croissants for breakfast

First week at the DEFLE

2009-09-20T15:01:00.000+04:00

It's been a hectic first week, and a fairly difficult one too... for me, at least. I was placed in the most advanced level, the 3eme degré, for some unknown reason, considering I half-assed the tests in an attempt to be put into an easy (in comparison) class, and I am now trying to switch down to a lower level but they said I had to stick it out for a week... which I did.

The first day was rather lonely as I still didn't know anyone so I sat by myself and struggled through my first classes alone (Phonetique and Stylistique - the former is rather straight forward, just on pronunciation, but the latter is going to be a killer because I didn't understand a single thing). The second day I had Littérature Actuelle -- modern literature -- with a friend of mine in the 2eme degré so that was alright, and then I had Oral Communication which was torturous as I hate having to speak in front of a bunch of people I don't know. By Wednesday I'd made actual friends, a Polish girl and an American girl, so I had someone to sit with through Espaces Européens -- literally translated to European Spaces, but is pretty much a modern European history class -- and Grammaire, where, incidentally, I got picked on during a demonstration for this verbs game where someone chooses a verb and a tense (in this case, s'asseoir and the present tense) and then a person to conjugate it (in this case, me), and luckily I actually managed to do it correctly, but now I hold a grudge against the Columbian guy who picked me for putting me on the spot like that, haha. On Thursday I had a writing class then Compte Rendu which is the worst idea ever for a class... we listen to an oral piece such as an interview twice over then we have to summarise it, and if you don't understand the piece at all in the first place -- such as in my case -- it is literally impossible to summarise. And we have a two hour exam for that in December, goodness knows how that'll be conducted. Only had one class on Friday afternoon, Civilisation, where we are just taught all about France... I think I'd really enjoy that class once I can better understand what is being said.

Bought lots of French books yesterday, mostly grammar/orthography/conjugation help books, but also The Great Gatsby, The Virgin Suicides, and The Stranger in French. They should be easier to read as I pretty much know those books backwards in English as I've read them so much. I also bought my first ever cookbook, on all things chocolate! Hopefully I'll have an oven by next weekend so I can get back to baking. I cooked for the first time ever this morning though, and made pancakes in the mangy kitchen they provide us with.

Boring entry, I know. Haven't been up to much lately besides classes, it has started raining a lot here and I'm still getting used to travelling miles just to get groceries or do laundry. I don't have a proper internet connection from my dorm room either, and right now I'm sitting in the cold and rain on a step outside the DEFLE building just so I can get the university's wifi. I do love it here though, I really do.

On the first week in Bordeaux

2009-09-10T00:18:00.007+04:00

Bonjour à tous!

Well, I'm finally in Bordeaux... and not surprisingly, the kitchen here in the dorms SUCK, to put it bluntly. All they have, literally, is a sink and an electric stove. No fridge, no microwave, NO OVEN. I do have -ahem- contacts, however, and I could very well procure my own mini oven within the next month to keep in my already very tiny dorm room, but hey, I'll gladly make space. Fingers crossed!

Classes at the DEFLE don't start until next Monday, although we had our placement tests a couple days ago and we find out which level class we're in tomorrow. The tests weren't considerably harder than what I've done in the past with IB French, but they were difficult considering I hadn't exactly been keeping up with my French skills over the summer. I completely blanked halfway through my oral test, mainly because I wasn't expecting to be asked that much since most people had really short conversations with their professors where they were only asked about themselves, and I babbled on about myself in perfect French but once I got asked about anything else, I suddenly forgot everything and ended up actually asking my professor at one point, Parlez-vous anglais? because I didn't know how to explain myself in French, haha.

Not much else to say from this point except that France is a foodie's paradise, through and through. Bordeaux is fascinating, and last Sunday we came across a farmer's market and wow. I was speechless with awe.

Gorgeous strawberries for sale.

Homemade cheeses... the smell around this stall was quite strong, as you can imagine.

Artisanal breads and cakes, mmm!

Delicious looking pastries that I wish I had tried.

A macaron tower at a chocolatier's in the city.

Rustic -- but ever so yummy, of course -- homemade macarons I bought at the farmer's market.

