Being away from home, far far away from home, on a foreign soil, away from my Umi's cek mek molek or pisang sira or netbat sira, i discovered , besides the waxes at Madame tussaud ( Michael jackson lookalike or James bond ) or the pigeons at Trafalgar square, something new, something sinfully rich and sweet and sensational.. something i had never tasted before, not in a small kampung in Kelantan in the 70s, and so, when i did, i fell in love with them instantly, or shall I say, love at first bite! one bite into its soft choux pastry, with the cream inside and chocolate topping, perfect, just perfect combination. And so, when I bit into them yesterday, I was falling in love with them all over again!!! and again !
Chocolate eclairs, my favourite, among many others , trifle, chocolate mousse, cheesecake, biskut batik, all of these were discovered when I was studying.As usual, I had been wanting to make them for quite a while now, just like the trifle,( save the trifle story later ) my two most favourite dessert. , but don't have the courage to try them. I have the recipe, not just one, but a few, i have googled for more information, I had planned to attend one of the classes organised by my baker friend, how to make the eclairs but just can't find the time to go just yet until i received the call yesterday morning.
"zue, i want you to make three types of pastries for me, one, your usual blueberry cheesetarts, the other, fruit tartlets and also chocolate eclairs. and I want them this evening for a function to be held at my hotel tonight.
Haa? what? OMG!
Talk about procrastination.
This calls for a loud wake up call
Zue, get organised! and get it done ASAP!
compile your recipes, don't keep them everywhere
keep your favourite in one place
don't wait!
don't make excuses
just do it!
and so i did it
finally.
they were supposed to reach the hotel latest by 6.30 pm for the function would start at 7.30pm.At 4.30 pm i was still struggling with the recipe.
Pour the water into a pan, with butter ( i definitely have never done this before, water and butter)
when they start to boil, add in flour, pour it all at once and stir over a steady heat until the mixture comes together into a coherent mass ( word for word ikut buku ), and leaves the sides of the saucepan.
transfer the mixture to a larger bowl, add in eggs, bit by bit until the mixture reaches a smooth, stiff, dropping consistency.
My friend knew how to make this and she said, you will know that yo have done it correctly when the dough rises in the oven.
oh oh, moment of truth
when I saw them rising inside the oven, i drew a big sigh of relief
Phew!
when I cut it open in the middle,it is cooked!( was this how it was supposed to look like? How would i know? this was my first time, but when I had piped the fresh cream inside, poured the chocolate sauce on top and had my first longing bite into it, i knew it, I had to make some more!
that was the eclair story, and what about this fruit tartlets? almost similar story, never done it before but wanting to try making them.
oops! gotta go, Hello Kitty rainbow cake and pecan butterscotch cake is waiting.
to be continued.....
Hi Zue, I remember eating that chocolate eclairs once upon a time....and do see it on and off at our stores here.
ReplyDeleteBut I'm not much of a fan for these....rather just go a chocolate bar, mix nuts or raisins.
So,how's the holidays?
You away your baby Porche ke rumah balek boleh start? Ha ha ha, or kena tolak.
Have fun, Zue.....
Lee.
Hello Lee, just finished clearing my messy ktichen, the dry leaves outside, now nak goreng cucur badak for Mr hubby.
ReplyDeleteme and chocolate are best friends, when i was working, always have a bar of KitKat or cadbury zip in my drawer. when hubby goes to langkawi, will always bring back loads and loads of choclate from kinder bueno to ritter sport, etc etc...memang hantu cokelat Lee.
The holiday was okay, not great but okay, a little incident but all's well that ends well.Went to KL with one car and came back driving two cars.
itu baby Porsche tinggal di homestay and boleh start lah Lee, tak payah kena tolak...siapa siapa duduk homestay can rent that Beetle if they like, kalau you datang Alor Staq, kita naik itu Beetle ronda ronda pekan Rabu....hehe.....