs and bunnies are pretty good!

chocolate eggs

So what happened?

So I was looking through a collection of recipe from I can’t remember a French or Australian foodie magazine website.  I was probably looking at both.  Anyway, I happened to see a churros recipe.  That was it, I had everything available: flour, eggs, a little bit of sugar and some butter.

So here I am making my churros dough, then we are having our dinner with a break for the cooking.  The first batch is just out that some neighbours pop up.  Churros gone, I just had time to dust some icing sugar on them. The last batch was cleaned off very quick as well.

The batch of churros for the photos was done this weekend while doing a 1,000 pieces jigsaw puzzle of the map of Australia found at the local wharf (wharf treasures).

Churros breadNbutterkids

 

The recipe is HERE!

Churros breadNbutterkids Churros breadNbutterkids

What else?

I bought a block of fresh yeast when wandering in Haberfield, an inner west suburb of Sydney with a strong Italian tradition.  So I made quite a few  things.

sugar tarte

One family favourite is the Tarte au sucre, a northern France specialty.  It is very simple. I know I often says so. Trust me, this raised dough has nothing to scare you off: mix, let rise, spread, spread soft brown sugar and cream and bake! the recipe is HERE.

croissants

I hadn’t done any croissants for a while. I was not that happy with my lamination but they turned out better that I thought they would.  It is always fun to have the children rolling them. We also had a traveller staying with us who loved this type of activities and was happy to learn.

 

Simple recipes for outdoors afternoons

Going to the beach or to a park? Going for a little bush wonder?  These  pages point you out to simple recipes for outdoors afternoons.  Add this to fruits and/or crudity and you are ready to go!  Great little snack for kids always on the move!

To go straight to the new recipe of the week, go to “le cake” or simply HERE.  I did it today for the local children music performance and manage to get a good photo before going (the cake was still hot when e arrived there).  Use those at other time for lunch box or get-together, garanteed to go!

The madeleines

This one if probably my favourite for  excursion: no cutting required, easy to handle, small size and quite popular.  The recipe for the basic version is HERE, you can vary and incorporate variations, one of them is with strawberries and rosemary (recipe HERE).

 

The log cake called “le cake”

I promised this recipe a while ago.  For me, it is childhood memories of delicious afternoon snacks. Le cake (sic in French) is a log cake , a simple butter cake flavoured with lemon or sultanas or candied fruits.  This is the new recipe of the week! Check the recipe HERE.

easy log cake

The palets bretons

Palets bretons are a type of french biscuits.  You need to start the recipe the day before,  even better, as they keep for a couple weeks, make them in batch dring the holidays season and use as required!  Again, pretty simple to make! Recipe HERE.

palet breton

Chocolate chip cookies

Another favourite in our family, no need to look at another recipe.  I have posted on them recently.  Look HERE.

cookies au chocolat gourmants
Chocolate chip cookies, here in giant version

 

 

 

 

 

 

Shortbread cookies

Shortbread cookies use the sweet short crust pastry as a base.  After it is just a matter of having a few cookie cutters at home.  Children can decorate them with coloured sugar balls, sultanas, nuts or fondant.
Ingredients:
  • 250 g plain flour
  • 125 g softened butter
  • 125 g white sugar
  • 1 egg
Method:
  1. In a large bowl, mix all ingredient together and form a ball.  Over a few movements, knead it on the kitchen bench to ensure cohesion (20 seconds max). Rest for 15-20 minutes.
  2. Dust the kitchen bench with flour to prevent sticking. Place the dough on the kitchen bench.  Dust the top similarly. Roll with the rolling-pin to 6 to 8 mm thick. Ensure the bottom is not stuck by lifting the pastry gently. Add more flour underneath of necessary.
  3. Using cookie cutters make the shapes and transfer them onto a baking sheet covered with baking paper.
  4. If the children want to decorate, use sultanas or pieces of nuts or sugar balls. Smarties work well too.
  5. Bake 10-15 minutes on 160 degrees Celsius until light blonde. Remove from the oven and slide the base on a cooling rack using the baking paper.  Allow to cool.

Banana Bread

This recipe of banana bread is moist, rich and delicious.  This is pretty much what you get in cafes all around Australia.  If you would like a lighter recipe of banana bread look HERE.

Serve on its own, with jam, butter or salted caramel. After the second day, toast and spread some butter on it.

You will need a loaf tin to bake it (Frenchies, the loaf tin is wider than the “moule a cake”).

LOAF CAKE BANANA BREAD

Ingredients
  • 250 g butter
  • 200 g brown sugar
  • 1 tsp of vanilla extract
  • 4 eggs
  • 3 to 4 ripe to super ripe bananas (400 g)
  • 125 ml of buttermilk (or homemade substitute by adding 1 tsp of white vinegar to one cup of milk)
  • 300 g of plain flour
  • 2 tsp of baking powder
  • 1 tsp of sodium bicarbonate (bicarb soda)
  • 1 tsp of cinnamon
  • 1 tsp of mixed spice
  • If using unsalted butter, a pinch of salt
Method
  1. Pre heat oven to 180 °C.  Butter and line with baking paper a loaf tin
  2. Mix butter and sugar until pale and creamy, add the eggs one at the time. Add the vanilla.
  3. Mix in the mashed bananas, the cinnamon, mixed spice and butter milk.
  4. Add all at once the flour, baking powder and bicarb soda. Mix from the centre out to avoid making lumps.
  5. Pour the mix in the loaf tin and bake for just over an hour (up to 1.5 hour depending on your oven).  If you oven is generally strong, reduce the heat to 160 after ½ hour in the baking.  A baking needle inserted in the loaf must come out just moist, with no uncooked dough on it.
  6. Let the banana bread cool in the tin for ½ h before turning on a rack.

LOAF CAKE BANANA BREAD

Baking aplenty!

These last couple weeks, there has been intense activity in the kitchen, I mean more than usual.  There has been renovation works, still are actually.  Now, I have, after 18 month of cooking on an outdoor stove, a good oven and cooktop and, ceiling lights and power plugs there and there! You can imagine I was pretty excited to get this new oven to the test! In addition to that, I will be managing the food stall at my daughter’s school Halloween Fete and I am trialing a few recipes! A great adventure.  Hence, cooking aplenty at the moment!

Last pears of the year

Pears are nearing the end of their season in Australia and I came across a bunch of them just begging to be used on the seconds trolley of my grocery store.  Of course I could not resist!  I have been willing to do an almond pear tarte for a while.

tarte poire et amande

I ended by using a Donna Hay recipe .  The recipe is easy.  There is no tart shell. The tart consists simply in a cake dough placed in a tarte tin with pears pushed in it. Cool it down it its tin and serve on a long platter.  I would advise to place some baking paper at the bottom, this would make the removal of the bottom part of the tin easy.  Click HERE for the recipe.

Tarte amande et poireLook how we recycled an old laundry wash board!

tarte poire et amande

Bread renewal!

With my new oven which keeps the steam (and the heat), I have made a try at semi-sourdough baguettes.  Mines were quite short, just to make sure they could fit in the oven.  Success!!!

mini baguettes

 

These below is the preshape stage.

mini baguette preshape

And another beauty, this one baked Friday night. A semi-rhye sourdough

semi rhye sourdough

Halloween pre-taste

For the school fete food menu, I have decided to expand a bit into some creative pieces that the children will beg their parents to get them.   I will speak more about it in a coming post, here is a little pre-taste!

madeleine bugs halloween

These creatures are madeleines covered in coloured white chocolate. The antennas are pretzels.