Chouquettes

While in Paris a few weeks back I saw so many pastries, desserts, and treats that I longed to grab and just stuff my face with. But I kept cool and just decided to drool over every incredibly pretty and flaky dessert.

And with true Paris fashion, many of the treats I wanted to get my hands on were pastries. Every café and bakery we walked passed had rows upon rows of golden brown croissants, plain and ones with little bits of chocolate peeping out of the sides; all kinds of tarts lined the shelves; and all the cakes were beautifully iced. It was a dream to look at them all.

One of the pastries I saw definitely caught my attention when I first saw it. They looked like little pat a choux type things, but they had these little clumps of sugar on top. (I would later learn that the sugar clumps were called pearl sugar) They were so cute and puffy; I kind of wish I had gotten one.

Not even two days after I arrive back home I see a recipes for chouquettes! I couldn’t believe it and instantly hit favorite, not caring what ingredients went in and set about making them the next day. The only thing I couldn’t get was the pearl sugar. I have absolutely no idea where I would find something like that, so I didn’t even really bother. But, if you want to make these in the traditional sense, go ahead and use that pearl sugar. As for me, a light dusting of confectioners’ sugar was quite alright.

Like I said before, I’m sorry I never got a chance to try an actual chouquette so I could compare the two, but what can you do?

These little puff balls were perfect in every sense. They were crispy on the outside and so, so soft on the inside. They were amazing. As I was taking pictures, my mom snuck a couple and the first word to come out of her mouth was “Beautiful!”. I think I may have under baked mine just a tad because the inside was still a little chewy, but the chewiness might have also been due to the chouquettes absorbing the confectioners’ sugar.

Also, if you’re scared to work with pat a choux type dough, don’t be. If I can do it, so can you. The steps are real simple and you’ll have beautiful little “sugar puffs” within an hour. Also, if you’re not good with a pastry bag, like I am, use a small cookie scoop to portion out the dough. It’s so easy and you’ll get roughly the same size pastries each time.

Chouquettes
Adapted from Merci Mama
Makes about 20

Ingredients
½ tbsp. sugar
2 tbsp. unsalted butter, cubed
Pinch of salt
½ cup water
67 grams (about ½ cup) unbleached all-purpose flour
2 eggs, room temperature
Pearl sugar or confectioners’ sugar

Directions
Preheat oven to 400 F. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper, set aside.

In a small saucepan, combine sugar, butter, salt, and water. Set over medium heat and bring up to a simmer, stirring occasionally to help the butter melt. Once the sugar has dissolved and the mixture has come to a simmer, remove the saucepan from the heat.

Add the flour all at once and stir rapidly with a wooden spoon. Keep stirring until the dough starts to pull away from the sides.

Drop eggs in one at a time, stirring continuously with the wooden spoon. Make sure each egg has been fully incorporated before adding in the next. The dough will look curdled and weird, but that’s ok, just keep stirring and it will soon come together.

Place a cover over the saucepan and refrigerate for 20 minutes.

Use a small cookie scoop (or you can use a piping bag or two spoons, whichever you feel is easiest) to portion out the dough onto the prepared baking sheet. Leave about 1-2 inches between each dough mound. If using pearl sugar, sprinkle some on the top. Press down gently to adhere to the dough.

Place baking sheet in the oven and bake for about 15-20 minutes or until each chouquette has puffed and become golden brown. Cool on a cooling rack for a few minutes and enjoy. If you are using powdered sugar, once the little puffs have cooled, sift some of it on top and enjoy.

Grape Jelly Roly-Poly Pastry

He’s Rolie Polie Olie

He’s small and smart and round
And in the land of curves and curls
He’s the swellest kid around!

Ok, who remembers that show when it aired on Disney? Or is it still airing? I don’t know I don’t watch that channel anymore because- well I wont get into that rant today. The point is, it was an awesome show when I was a kid. And why am I telling you this, you ask? Well it has to do with this jam roll up thing that I made.

