Wednesday, February 16, 2011

Yummy recipe and more...

For Valentine's Day dessert, I made Profiteroles with vanilla ice cream and chocolate sauce. They were so easy to make and somehow felt very special, so I thought I'd share the recipe with you. This one is from The Balthazar Cookbook:

Profiteroles
serves 6 (3 profiteroles each) - just halve the recipe if you don't want so many although you can freeze them

1/2 cup whole milk
1 stick plus 1 tablespoon unsalted butter
1/4 teaspoon salt
1/2 cup water
1 cup all-purpose flour, sifted
5 large eggs
1 egg yolk, lightly beaten

1/2 cup heavy cream
8 oz semisweet chocolate (good quality)

1 pint vanilla ice cream

Preheat oven to 350℉.

In a medium saucepan, combine the milk, butter and salt with 1/2 cup of water and bring to a boil. Add the sifted flour and stir with a wooden spoon until thoroughly combined into a dough. Continue stirring over medium heat for about 3 minutes.

Transfer the dough into the bowl of a standing mixer (or you can do that part of the recipe in the saucepan with the wooden spoon). Stir at low speed for a few minutes to lower the temperature of the dough. Increase the speed to medium and then add the eggs, one at a time. Mix until smooth, cool dough forms, about 4 minutes.

Fill pastry bag, fitted with a #9 tip, with the dough, or use a soup spoon to form small puffs (that's what I did), about 2 inches in diameter, on parchment-lined baking sheets. Brush the puffs with the beaten egg yolk (I totally forgot that and they still turned out great!) and transfer to the oven. Bake for 45 minutes, or until golden brown. Cool the puffs on a wire rack and then slice them, as if they were hamburger buns, with a serrated knife.

Make the chocolate sauce just before serving. Heat the heavy cream in a saucepan until it foams. Reduce the flame to low and add the chopped chocolate. Whisk until all the chocolate has melted and the sauce is smooth and shiny.

Fill the puffs with a scant scoop (I did a real scoop, none of that "scant" business!) of ice cream and drizzle with chocolate sauce!

Amazingly good!!

Plus, the puffs should freeze well, so if you have ice cream and chocolate sauce on hand, it's an easy dessert to put together at the last minute!
As promised, a couple of photos of the other gift I got from Daniel - isn't this necklace just beautiful?! My special love of butterflies aside (or is this a moth?), it is just stunning. I love, love, love it!!
As a last little thought, I've been thinking about my word for the year "focus," and how hard it it for me right now to do just that. It seems I go through periods of time when all is calm and I can focus on one thing at a time.

But those quite times always cause 1001 ideas to pop up in my mind, and as soon as I start working on them, the focus somehow is gone. Does that happen to you?

Right now, I don't know if I'd rather paint, knit, crochet, sew (oh the projects I have lined up for that!), write a few letters, talk on the phone, read a good book, go for walks in the sunshine, cook, bake, organize a few closets, give the kitchen the once over, etc. etc. etc. And then there's the tax return prep that is calling my name....

A busy time and even if "focus" is out the window for the moment, there is a feeling of vibrant creation and I am learning to enjoy it in the middle of what feels like a bit of chaos!

In all of this, I find that I always come back to my blog and connecting with you. It has become a central place for me — actually a true focal point in the midst of my life!

Thank you for that!! 

17 comments:

  1. Hi Silke!

    That butterfly necklace is so pretty! Daniel has good taste! A very special gift!

    What a yummy dessert. Thanks for sharing the recipe. I may have to try it out sometime!

    I can so relate to feeling out of focus! Those times are difficult but like you said we always have blogland to come to for support and connection!

    ReplyDelete
  2. YUM YUM...profiteroles...
    I know I am finding it hard to focus...back to work.
    HUGS
    Char.x

    ReplyDelete
  3. Liebe silke,
    das ist jetzt gemein. wo ich gerade bei einem Käffchen am PC sitze, da käme der Kuchen gerade recht. Hübsche Kette.
    LG Sabine

    ReplyDelete
  4. That dessert looks incredible! I can't imagine it is easy:)

    ReplyDelete
  5. Oh my goodness those profiteroles! I have an enormous craving for them now! Thanks Silke :) xx

    ReplyDelete
  6. You are an amazing baker/cook, i'm not sure i could do these.
    i do know just what you mean, all the choices you have are the same for me, i love to do all those things as well. my focus is mainly work though since i still do that full time, but i can hardly wait for the day to retire, i'll be just like you, what to do next!?
    have a lovely wednesday silke

    oh, the pouches do have to have the liners sewn in, no drawstring holes are necessary though. and, there's no need to hurry. :)

    ReplyDelete
  7. Your necklace is beautiful Silke! I love butterflies (or moths! LOL) too!...And also just like you, I have a lot of things calling my name! Thankful I just answer the "phone", so to speak, at will. I take it as it comes!...I'm not going to be able to be so flippant with the taxes though. They have a deadline that I must answer...SOON! ^_^

    ReplyDelete
  8. Liebe Silke,

    da können wir uns ein Bild davon machen, wie
    gemütlich es bei euch ist.

    Frohe Grüße
    Angela und Elisabeth

    ReplyDelete
  9. Lecker, da läuft einem ja das Wasser im Mund zusammen...Du bist wirlich vielfältig begabt und das ist schön, Inge

    ReplyDelete
  10. This reminds me of my father...he loved them and I used to make them for his birthday. However, I filled them with Mexican chocolate pudding I made from scratch...I should get back into the kitchen and introduce them to my family again...it's been so long.

    Georgina

    ReplyDelete
  11. Oh meine Güte sehen die gut aus! Jetzt habe ich wieder Hunger so kurz vor dem Schlafen gehen:O.
    Aber recht herzlichen Dank für das Rezept liebe Silke. Liebe Grüße von Luzia.

    ReplyDelete
  12. Hi Silke, what you are experiencing is a bit of creative chaos, and that is a GOOD thing...it means you get to choose one thing to do for a little while....and that thing will spring board you into the next thing your heart desires... it is not a lack of focus... it is just an opportunity to choose a focus, and then another and another...who said you have to complete one thing before starting another? Really, I believe that exploring many things you love, one project will inspire another and so on...this is a JUICY time of creative growth! Just have fun and be present to the thing you are doing in the moment until you are ready to move on...trust your intuition...even 5 minutes at a time is really fine!!!
    xoxoxo

    ReplyDelete
  13. Yum! I won't be making this for a while...Still losing weight...I think that beautiful necklace is a moth, I used to paint butterflies, moths, dragonflies, beetles and bees.
    Focus, yes, I can relate, there is so much I want to do and just not enough hours in a day!
    Love and hugs. xoxo

    ReplyDelete
  14. The first thing that popped into my mind, when I saw the photo was: Liebesknochen! I don't know if they were called that in your area of Germany - actually they were eclairs - but in Berlin, they go by the name of 'love bones'.
    I bet your profiteroles where very yummy!
    Love the necklace!

    ReplyDelete
  15. Hello Silke,
    I can see you had a special Valentine's Day!
    The profiteroles look delicious. I will try and make some soon. Thanks for the great recipe. ;-)
    The butterfly necklace is very beautiful and looks lovely on you with the red and blue pendant. Such a special gift!
    Many spring blessings,
    Jo. xx

    ReplyDelete