Hazelnut Paris-Brest

I've tried this before, but as a single large item. This had all sorts of issue, and it sort of collasped under it's own weight. This time I did individual ones, using a slightly more tested choux recipe. For the filling I decided to ressurect the hazelnut butercream I made a while ago for some slightly lacklustre macarons.

This was all a little rushed, so the choux was not the prettiest, though I did enough notes and photos to do a "Choux Basics" post. I made 17 buns, though in retrospect I should have made 12 or 15 slightly larger ones, as that was all the filling I had. I personally think that they needed an additional filling to add some more creaminess (I'm thinking creme patisserie, or perhaps mix the hazelnut butter into a creme pat...), though taste feedback said they were good as they were.

Paris-Brest - Recipe

Choux Pastry

I made a batch of Choux Pastry, piping it into 7-8cm rings on silicone mats.

These were then carefully brushed with egg yolk, and a scattering of flaked almonds added on top before being baked in the oven. They were baked for 25 minutes, then left to cool in the oven to dry them out, before completing cooling on a wire rack.

Hazelnut Buttercream Ingredients

• 200g hazelnuts
• 140g butter (room temperature)
• 140g icing sugar
• 25g cocoa powder
• Milk

1) Place the hazelnuts in a food processor with the blade attachment

2) Blend the hazelnuts until they form a smooth, butter-like mixture. This will tkae a while, and you'll need to scrape the sides down a few times

3) Transfer the hazelnut butter to a stand mizer with the paddle attachment

4) Add in the butter, and sieve in the icing sugar and cocoa powder

5) Mix until a smooth, light texture is achieved. You may need to add a small amount of milk to get a good piping texture.

6) Transfer the icing to a piping bag with a semi-closed star nozzle attached

Assembly

1) Slice the choux buns in half

2) Pipe the icing onto half of the bun

3) Place the other half of the bun back on top

4) (optional) sprinkle with a little icing sugar

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Choux Pastry

Choux pastry by itself doesn't have that much in the way of flavour, but it's a very good container for soft, high-flavour fillings. Most people know it for chocolate eclairs, but there are also profiteroles, Paris-Brest and religeuse.

I find it very temperature sensitive, and with my oven I tend to do it at 180-190'C. Drying the pastry is vital, so once it's done baking leaving it in the oven with the door cracked for 5-10 minutes can really help get the crisp, crunchy texture you're looking for. Once out of the oven it cools really quickly, so it's worth spending a little extra time to get it right.

The mixture of flours (50% plain, 50% strong) gives the final mixture a bit more strength and crispness. You can do it with just plain flour, however it may not be quite as strong structurally.

This recipe quantity will make approximately 15 Eclairs or Paris-Brest buns.

Choux Pastry - Recipe

• Pre-heat oven to 180-190'C
• Line a large baking sheet with paking parchment or a silicone mat

Ingredients

• 100g full fat milk
• 100g water
• 100g butter
• 3g salt
• 8g caster sugar
• 60g plain flour
• 60g strong white flour
• 3 large eggs

1) Place the milk, water, butter, salt and sugar in a large saucepan. You're going to be adding other ingredients, and stirring a lot, so err on the side of a larger pan.





2) Heat the mixture gently, while stirring, until the butter has melted and all the sugar and salt have dissolved.

3) While continuing to stir, bring the heat up to medium until the mixture is just beginning to boil.

4) Remove from the heat

5) Pour in the flour and stir vigorously until you have a consistent, smooth mixture

6) Return the pan to a medium heat and stir vigorously for 3-4 minutes. The mixture should become more elastic and glossy, and begin to pull from the sides of the pan when you stir it.





7) Transfer the dough to a stand mixer with the paddle attachment and mix for 2-3 minutes. You'll get a lot of steam come off, and you're looking to cool the mixture down a bit before adding the eggs (you don't want them cooking)




8) Add the eggs in one at a time, while continuing to mix on a medium speed. You want each egg fully combined, and a smooth mixture, before adding the next.





9) Continue to mix for anther 2 minutes so you have a very smooth, soft pastry paste.






10) Transfer the mixutre to a piping bag. You ideally want to use a star nozzle when piping, as this gives whatever you are piping room to expand when baked. For Eclairs, pipe straight , ~15cm tubes as neatly as possible. For Profiteroles and Religieuse pipe tight buns. For Paris-Brest pipe discs about 5-6cm inches across

11) Bake in the oven for 25-30 minutes. Keep an eye on them, as the pastry can burn quite quickly towards the end, as it's so thin. You can improve the cripsness by sprinkling a very small amount of water on the baking sheet before placing them in the oven.

12) Once they are done, turn the oven off, crack the door open, and leave in there for another 5-10 minutes. This allows any excess moisture to leave the pastry, leaving a crisp finish. If you are filling the pastry (profiteroles, eclairs etc) you can quickly add holes where you are going to fill them before this cooling phase, and this will help the steam escape.