I got this cookbook about two weeks ago from Borders. (Did you guys hear? It’s closing forever!!! ;-; Everything is on sale and there are chalk outlines made of duct tape of “dead people” and it’s all just so sad.) It was in the bargain aisle for $2.99 and I figured why the heck not? This book is called Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids. Now you see where I’m getting at with the whole children’s programming and television shows?

The book itself is just so fun and adorable. The pages are cut in little ridges and each page is filled with so many colors. It’s a book that makes you feel all happy and giddy inside! There are three sections to this book: What’s Your Story, Morning Glory (treats for breakfast), Everyday’s a Holiday (simple, yet special treats), and Get This Party Started (cute sounding desserts). After flipped through and reading all of the recipes, a couple stuck in my mind that I know I have to bake at some point in my life, but this particular one stuck out even more.

It’s supposed to be called Holy Moly! Strawberry Jam Roly-Poly, but I changed that to Grape Jelly because that is the type of jelly I used, it’s my favorite. To be honest, I had a little trouble with this recipe, but I think it was mostly my fault. It calls for frozen butter, and I knew this, but I put the butter into the freezer only an hour before baking, so I don’t think it was completely frozen when I started grating it. The butter started getting soft in my hands and they turned into a slick, greasy mess. However, putting the grated butter and flour mixture in the freezer while I unloaded the dishwasher for ten minutes helped it a bit. The second problem was that I didn’t put enough flour on the counter, so when I went to roll out the dough, it was a little sticky, but nothing I couldn’t handle. Everything else went very smoothly, except when I was getting hungry and I didn’t wait long enough (only 30 minutes) for the roll to fully cool and the slices didn’t turn out at neat as they should have, but that’s ok.

Now, I will stop with the negatives and talk about how awesome this Jelly Roll thing is. I say it tasts pretty darned good. The crusty bit (is there another adjective that makes that sound, I don’t know, not weird?) on the outside is very crumbly and is fun to pick off and just eat. Then you get to the dough on the inside and it is so soft and chewy (in a good way). Finally, you get the hint of the sweet Grape Jelly rolled all around the dough. I was a little afraid I had squeezed all of the filling to the very end when I was rolling it, but no, it all stayed in a pretty even swirl. I just wish I had put a little more jelly as the filling because that would have made it even more “swell”.

Grape Jelly Roly-Poly
slightly adapted from Sticky, Chewy, Messy, Gooey Treats for Kids

Ingredients
2 cups all-purpose unbleached flour
2 tsp baking powder
½ tsp salt
2 tbsp sugar
1 stick unsalted butter, frozen
2/3 cup ice cold water (or more if needed)
½ cup grape jelly (or whatever jelly/jam you prefer)
1 tbsp milk for brushing

Directions

1. Line a baking sheet with parchment paper. Preheat the oven to 400 degrees F.
2. In a medium bowl, sift together the flour, baking powder, salt and sugar. Set aside.
3. Using the large holes of a grater, grate the frozen butter into the flour mixture. Be careful, because the butter may become slippery in your hands and no one wants skin chunks in their pastry, not to mention you could hurt yourself. Once butter has been grated it, lightly toss the flour and the butter together. If the butter starts getting a little soft, put the whole bowl into the freezer for 5-10 minutes.
4. Stir in the ice cold water into the flour and butter mixture and gently work it with your hands until it forms a loose ball. Add more water a little bit at a time if the dough is too dry.
5. Turn the dough out onto a floured surface and knead the dough for 5 or 6 turns. Roll the dough out do it measures roughly 9 inches by 13 inches. Spread the jelly or jam in the center of the dough, leaving a 1 inch border on all sides. Take the long end of the dough and roll it up. Place the seam side down onto the parchment paper. Brush the top with a little milk and if desired, sprinkle a little bit of sugar on top for added sweetness.
6. Bake for about 30 minutes or until the pastry has puffed and turned golden brown. Cool on the baking pan for a few minutes before removing it onto a cooling rack. Let the pastry cool completely before slicing. Use a serrated knife and cut diagonally to get 6 portions. Serve, and enjoy. Maybe warm up some more of the same jelly or jam and pour over the top, or possibly add some fresh whipped cream?