Monday, April 8, 2013

Patisserie

You've seen my micro-oven and you've heard about some of my savory recipes, but I've yet to dip into the sweeter side of my kitchen. I love baking; pies, cookies, cakes, crumbles...you name it, I'm baking it. C loves my pastry obsession (wonder why) and he encourages my sugary adventures. In fact, C and a few of his coworkers who have stayed with us have recently mentioned my banana bread; I used to send C on business trips with a loaf for snacking, which they all enjoyed. So, after several weeks of no baking due to the micro-oven and a lack of ingredient-understanding, I finally decided to take a leap and dust off my mixer.

First, I had to research exactly what ingredients I would and wouldn't find at my local grocer. I had seen shelves upon shelves of flours and sugars, but I couldn't really decipher which flour/sugar should be used for which type of baking. That's right, no all-purpose flour, no brown sugar, no basic grab & go goodies. Instead, I saw bread flour, flours milled a thousand different ways, pastry flour, and several different "types" of flours (literally, they're numbered "Type 45, 55, 65"); and since my familiar brown sugar doesn't exist here, I got to stare at a few types of cassonade, the French version of brown sugar. Yeah. Not easy. So, off to the trusty blogosphere I went! I stumbled across an awesome entry by David Lebovitz: Ingredients for American Baking in Paris. He details exactly which flours should be used for what, substitutions, where to buy certain things, etc. Super helpful! Click on that sucker and read up for yourselves.

I had my work cut out for me, but David's research told me exactly what I should be looking for. I was successful in finding all of the ingredients I needed for sweet treats and I busted out my mixing bowls the second I arrived home from the store. First up: NY Times Chocolate Chip Cookies, seen here. Excellent addition to my pastry repertoire! Next up: Banana Oatmeal Cookies with Nutella Drizzle, seen here (I omitted the white chocolate chips). TO DIE FOR, people. C said they're his new favorite cookie!


Had to get creative for the micro-oven; I think this is a pizza pan, but it works great as a cookie sheet!


Love my measuring cups; they're more like scoops, which makes digging into my canisters easy and clean. Plus, they have non-metric measurements on them!


Cookie sheet/pizza pan fits like a glove!



Banana Oatmeal Nutella goodness

My Aunt Kris arrived Saturday and she's been loving my cookies, as well. She and I are off to Brugge for the day, which I'll write about in a day or two. We're also heading to Bordeaux and Toulouse with C for Easter, so get ready for some more exciting updates!

Ciao!
B + C

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