13) Remove from the oven and leave to cool fully on a wire rack before cutting/filling/decorating.

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Pork, Apple and Onion Sausage Rolls

I've been doing a fair bit of baking, but mostly doing some favourites...cycling season is now in full force, so I have a little less time  to spend in the kitchen. These sausage rolls came out of a batch of cooking I did for my cycling club for a training day...I wanted a savoury that would appeal to the masses, but was a little different. It's (once again) classic flavours, and after doing the first batch I reckoned they were worth a bit of refining and documenting.

When I did the first batch a lot of juices came out of the filling...obviously sausagemeat has a fair amount of fat in there, however the apple also added a lot of water, so for the second batch I wringed (wrang?) a lot of the water out. I'm in 2 minds about this...the filling was definitely dryer and firmer, however I think that perhaps some of the flavour was lost. Maybe a gentle heating to boil off the water while retaining the vital flavours?

Pork, Apple and Onion Sausage Rolls - Recipe

Rough Puff Pastry

This recipe uses a batch of my fast rough-puff pastry. You can make this up, then chill it while you are preparing the fillings

Filling Ingredients

• 450g sausagemeat (I used some basic stuff, as I was going to add lots of flavours)
• 3 medium-sized braeburn apples
• 2 onions
• 20g butter
• 1tbsp sunflower oil
• 10g soft brown sugar

1) Place the butter and oil in a large frying pan over a medium heat

2) Peel and slice the onions, and add to the frying pan

3) Sprinkle the sugar over the onions

4) Cook over a medium heat, stirring occasionally, for ~20 minutes, until the onions are well caramelised

5) Place to one side to cool

5) Peel, core and roughly grate the apples

6) Place the grated apple on a clean kitchen cloth

7) Roll and wring the kitchen cloth, to remove the excess water from the apple

8) Place the sausagemeat in a large bowl

9) Add the cooled onion, and grated apple

10) Thoroughly mix with your hands

Assembly

• 1 beaten egg

1) Pre-heat the oven to 190'C

2) Line a large baking sheet with baking parchment

3) Take the chilled pastry, and split in half

4) Roll each half out into a rectangle approx 20cm x 50cm (you can use a pizza wheel to neaten the edges)

5) Using a pastry brush, brush some beaten egg down the middle of the rolled pastry longways

6) Split the filling in half, and place an even strip down the middle of each piece of pastry, on top of the strip of beaten egg

7) Brush one side of each of the pieces of pastry, and fold over the filling

8) Repeat for the other side, forming 2 long sausages

9) Cut each sausage into 8 even-sized pieces (for 16 in total)

10) Cut 2 diagonal grooves in the top of each piece to form a simple decoration

11) Place the pieces on the baking sheet, spaced evenly

12) Brush each with beaten egg, aiming to cover all the edges of the pastry to help seal them

13) Bake for 25-30 minutes, until golden brown, crisp and well puffed

14) Remove to a wire rack to cool

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Blueberry and Lemon Frangipane Tart

This was whipped up after picking up a small punnet of blueberries on the cheap from the supermarket...when I bought them I wasn't 100 sure what I was going to do, and had considered a batch of muffins. Come Sunday night, and I was looking through the house to see what was sitting around, and saw a couple of lemons...one thing led to another and I decided on a classic frangipane tart, with lemon zest, and blueberry jam.

I sort of see this sort of thing as "bakewell with different flavours", and to some extent it is, however almonds work fantastically with so many different berries, and frangipane takes on flavours really well too, so it's a great way of combining classic ingredient combinations.

I used my favourite 23cm tart tin for this...it's really deep, so you get plenty of filling! If I was going super-posh I would have baked the pastry without trimming it, then cleaned it up afterwards...however this time I trimmed it before baking, and I have a ball of left-over dough that will probably get converted into a snack tomorrow!

Blueberry and Lemon Frangipane Tart

Sweetcrust Pastry Ingredients

• 250g plain flour
• 130g butter (chilled and cubed)
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 50g caster sugar
• 1 egg (chilled)
• Tap water (chilled)

1) Place the flour, salt, sugar and butter into a food processor with the blade attachment.

2) Blitz until it forms a breadcrumb mixture

3) Add the egg and continue to blitz.