Vineyards, a very common sight in this city. This one is just down the road from my dorm building, and there are loads more all over the university campus.

I have yet to try Bordelais specialities such as the wine and canelés, but naturally, I will blog about it when I do!

On baking doughnuts... or not

2009-08-24T14:21:00.005+04:00

I'm always up for a good healthy alternative to something otherwise pound-inducing. It's hard to turn away from the fried foods, though, as everything seems to taste better when it's deep-fried. Why is everything that is so bad for you have to just taste so good?

Onto doughnuts (no, not donuts). Nowadays you find all these special-flavoured doughnuts with funky-coloured icing and well... it's just wrong. Nothing beats your basic, sugared -- or even better, glazed -- doughnuts, and to me all those weird flavours just ruins an already perfectly good thing. The original glazed Krispy Kreme doughnuts? I can guzzle down a dozen of them without any hesitation... it's not until after they're all gone that I realise how many calories I just devoured. It's disheartening, really, to know you have to eat all of these delicious snacks in moderation as you have to worry about how much fat and sugar and god-knows-what-else you're consuming. It almost makes you want to stop eating... until, of course, you have that box of doughnuts in front of you, 'cause damnnit, they're just that irresistable.

Now, a baked doughnut? Really? I was a skeptic, and honestly, I still am. These were all right if you are really, really concerned about eating something fried for whatever reason, but otherwise... don't bother. They are dense and fluffy and quite different in texture from your typical fried doughnut -- and no, not necessarily in a bad way -- but it just does not compare. I baked half of the batch and fried the other half, and I must confess, I much preferred the fried ones! Just eat only vegetables for the rest of the day and spend a few hours at the gym, it is worth it. (FYI - the pictures are of the baked ones. There were no fried ones left to take photos of, aha.)

Baked Doughnuts
From 101 Cookbooks
Makes 1 1/2 - 2 dozen medium doughnuts

1 1/3 cups warm milk, 95 to 105 degrees (divided)
1 packet active dry yeast (2 1/4 teaspoons)
2 tablespoons butter
2/3 cup sugar
2 eggs
5 cups all-purpose flour
A pinch or two of nutmeg, freshly grated
1 teaspoon fine grain sea salt

1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted
1 1/2 cups sugar
1 tablespoon cinnamon

Place 1/3 cup of the warm milk in the bowl of an electric mixer. Stir in the yeast and set aside for five minutes or so. Stir the butter and sugar into the remaining cup of warm milk and add it to the yeast mixture. With a fork, stir in the eggs, flour, nutmeg, and salt - just until the flour is incorporated. With the dough hook attachment of your mixer beat the dough for a few minutes at medium speed. This is where you are going to need to make adjustments - if your dough is overly sticky, add flour a few tablespoons at a time. Too dry? Add more milk a bit at a time. You want the dough to pull away from the sides of the mixing bowl and eventually become supple and smooth. Turn it out onto a floured counter-top, knead a few times (the dough should be barely sticky), and shape into a ball.

Transfer the dough to a buttered (or oiled) bowl, cover, put in a warm place (I turn on the oven at this point and set the bowl on top), and let rise for an hour or until the dough has roughly doubled in size.

Punch down the dough and roll it out 1/2-inch thick on your floured countertop. Stamp out circles with a 2-inch cookie cutter. Transfer the circles to a parchment-lined baking sheet and stamp out the smaller inner circles using a smaller cutter. If you cut the inner holes out any earlier, they become distorted when you attempt to move them. Cover with a clean cloth and let rise for another 45 minutes.

Bake in a 375 degree oven until the bottoms are just golden, 8 to 10 minutes - start checking around 8. While the doughnuts are baking, place the butter in a medium bowl. Place the sugar and cinnamon in a separate bowl.

Remove the doughnuts from the oven and let cool for just a minute or two. Dip each one in the melted butter and a quick toss in the sugar bowl. Or, like I did, whip up a quick chocolate ganache by mixing equal parts warm cream and chocolate, and dip the doughnuts in that.

Eat immediately if not sooner.

NB. Definitely make sure your inner holes are sufficiently large, or they will close up when you bake them like mine did. Unless you fry them, of course, in which case the holes are more likely to remain intact. (Another upside to frying, oh yes!)

