A litte bit of France- Repost

There is not many people who could resist a freshly baked crossiant, and by request of Julija we made these one lovely evening. Wow, were they fantastic. Just look at all those layers!

Here is a recipe, not sure if it is the one we used, but it looks good. (I tried this recipe today before reposting this it IS a winner.) You can never go wrong with a warm crossiant. YUM!

We also whipped up some French onion soup and I made some French Macarons to complete our evening with a French theme. 

Marshmallow Time

Love marshmallows? Try making your own as we did yesterday. They are really very simple and you can find them HERE. Yum!These very much reminded me of "Peeps" the Easter candy. I was thinking of coloring some sugar and making different Easter themed designs with these yummy mallows.

These yummy s'mores were supposed to be coated in chocolate- but we were short on chocolate so we just stuck them together with it.

We also decided we had better give roasting them a try to see if these can be a substitute for our summer fun of cooked marshmallows. They turned black too quickly though and melted too fast- will have to find a different recipe for that :)

Thanks Sweetapolitia for another fantastic recipe :)

Eclairs

 Photo 

Any lover of eclairs will be ecstasy over a homemade one. Today these are filled with cream filling, they can also be filled with sweetened whipped cream. The recipe may seen complicated, because it is long and has 3 parts to it. But it is really very simple and very worth the effort!

Cream Puff Dough: (Makes apx. 10, 2 inch cream puffs. I double or triple this recipe for a group)

Ingredients

1/2 cup water
4 tablespoons butter
1/2 cup flour
2 eggs

Method:

1. Oil, butter or prepare cookie sheet with baking paper. 
2. Preheat oven to 350 degrees F or 175 degrees C. 
3. Bring water and butter to boil. 
4. Remove from heat and rapidly stir in flour so that it forms ball. 
5. Add eggs one at a time, stirring well between eggs. 
6. To make traditional eclair shapes, place dough in pastry tube and squeeze onto prepared cookie sheet.  Or drop by rounded spoonfuls on cookie sheet. 
7. Bake apx. 20 -30 min. until golden. 

Cream Filling: 

Ingredients:

1 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
4 tablespoons flour
2 eggs
2 teaspoons vanilla

Chocolate variation:

• Use 1 cup sugar, rather than 1/2 cup. Melt 55 g. dark chocolate with milk. Then add eggs- stirring vigorously, and flour. Omit vanilla.

Method:

1. Stir all ingredients , except vanilla together well in saucepan. 
2. Cook over low-medium heat, stirring constantly until mixture thickens and beings to boil. 
3. Remove from heat and add vanilla. 
4. Cool to room temperature. 

Chocolate Frosting:

Ingredients: 

85 g. semi sweet or dark chocolate
2 tablespoons butter

Method:

1. Melt over double boiler until smooth. 

Eclair Assembly:

1. When cream puffs are cooled, and filling also then you may start assembly. 
2. Gently cut off top of cream puff, so as to make a lid. 
3. Remove any "extra" of the insides that would keep their from being room to fill. 
4. Add the filling and replace top. 
5. Frost with chocolate frosting. 
6. Enjoy! 

Houlihan's Baked Potato Soup

I love potato soup. But the best I have ever had was at the restaurant Houlihan's. When we were in college my roommate's Dad used to take us all out there. I have looked high and low on the interent for copycat recipes. I used this one as a base, and adjusted it as is seen below.

Borrowed from here

Ingredients

• 1 1/2 pounds baking potatoes
• 1/4 pound butter
• 2 cups yellow onion, diced
• 1/3 cup flour
• 3 cups water
• 1/4 cup low sodium chicken broth
• 1 cup instant potato flakes
• 3/4 teaspoon dried basil
• 1 cup heavy cream
• 2 cups milk
• salt and white pepper to taste
• Bacon, diced
• grated  cheese
• green onions

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 400 degree. Prick washed potatoes and bake until tender all the way through and allow to fully cool. Remove skin and cut into 1/2-1 inch cubes and set aside.
2. Melt butter in a large pan and add onions. Saute for 10 minutes or until the onions are translucent. Add flour a cook for 4 minutes, stirring until well absorbed.
3. In a separate bowl, combine water, stock, potato flakes and seasonings. Whisk thoroughly to eliminate lumps. Slowly add to the onions while stirring constantly. Increase to medium heat and continue cooking until the soup begins to simmer. Add milk and cream and stir until slightly thickened.
4. Simmer for 15 minutes, but do not bring to a boil. Add potatoes and bacon and remove from heat. Top each serving with cheese and green onions.

Cookie Night