Daring Bakers May Challenge

Wow, it's already the 27th, life certainly moves fast.. rather speeds ahead :)
So this is my feeble attempt at the first very Daring Bakers Challenge! The Daring Kitchen community is a great place for all foodie lovers and super cool bloggers, and each month a member chooses a theme/recipe for that month's challenge. When I first came across this concept, I thought, wow! This is a great stimulating way to learn different things, and to challenge your own cooking/baking skills.

Now for the month of May, it was Paris's very own LittleMissCupcake who asked bloggers to make the reverred Croquembouche! Looking at the recipe it all sounded so easy, while going through the posts on the forum, I read where experienced bakers said making the croquembouche was easy, so I thought, why not?

And as they say, the rest is history! I based mine around a theme, so all the ingredients are French flavours/spices/herbs influenced by different flavours from the world!
I made three different pâte à choux pastries:
* Lavender Pâte à choux with Chocolate spiked Tequila Creme,
* Cardamom  Pâte à choux with Chai Creme Patisserie
* Thyme Pâte à choux with Ginger Lemon Curd

I know they must sound whacky, but the flavours came around quite well I made some multi-colored macaron shells as decoration and the Eiffel cookies are Moroccan Spice Cookies!

I will be posting Kat's detailed recipe for the Croquembouche this weekend, till then I leave you with my glorious photography :)

The 3 C muffin

My husband P loves muffins, or at least he says so. He’s so kind to say otherwise to anything I make! Ahh, such are the sweet joys of marriage. Or so the initial years they say ;)
I had one too a many packets of Cranberry lying around, and thought of whipping up a batch of tangy muffins for P.

I would to state that this recipe is not original – I have referred to the wonderful Blog of Happy Homebaker from Singapore who shares this ultra cool and easy Cranberry, Orange and Chocolate Chips Muffins recipe. Mine of course has slight changed along its due course to Paris :)

Cranberry, Clementine, ChocoChip Muffins
GET
60 ml olive oil
1 Egg beaten
50 ml fresh clementine juice
Zest of 1 clementine
75 ml milk
100 g honey
250 g multi cereal flour
2 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
½ tsp salt
½ cup dark chocolate chips
1 cup cranberries chopped

SET
Pre-heat the oven to 180°C
Beat the oil + egg +  juice + milk + honey together for 5 minutes.
Mix in gently flour + baking powder + baking soda + salt + zest
Do not overmix
Fold in chopped cranberries and choco chips
If the mixture is too runny, add another 25 g of flour
With the help of a ice cream scoop, pour the batter into greased muffin moulds or paper lined moulds
Bake for 20-30 minutes or until well done and golden domed

GO
Best had with vanilla icecream!

Gluten Free Blueberry Muffins

This is the last leg of my gluten free craze (at least for now)!

 

I followed the recipe by I Am Gluten Free for the Blueberry Muffins, although I made a few slight changes here and there, however the entire credit goes to Ellen who is the owner of the original fabulous recipe. 

GET

1 ½ cups rice flour

1 cup gluten free flour

¼ tsp salt

1/2 cup forest honey

1 tbsp baking powder

1 tsp baking soda

1 tsp nutmeg powder

1 ½ cup blueberries (fresh or frozen)

¼ cup milk

½ oil/butter

2 eggs

½ tsp vanilla essence

SET

• Pre-heat oven to 180°C
• Beat eggs + butter + honey
• Sift together flour + baking soda + baking powder + salt + nutmeg powder
• Mix in the flour with the egg mixture
• Do not overbeat. With a delicate hand, mix in the blueberries, try not to break them.
• With the help of a ice cream scoop, put the batter into paper lined muffin cups. The mixture should come up to 2/3^rd full. 
• Bake for 20-25 minutes or until well done.

GO

These taste amazing with a nice cuppa tea, or with a large glass of milk!

Peanut Butter Chocolate Chip Cookies

Gluten Free - du-uh!
I am begining to think that adopting a gluten free life would be ideal, one could let go off that carb fettish. No offence to anyone who has the CD, infact I respect your will power and the great ability to make superlicious food simply by innovating!
Peanut Butter is my weakness, this is one food, that alleviate my moods, make me happy, yet makes me think of all the calories.. but still it is the single best thing in this world. Give me a PBJ Sandwich and I am in la-la land..