On actually eating croissants for breakfast

2009-08-21T12:29:00.006+04:00

I have spent the last week worrying about whether I was going to get my long-term visa for France or not, or rushing back and fro from the French embassy, and finally, after a month and a half of waiting, I have gotten it! It was such a relief that we already started preparing things I need to bring, even though I'm not leaving for another two weeks. We've bought so much stuff over the last week -- towels, bedsheets, a mini kettle, a mini iron, etc -- I think if I suddenly had to leave tomorrow, I'd probably be ready to. When I finally do go though, I must remember to smuggle out my measuring cups and spoons, because I am adamant to find some way to continue baking while I'm there.

This blog has been alive for nearly two weeks now, and I reckoned it was about time I tried to make its namesake. I've tried making croissants before, maybe a year or so ago, and the results were horrendous. They somehow turned into a greasy, grey mess and were practically inedible -- needless to say, that experience scarred me and I never wanted to attempt making croissants again. Perhaps one day I'll take a real pastry class and learn properly, but otherwise I'm wary about making real croissants at home. This is probably the wrong country to make proper pastry in though, as the heat makes it impossible to keep the butter and the dough ice-cold at all times.

I then found a recipe for Simple Croissants on Snippets and it seemed less daunting so I decided to give it a go. They were surprisingly good: a little bready and not as flaky as you'd want a perfect croissant to be, but good enough to satiate a croissant craving. I misread the recipe and accidentally tossed in two eggs instead of one, and also forgot to knead the dough after taking it out of the fridge, but they still seemed to turn out all right. Not as pretty as the ones on Snippets, of course, but I obviously still need lots and lots of practice. However, it is lovely that you can make the dough the night before and then bake them in the morning and have fresh croissants for breakfast.

Simple Croissants
Adapted from Taste of Home
Makes 32 rolls

2 packages active dry yeast
1 cup warm water
1 1/4 cups cold butter, divided
5 cups flour
1/3 cup sugar
1 1/2 tsp. salt
3/4 cup evaporated milk
2 eggs
1 tbsp water

Proof yeast in warm water for 5-10 min. Melt 1/4 cup butter and add to yeast mixture along with 1 cup of flour, sugar, salt, milk and 1 egg. Stir until smooth.

Put remaining 4 cups flour in a large bowl and cut in 1 cup of cold butter until you get coarse crumbs. Add to yeast mixture and combine until well incorporated making sure not to over mix or knead. Cover and let sit in the fridge for 8 hours (or overnight).

Punch dough down and score into four sections. Take one section out and knead on a lightly floured surface 6 times. Roll out into a 16 inch circle and cut into 8 wedges. Roll wedges up starting at the wide end. Place point side down on an ungreased baking sheet and curve to form a crescent shape. Repeat with remaining dough. Cover and let rise for one hour.

Beat the remaining egg with 1 tbsp of water and brush over rolls. Bake for 20-25 min at 325°F, until lightly brown.

Terribly lighted photo (one day I must really buy a DSLR, my point-and-shoot is way past its glory days), but this is just an attempt to show the innards of the croissant, it is quite light and fluffy.

On chocolate chip cookie dough and cheesecake

2009-08-15T18:02:00.000+04:00

I worry about moving away and not having a decent kitchen in the university dorms, and consequently not being able to bake. There are three things I love to bake and probably bake the most often, and two of those three things are chocolate chip cookies and cheesecake (the third, of course, are brownies). All of them are comfort foods and I bake at least one out of the three once a month; I can't imagine going without any of them for months at a time (and shop-bought does not count: it must be homemade).

The first time I saw this recipe on Bake or Break I knew I wanted to make it. I tried making this recipe once before and absolutely loved it, and decided to make it again today to bring over to my friend Anna's house to eat while watching movies. This is ultimate comfort food: chocolate chip cookie dough on a cheesecake base, with chocolate chips baked into the graham cracker crust, and drizzled on top with chocolate as well. Honestly, what's not to love about them?