4) Add the water in small amounts until a dough just begins to form

5) Turn the mixture out onto a surface (or I prefer a large mixing bowl, to keep things a little tidier) and knead a few times to form a firm, smooth pastry

6) Flatten the dough to a thick disc, wrap in cling-film, and place in the fridge to chill. While it's chilling, make the jam

Blueberry Jam Ingredients

• 100g blueberries
• 100g jam sugar

1) Place the blueberries and sugar in a small saucepan

2) Place over a low heat, stirring and squashing the blueberries with a wooden spoon, until the sugar has dissolved/melted into the juices

3) Bring the temperature up while stirring, until the mixture is boiling

4) Use a temperature probe to check on the temperature, and stir until the mixture reaches 104'C

5) Remove from the heat and turn the jam out onto a plate to cool. Your pastry should now be chilled, and ready to roll. Turn the oven on to 180-190'C to pre-heat

6) Take the chilled pastry, unwrap and place on a lightly floured surface

7) Roll it out to ~3-4mm thickness, in a circle large enough to line your 23cm pan (the best way to check this is place your pan in the middle, and make sure there is enough around the edge to line the edges

8) Line the tart tin, tucking the pastry down into the corners.

9) Prick the bottom with a fork. You can trim the edges at this point by passing a rolling pin over the top, trimming the pastry. If you want a posher finish, trim it after you've blind-baked, using a sharp knife

10) Place the lined tart tin in the fridge to chill until your oven is upto temperature

11) Line the pastry with thin baking parchment, and fill with baking beans and/or dry rice

12) Bake for 12 minutes, then remove the paper and baking beans and bake for a further 7-8 minutes, until the base is just starting to brown. Then, remove it from the oven and place it on a wire rack to cool.

13) While you are blind-baking the pastry, make the frangipane filling

Lemon Frangipane Ingredients

• 150g butter (room temperature)
• 150g caster sugar
• 3 large eggs
• 125g ground almond
• 75g plain flour
• 1/2 tsp almond essence
• Zest of 2 lemons

1) Place the butter and sugar in a stand mixer with the paddle attachment

2) Beat hard until very soft and creamy

3) Add the eggs one at a time, beating hard until fully combined

4) Add the flour, almond, zest and essence and mix hard until fully combined and smooth

Assembly

• 125g blueberries
• Handful of flaked almonds

1) Turn the oven down to 155-160'C

2) Take the cooled jam, and spread over the base of the pastry case

3) Scatter the blueberries evenly over the jam

4) Scoop the frangipane mixture over the top, and using a small palette knife spread evenly to fill the entire pastry case, and smooth the top

5) Scatter the flaked almonds over the top, and press down slightly

6) Bake in the oven for 35-40 minutes. It's done when the middle of the frangipane is risen, and has turned a golden brown

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Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Mini-Pies

These were a classic cycling-season transportable snack. I've been doing a few pies here and there, normally as loaf-shapes, as they are good to slice. I did these in muffin tins for a bit of a change. the filling was dictated by what was on cheap in the supermarket (in this case chicken and bacon)...and then I whipped up a simple white sauce to bind it all together. I used hot-water crust as it's easy to work, robust, and also one of my favourites.

Chicken, Bacon and Mushroom Mini-Pies

Filling Ingredients

• 350g chicken fillets
• 150g smoked back bacon
• 6 large mushrooms
• 1tbsp sunflower oil
• 50g butter
• 50g plain flour
• ~300ml Milk
• ½tsp mustard powder

1) Place the oil in a large saucepan over a medium heat

2) Add the chicken and bacon, and cook until browned

3) Chop and add the mushrooms, stirring in

4) Reduce the heat slightly, and prepare the white sauce

5) Put the butter in a medium pan over a medium heat

6) Once the butter is fully melted, add in the flour and stir vigorously until you have a breadcrumb consistency

7) Slowly start to add the milk, stirring vigorously to remove lumps

8) Keep adding the milk until you have a thick sauce

9) Add the sauce to the chicken mixture, and stir in

10) remove from the heat and allow to cool fully (I spread it over a baking tray on some ice-blocks). While it's cooling, make the pastry, and pre-heat the oven to 190'C

Hot Water Crust Pastry Ingredients

• 450g  plain flour
• 100g strong white flour
• 75g butter
• 100g lard
• 200g water
• Pinch of salt
• Beaten egg (to seal and glaze)

1) Place the flours and salt in a large mixing bowl

2) Rub in the butter until you have fine breadcrumbs

3) Place the water and lard into a small saucepan over a low heat

4) Heat and stir the water until the lard has melted, then turn up the heat until the water boils

5) Pour the lard and water into the flour, and stir vigorously with a wooden spoon

6) As soon as it's cool enough to touch, knead the mixture to form a soft dough

7) Working quickly, split the dough into 12 equal parts

8) Using two-thirds of each part, roll it out and line one depression in a 12-hole muffin tin, overlapping the top.

9) Fill each cavity with the cooled filling, ensuring that the overlap at the top is clear

10) Brush some beaten egg around the overlap on each cavity

11) Using the remaining pastry bits, roll out lids and firmly press them on to each cavity

12) Using a circular pastry cutter slightly larger than the muffin cavities, trim away the excess pastry. You can use this to form some decorations for the top of the pies

13) Brush each pie top with beaten egg

14) Place in the oven for 35-40 minutes, until golden

15) Remove to a wire rack to cool

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