This recipe is adopted from Kill the Gluten blog which has some many amazing recipes. Here's a link to their blog, thanks Melanie and Liz for this amazing recipe. I ate a batch of 12 cookies in a row, I know, I am a glutton, but what can one do to a weakness? :P

Gluten Free Banana Nut Bread

I followed this recipe from Gluten Free Goddess’s blog, and basically substituted it with gluten free Patisserie Mix and some Crème de Riz you get at Naturalia – the latest Bio store that has opened up in a few places in Paris. Her recipe calls for using Chocolate Chips; I just substituted that with 1 ½ cups of mixed nuts, as I know C loves them! To make things a bit healthier, I also replaced the sugar with Maple syrup, but if you don't like the taste of it, you can use honey or brown sugar.

GET
1 ½ cup gluten free flour
1 cup rice flour
1 tsp baking soda
2 ½ tsp baking powder
¼ tsp salt
3 ripe bananas mashed
1/3 cup butter
1 cup maple syrup
2 tsp vanilla essence
1 ½ cup mixed nuts

SET
• Beat the butter and maple syrup together until frothy
• Sift the flours, the baking soda + powder and the salt.
• Add in the flours and vanilla essence to the butter mixture.
• Fold in nuts and the mashed bananas.
• Pour into individual baking cups / mini cake moulds and bake for 40-50 minutes or until well done in a pre-heated oven @ 180°C.

GO
Eat with whipped cream or some dark hot chocolate!

It's A Gluten Free World

It was 5 years ago when I came to Paris, I'd heard about this allergy which I thought would make life unthinkable! Imagine not being able to eat wheat!! When my Friend V mentioned that he is allergic to gluten, I was like - "No way! You're kidding right? how come?? err.. bt you're Indian, how can this be?" Of course, now that I think about it, it sounds so stupid and I sheepishly agree that I was so unaware. But that was back then, and then there is now!

A very dear friend C whose birthday it was a few days ago, shares this allergy with 1% of the US population. Celiac disease and obesity are the latest concerns on the health horizon, and there are some great measures been taking place by revolutionary chefs like Jamie Oliver who has taken the world by storm with his Food Revolution. Viva la revoluzione! 






To make it a special day for C, I decided to embark on a little GF revolution of my own, I read many inspiring blogs like the GlutenFreeGirl, CeliacTeen, GlutenFreeGoddess, SimplyGlutenFree, IAmGlutenFree . I mean these guys are just amazing; they have a whole world going out there! Nothing deters them, which is so very inspiring.. Hats off to you ladies.

So here’s all C got in her little B’Day Gluten Free Hamper:

-          Banana Nut Bread

-          Blueberry Muffins

-          Peanut Butter Chocolate chip Cookies

And then of course there has to be a birthday cake, so I made cute Strawberry Cupcakes with Lemon Frosting. Check for updates soon..

Rose Macaron With Raspberry and Litchi

Well well, what can I say, I’ve been busy.. And Lazeee :)

But, but, but. I did write the enormously long post for the Basic Macaron Recipe. It took me ages, as I wanted to write so many small fine details that have helped me along the way to make good macarons.
The Rose Raspberry and Litchi Macaron are inspired from Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan Macaron, but of course I am sure his would be far superior.. Or maybe not!
Follow the basic macaron recipe and add a few drops of rose essence and some pretty pink colour (btw I hate PINK!).

The filling is very super easy..

The Raspberry Litchi Filling
GET
12 Litchis (canned or fresh)
100 g fresh (frozen will do as well) raspberries
75 g white chocolate (chopped)
50 ml cream

SET
• Chop finely the litchis and place in a pan with the mulled raspberries.
• Add the cream and white chocolate, and cook on a low flame till the chocolate has melted.
• Bring to a boil, reduce flame, cook for 15 minutes on low flame or till the mixture thickens.
• Once cooled, store in the refrigerator for a couple of hours or till it thickens and is a spreadable consistency.

Le GO Final
Use generous portions of the filling to sandwich two same sized macaron shells.