Chocolate Chip Cookie Dough Cheesecake Bars
From The Essential Chocolate Chip Cookbook

Crust
1 & 1/2 cups graham cracker crumbs
5 Tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
2/3 cup miniature semisweet chocolate chips

Preheat oven to 325°. Butter a 9″-square baking pan. Line pan with parchment paper, leaving enough to extend over the sides. Butter the parchment paper.

Combine graham cracker crumbs and butter until crumbs are moistened. Stir in chocolate chips. Press crust mixture into bottom of pan and 1 inch up sides. Bake for 6 minutes. Set pan on wire rack to cool

Cookie Dough
5 tablespoons unsalted butter, at room temperature
1/3 cup packed light brown sugar
3 Tablespoons granulated sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1 teaspoon vanilla extract
3/4 cup all-purpose flour
1 cup semisweet chocolate chips

Using an electric mixer , mix butter, brown sugar, sugar, salt, and vanilla extract at medium speed until smooth. Decrease mixer speed to low and add flour. Mix just until incorporated. Stir in chocolate chips. Set aside.

Filling
10 ounces cream cheese, at room temperature
1/4 cup granulated sugar
1 large egg, at room temperature
1 teaspoon vanilla extract

Using an electric mixer, beat cream cheese and sugar just until smooth. Add egg and vanilla extract, beating just until blended.

Pour batter into baked crust. Drop cookie dough by teaspoonfuls over the top of the filling. Bake about 30 minutes, or until set. Transfer to wire rack.

For chocolate topping, melt 1/3 cup semisweet chocolate chips in a double boiler or in the microwave. Add about 1/2 tablespoon of butter if necessary to make chocolate smooth. Drizzle over top of bars. Cool bars in pan completely, about an hour.

Using the edges of the parchment paper, remove bars from pan. Cut into bars and serve.

On lemon macarons and macaron-less adventures in Paris

2009-08-13T12:55:00.001+04:00

The last time (and only time I was ever) in Paris, I did not eat a macaron. Sadly enough, I didn't even consider to most of the time. There were two occasions where I potentially could have: the first time, my friends and I were wandering around Le Marais looking for a supermarket (don't ask) and we stumbled across a sweet little patisserie. I did a double-take at the sight of all the pretty cakes and pastries and piles and piles of colourful macarons, but my friends took one look at the prices and said, "Are you crazy? Let's get out of here!" and I unfortunately was too tired from walking around so much that I didn't have the strength to argue.

La deuxième fois, we were on the Champs-Élysées with my French teacher and she was willing to take us to any café for afternoon tea, her treat. I, as any self-respecting foodie would do, ran straight to Ladurée and begged we eat there, and since none of my friends knew any other places themselves and it was raining and we all just wanted to get inside, they followed me in. But, like I mentioned, it was raining, and we weren't the only people who wanted to get in out of the rain, so the place was packed and we would have had to wait a day just to even look at the display (an exaggeration, perhaps, but we were really hungry). So I woefully agreed we should go somewhere else, and we ended up at a nice café where we had tea and profiteroles and chocolate fondant, and as it was still raining when we left they gave us all free umbrellas (yeah, we didn't believe it either) and chocolate eggs as it was near Easter. Despite a good time, I still didn't get to eat a macaron.

That was March 2008, by the way. Which brings us to the present day and these lemon macarons. Now I've tried making macarons before, and the first time I tried, they adhered to the paper and I made a mess trying to (gently... at first) pry them off; and the second time they were just kind of flat and unappealing. This time... well, they're still a bit flat and bumpy, but they turned out okay, I guess. Except for the fact that the batter spread a wee bit too much and most of the macarons fused with one of their buddies, but of course for the photograph I salvaged the few that managed to stand on their own. Then I sandwiched them together with a buttercream mixed with lemon curd and they weren't half bad. You can bet that the next time I'm in Paris (which will be pretty soon!) the first thing I will do is sprint straight to Ladurée or Pierre Hermé and finally eat one of their macarons, but for now, I suppose these will suffice.

The recipe for the macarons comes straight from Tartelette's Macarons 101 in Desserts Magazine, and all I did was add some lemon zest and yellow food colouring. I will, however, give you the lemon curd recipe that is literally to die for. It is so good, it doesn't need to be put on a tart or layered in a cake or sandwiched between delicate French cookies. I just eat it piled on a digestive biscuit. Or with a spoon (or my fingers, then I don't have to wash the spoon).

