Category Archives: recipe

Bread machine Panettone

recipe

At work, i was trying to impress some Italian co-workers  with a Panettone. To do a proper one you need a special pan and the matching paper liners. They are all available at amazon but it seems overkill so i looked for a bread machine recipe.

I found one on allrecipes and tried it. After a few tests, here is my version; much moister than the original but some people have said it’s missing something, i will try with some orange flower water next time.

Here goes. Chuck in the bread machine :

  • 1 cup warm milk (microwave it for 45 seconds)
  • 1/2 stick of butter (microwave for 1 minute)
  • 2 eggs ( don’t leave the shell but don’t bother mixing them)
  • 1 tbsp vanilla extract
  • 6 – 8 tbsp sugar

On top of that, pour 3 cups all purpose flour, then 2 tsp bread yeast in one corner, and 1 tsp salt in the other.

Put some raisins in a cup, add boiling water and let it sit for a minute so the raisins get hydrated, then drain the water, and chuck the raisins in the pan.

Select the sweet bread program, Light cooking mode, press start and ignore it until it’s over (2hours 50 minutes for me). As soon as it’s done, take it off the pan and put a cloth towel on it so it does not dry out.

That’s it.

Variations:

  • Use candied fruits instead of raisins. I did that the first time and it works well but then i ran out of candied fruits. candied watermelon is my preferred option.
  • Try flavors like Orange flower water on top or instead of vanilla.
  • Try some natural yeast to get larger and less even holes in the dough.

 

Croquembouche

cake recipe

This is the third part in the croquembouche (piece montee) series.

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This part is the assembling of the croqueenbouche, you will need to have done the cream puffs and the creme patissiere.

Croquenebouche is a pyramid of cream puffs fille dwith creme patissere using caramel as glue.

I will let my wife report on the Caramel as she does it better than i do.

With a small pointy knife of a small pastry tip, poke a hole in each of the cream puffs on their underside. blend the cold creme patissere with a fork, and fill a piping bag with it. Pipe the creme to the puffs and set them aside.

In the serving dish, make a pyramid shape. I used a Tagine lid wrapped in foil.

Make a caramel and dip the puffs upside down then arrange them on serving plate.

cream puffs

cake recipe

This is the second part in my series for “Piece montee“.

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In the first part i made some creme patissiere, the filling for the cream puffs.

In the final part we will pipe the cream to the puffs and assemble them with caramel to a pyramid.

Ingredients

  • 1/2 liter water (some use 1/4 liter water, 1/4 liter milk)
  • 8 oz butter
  • 8 to 9 eggs +1
  • 10 oz flour
  • 3 oz sugar

Heat the water and butter to near boiling point. Remove from the hear. Drop all the flour in one time and mix with a wooden spoon. the batter will come off the walls of the pan and will be smooth.

Put in the food process for a few minutes to evaporate some of the water, or return to low heat and keep mixing for a minute.

Add the eggs one at a time. for the 9th egg, mix the egg in a small bowl and pour a little bit at a time so you can control how much egg you add.

Pipe the dough to a cooking sheet.

With a brush, wash the puffs with a little bit of milk and an egg. With a fork flatten them a little.

Cook for about 40 minutes at 400F.

Your puffs are ready for piping.

 

You can also pipe them long and make eclairs!