Living in London, we have opportunity to meet so many wonderful girls, coming from different environment, all so powerful and driven by passion to make their dreams coming true.
Recently I read a lot about feminism and being a woman, and I see how much more work needs to be done to fill up huge gaps in between sexes. Even if we think we live in world of equalities and woman and man are treated the same way, I know we still have long way to go.
I found this amazing TED talk of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on feminism ages ago and I thought Women's day will be best occasion to share it.
The second thing today is of course baking!
We all know French pastries are the best on the world and whenever I read any recipe book of famous french chefs, I know it will be super good. I got Michel Roux "Pastry" book couple of years ago from my mum and I use it every time I need a recipe for an amazing dough. This book is a "must" for everyone who wants to learn how to prepare sweet and savoury french pastries.
The book is written is easy language and most of the recipes are illustrated by step by step pictures.
Yesterday I decided to make choux pastry and I have to say it turned out amazing. Filled with simple pastry cream it's really light and almost guilt-free ;)
A Paris-Brest it's a traditional, circle shaped ( it is meant to represent a bike wheel) French gateau, created 100 years ago to commemorate Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race.
Even though it is usually filled with with praline creme, I did a chocolate version of the Crème Patissiere.
Hope you're going to enjoy it ;)
I found this amazing TED talk of Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie on feminism ages ago and I thought Women's day will be best occasion to share it.
The second thing today is of course baking!
We all know French pastries are the best on the world and whenever I read any recipe book of famous french chefs, I know it will be super good. I got Michel Roux "Pastry" book couple of years ago from my mum and I use it every time I need a recipe for an amazing dough. This book is a "must" for everyone who wants to learn how to prepare sweet and savoury french pastries.
The book is written is easy language and most of the recipes are illustrated by step by step pictures.
Yesterday I decided to make choux pastry and I have to say it turned out amazing. Filled with simple pastry cream it's really light and almost guilt-free ;)
A Paris-Brest it's a traditional, circle shaped ( it is meant to represent a bike wheel) French gateau, created 100 years ago to commemorate Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race.
Even though it is usually filled with with praline creme, I did a chocolate version of the Crème Patissiere.
Hope you're going to enjoy it ;)
Mini Paris Brest with Chocolate Crème Patissiere
(makes 10 mini cakes)
(makes 10 mini cakes)
Choux Pastry -pâte à choux
60 ml milk
60 ml water
50 g diced butter
Pinch of salt
10 g icing sugar
75 g plain flour
1 egg
Pearl sugar to sprinkle
Chocolate Crème Patissiere
3 egg yolks
60 g icing sugar
20 g flour
250 ml milk
1 vanilla bean
30 g dark chocolate
First, preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare all ingredients. When making choux pastry , time is really important, and everything happens super quickly.
Place milk, water, butter, salt and sugar into the pot, and bring to boil. Remove from the heat.
Add flour at once, put it back on the very small heat, and then beat quickly with wooden spoon until you will have smooth dough, which comes away from the sides of the pot. This step is crucial to dry out our paste. It will take around 1-2 minutes.
When ready, move it to bigger bowl, leave it to cool for couple of minutes, and add egg. Beat it quickly with wooden spoon again, until you will have smooth, thick and silky paste.
Choux pastry is now ready to use, and you can start piping.
Transfer pâte à choux to a piping bag filled with plain nozzle (around 2 cm) and pipe around 10 thick rings on the baking sheet.
You can mark the circles on the paper for an easier aim by sprinkling baking paper with flour and impressing a circle with medium size cookie cutter.
Sprinkle generously with pearl sugar, and bake for around 15 minutes until puffed and brown. When ready, take it out from the oven and leave it to cool.
60 g icing sugar
20 g flour
250 ml milk
1 vanilla bean
30 g dark chocolate
First, preheat the oven to 180°C and prepare all ingredients. When making choux pastry , time is really important, and everything happens super quickly.
Place milk, water, butter, salt and sugar into the pot, and bring to boil. Remove from the heat.
Add flour at once, put it back on the very small heat, and then beat quickly with wooden spoon until you will have smooth dough, which comes away from the sides of the pot. This step is crucial to dry out our paste. It will take around 1-2 minutes.
When ready, move it to bigger bowl, leave it to cool for couple of minutes, and add egg. Beat it quickly with wooden spoon again, until you will have smooth, thick and silky paste.
Choux pastry is now ready to use, and you can start piping.
Transfer pâte à choux to a piping bag filled with plain nozzle (around 2 cm) and pipe around 10 thick rings on the baking sheet.
You can mark the circles on the paper for an easier aim by sprinkling baking paper with flour and impressing a circle with medium size cookie cutter.
Sprinkle generously with pearl sugar, and bake for around 15 minutes until puffed and brown. When ready, take it out from the oven and leave it to cool.
For Chocolate Crème Patissiere, beat egg yolks with 30 gram of icing sugar until pale
and fluffy, then stir in the flour.
Cut vanilla pod lengthwise, and scrape out vanilla beans. Pour milk in a saucepan, and
add vanilla beans.
Bring it to boil, and pour over blanched eggs, mixing all the time.
Transfer everything back into a saucepan, and stir over medium heat, constantly stirring.
Add dark chocolate, leave it to boil for around 3 more minutes.
It's really important to stir it all the time, as you don't want cream to stick to the
bottom of the pot, and we also want to avoid any lumps.
When cream is ready( will be smooth and thick) transfer to cold bowl, and cover with cling film. Leave it for 2 hours to cool.
When cream is thicker start preparing Paris-Brest.
Simply cut each choux circle in half, and pipe chocolate creme on the bottom half.
Cover it with the other half, dust with icing sugar and serve ! Voilà!
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