Lemon Curd
From The Barefoot Contessa Cookbook by Ina Garten

3 lemons
1 1/2 cups sugar
1/4 pound unsalted butter, room temperature
4 extra-large eggs
1/2 cup lemon juice (3 to 4 lemons)
1/8 teaspoon kosher salt

Using a carrot peeler, remove the zest of 3 lemons, being careful to avoid the white pith. Put the zest in a food processor fitted with the steel blade. Add the sugar and pulse until the zest is very finely minced into the sugar.

Cream the butter and beat in the sugar and lemon mixture. Add the eggs, 1 at a time, and then add the lemon juice and salt. Mix until combined.

Pour the mixture into a 2 quart saucepan and cook over low heat until thickened (about 10 minutes), stirring constantly. The lemon curd will thicken at about 170ºF, or just below simmer. Remove from the heat and cool or refrigerate.

On galettes and not judging by appearances

2009-08-11T17:33:00.009+04:00

When I first started baking seriously and realised the internet was a treasure chest full of recipes and inspirations for baking, my initial reaction to galettes was that they were fake, wannabe pies: the ugly, deadbeat cousin of a pie that is just too lazy to get its butt off the couch and, I don't know, be a real pie I guess. I wanted to be a real baker and make real pies so I disregarded galettes for years... until now.

As always, was I ever wrong. I'm not sure when I realized that it was the quaint, rustic look to them and the sheer simplicity to their making that made them so appealing and, dare I say it, breathtaking (an extreme adjective for a piece of pastry, but hey, I like to be overdramatic). I scoured my favourite resource Tastespotting for a suitable recipe, and eventually came across one from the Tartine cookbook (which I wish I owned), posted by Spicy Icecream. Their method to making the pastry intrigued me: no food processor or pastry cutter or even a bowl and spoon, just dump everything onto the counter and roll it together with a rolling pin? Yeah, like that would work. Nevertheless, I gave it a shot, and although I admit I felt stupid at first and was sure I was just going to make a mess and end up having to throw away half a pound of butter, I persevered... and it worked. Not only did it work out exactly as the recipe said, it was the best damn tart pastry I had ever made (and believe me when I say all my attempts in the past were failures) -- buttery and flaky and oh so good. And they gave way to my beautiful galettes, who, might I add, I shall never doubt ever again.

I halved the recipe and made 4 medium-sized peach and blueberry & peach galettes.

Fruit Galettes
From Tartine by Elisabeth Prueitt and Chad Robertson
Makes 2 large or 12 small galettes

Dough
455g unsalted butter, very cold
1 cup water
1 ½ teaspoons salt
5 cups all purpose flour

Filling
About 6 cups fruit (peaches, nectarines, apricots, berries, sautéed apples or pears – your choice), cut up if necessary
Granulated sugar

Egg wash
1 egg yolk
1 tablespoon cream
Granulated sugar, for sprinkling

To make the dough, cut the butter into 1-inch cubes and put them in the freezer. Measure the water, dissolve the salt into it and put into the freezer as well. Chill both for about 10 minutes.

Measure the flour onto a large, flat work surface and spread into a rectangle about 1cm thick. Scatter the butter cubes over the flour and toss a little flour over the butter so that your rolling pin won’t stick, and begin rolling. When the butter starts flattening out into long, thin pieces, use a bench scraper to scoop up the sides of the rectangle so that it is the size that you started with. Repeat the rolling and scraping 3 or 4 times.

Make a well in the center and pour all of the water into it. Using the bench scraper, scoop the sides of the dough into the center, cutting the water through the dough. Keep scraping and cutting until the dough is a shaggy mass and shape into a rectangle.

Lightly dust the top with flour and roll out the rectangle until it is half as large again, then scrape the top, bottom and sides together to the original size and re-roll. Repeat 3 or 4 times until you have a smooth and cohesive dough. Transfer rectangle of dough to a large baking sheet, cover with plastic wrap and chill for about an hour. While the dough is chilling, prepare the fruit. Hull berries, pit the peaches and cut into eighths, etc depending on the fruit you are using.

