Short Bread

Short Bread

Sunday, June 16, 2013

Father's Day Treat

Chocolate Eclairs

One of the recipes in the cookbook that was made for me is from a close family friend who also loves to cook. This recipe was actually passed to her by her mother; I love that there are so many family recipes out there. It's like an heirloom that keeps getting passed on; is passed with love and in a way keeps that person alive in our hearts forever. It seems to make the food taste that much better. I wonder how many family recipes are out there. I think it would be fun with Coffee And... if customers could contribute some of their own family recipes for us to make every now and then. We could have a Family Recipe of the Week treat. 

I made these Chocolate Eclairs specifically for Father's Day. These are one of my dad's favorite treats and thought I would test out my baking abilities on a little more difficult of a recipe (it also gave me another reason to use my new mixer). They turned out great and I cannot wait to give them to him. 






For the pastry:
1 cup water
8 Tbsp (1 stick) unsalted butter
1/2 tsp. salt
1 1/2 tsp sugar
1 cup all purpose flour
3-4 eggs

For the wash
1 egg
1 1/2 tsp. water

Fresh whipped cream:
1 pint of heavy cream
1 tsp. sugar
1 tsp. vanilla

For chocolate glaze:
1/2 cup heavy cream
4 oz. semisweet chocolate

To make the pastry, preheat the oven to 400. 

Bring the water, butter, salt and sugar to a rolling boil in a large sauce pan over medium heat. When it boils, immediately take the pan off the heat. Add the flour all at once and stir hard with a wooden spoon until all the flour is incorporated. Return to the heat and cook, stirring about 30 seconds to dry out the mixture slightly. 

Scrape the mixture into a mixer fitted with a paddle attachment or hand mixer. With the mixer running add 3 of the eggs one at a time and mix until it is glossy and the eggs are completely incorporated. The dough should be thick, but should fall slowly and steadily from the beaters when you lift them. You can add the remaining egg and mix if the dough is clinging to the beaters (I had to use 4 eggs). Using a pastry bag, pipe fat lengths of the dough onto a lined baking sheet leaving 2" between them. 

Whip the egg wash and brush the surface of each éclair. Smooth out any bumps. Bake 15 minutes then reduce the heat to 374 and bake until puffed and light golden brown about 20 minutes longer but it will depend on their size. Let them cool. 

Whip the whipping cream and slice off the top of each éclair and fill with lots of whipped cream. 

Glaze:
Bring the cream to a boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Immediately turn off the heat. Put the chocolate in a medium bowl and pour the cream over and whisk until melted, set aside and keep warm. Pour over each éclair. 

Enjoy!!!

Tuesday, June 11, 2013

Tea Party Bridal Shower

This past weekend was something truly magical. Kevin and I had our second wedding shower on Sunday which was thrown for us by my mother's dear friends. We have known these women for about twenty years from living in the neighborhood. Our families all belong to our local neighborhood pool where as kids we all swam on the swim team, grew up, became lifeguards, and now are getting married, having kids and bringing our own families to the pool. Needless to say, it is our heaven on earth and home away from home in the summertime. 

One tradition that has developed over the years is that the "pool mommies" throw the bridal showers for the Mother of the Bride's daughter. I am so blessed and lucky to have these ladies in my life; they threw our second bridal shower and boy was it stunning! These ladies thought of everything, down to every last detail. There are some pictures below, but they do not do it justice. I felt like I had walked into a magazine spread. These ladies sure know how to make a girl feel loved. 

  
  

 

(I think I know who to go to if I need help decorating the coffee shop.)

Sunday, June 2, 2013

Blueberry Muffins

I figure, every coffee shop or bakery needs to have a good blueberry muffin in the store at all times. They are delicious and popular. So, with that and wanting to test out my new mixer, I set out making the recipe from the recipe book I got for my bridal shower. It’s a recipe from Kevin’s aunt. It was surprisingly very simple, and turned out delicious. I think I would just need some extra large cupcake pans or perhaps, sell them two at a time. After they were finished, I had to taste test to make sure they were tasty…I ended up eating about five of them. So, I think it’s safe to say I’ll be making many batches of these blueberry muffins in the future.

½ cup of butter
1 ¼ cups of sugar
2 eggs
2 cups of flour
2 tsp of baking powder
½ tsp of salt
½ cup of milk
1 ½ cup of blueberries
2 tbsp of sugar (for tops of muffins)

  


Beat the butter, sugar, and eggs together. Add the dry ingredients then fold in the blueberries. Fill the muffin cups to the top and sprinkle with sugar. Bake at 425 for 25-30 minutes. Enjoy!




Saturday, June 1, 2013

Good Samaritan Story


The other night Kevin and I were getting dinner ready when we heard our door bell ring. Going to answer it, we could see the guy outside and I asked if Kevin new him. He said he did not. We opened the door and it was a gentleman saying he had two boxes for us from Bed Bath and Beyond, he said our address was wrong on our registry and he found us by using the internet! I thought it was an employee from Bed Bath and Beyond and thought, "wow, that is great customer service!" But today I checked our wedding website and found that a gentlemen we don't know signed the guest book saying that he had some boxes for us delivered to his house by mistake and to call him to go pick them up. He is the one that ended up finding us and delivering our packages, including my new KitchenAid Mixer. Thank you, Sir...whoever you are. Pay it forward...

Here’s a picture of my brand new KitchenAid Mixer! It’s the Pistachio color and it’s beautiful! I cannot wait to test out all sorts of recipes for Coffee And with it.