When you are ready to roll the dough, divide it into 2 equal portions if making large galettes or 12 equal portions for small ones. Roll the dough into circle shapes by rolling from the center to each end, not flattening the end points. Turn the pastry so the flattened out corners are at the top and bottom. Again, roll from the center towards the points nearest and farthest to you, stopping short of the top and bottom. Roll the thicker areas and you will begin to see a circle forming. Transfer to baking sheets and chill for 10 minutes.

Fill the center of each dough circle with fruit, leaving a 5cm edge uncovered on the large galettes or a 2cm edge on the small ones. Taste the fruit for sweetness and determine how much sugar you want to use to sweeten it. Sprinkle with granulated sugar, typically using 2-4 tablespoons for large galettes and 1-2 teaspoons for each small. Fold in the sides of the circle to cover the fruit partially. Chill for another 10 minutes. In the meantime, preheat the oven to 190ºC (375ºF). To make the egg wash, whisk egg yolk and cream in a small bowl. Crush the egg wash over the pastry edges and then sprinkle with granulated sugar.

Bake the galettes until the crust has visibly puffed and baked to dark brown and the juice from the fruit is bubbling inside – 45-60 minutes for large galettes and 40-50 minutes for small galettes. Rotate the baking sheets at the midway point to ensure even baking. Remove from the oven and serve hot or at room temperature.

On clafoutis and getting a jumpstart

2009-08-10T13:02:00.001+04:00

I suppose I am starting this blog a little earlier than I intended. I created this so that I could chronicle my life in France, even though I don't move there for another three-ish weeks, but hell, I don't have that much to do nowadays anyway. Plus, while I am at the university I will be living in a dorm, where the kitchen (and the bathrooms, scarily enough) are shared with the entire floor, so I don't think I'll be getting many opportunities to bake. Thus, the only logical response: bake as much as I can now.

I've wanted to try baking a clafoutis for the longest time but only decided to finally get around to it today (and I have a new-found love for cherries, so it seemed like good timing). It's sort of like the French version of a baked pancake, except not -- it is infinitely more creamy and custard-like than your average pancake, that's for sure. Mine didn't bake up as nice as it should have: my oven never works properly in the first place, and then the custard overflowed a bit onto the floor of the oven and filled the kitchen with a hazy smoke and an acrid burnt smell, so I quickly took the clafoutis out before it could brown adequately. Nonetheless, it tasted fantastic, and definitely makes for a very rich and yummy breakfast.

Cherry Clafoutis
4 eggs
6 tbsps sugar
3/8 cup flour
pinch of salt
2/3 cup whole milk
2/3 cup whipping cream
65 grams unsalted butter, melted
2 cups of cherries

Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C. Butter and lightly sugar a round 12-inch baking dish. Toss in the cherries.

Whisk together the eggs and sugar. Add in the flour and salt and mix until smooth. Slowly add in the milk, cream and melted butter, and whisk mixture together until smooth. Pour into the prepared dish.

Bake for 35 minutes or until golden brown and slightly puffed.

NB. Apparently, traditional clafoutis are made with the full cherries, both fruit and stone, but nowadays people tend to do it without the pit. I chose to leave the stone in, but it doesn't seem to make much of a difference either way.

About me

2009-08-09T16:40:00.001+04:00

My name is Heidi, and I'm an 18 year old recent high school graduate (as of May 2009) currently on a gap year. Despite being Indonesian by nationality, I was born and raised in England and spent the better half of my life as an expat in the Middle Eastern country of Oman. I have had a fascination with the city of Paris and France in general since as long as I can remember, and so I was thrilled to be accepted into a course at the DEFLE (Département d'Etudes de Français Langue Etrangère, or French as a foreign language) at Université de Michel de Montaigne in Bordeaux, where I now reside.

I have been an avid baker since the age of 16, and though I highly doubt I will make a career out of it, it's the only thing I can see myself doing with my life at this point. I've admired the blogs of Orangette, Smitten Kitchen, Cannelle et Vanille, and many others for years now, and I'd love to one day become as successful as them. Although this blog isn't just about food, hopefully regular posting will help hone my culinary skills as well as giving me a writing outlet.