Tag Archives: Peanut Butter

Feb3

They are Classics for a Reason.

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They are Classics for a Reason.

Wow. I am in love with the world right now. Not only am I in the greatest baking lab, classic pastry, but it is gorgeous and sunny outside and my amazing friend is visiting this weekend! I’m not sure this weekend can get much better. You know that wonderful feeling when you have just done your laundry and everything is deliciously warm and smells like flowers and everything just seems super awesome? I kind of feel like that right now!!

(….okay, maybe that was a strange comparison and I’m the only weirdo that loves doing laundry, but I’m sticking to my comparison, so there. )

    Galette des Rois

Right now I’m half way through the lab ‘classic pastry’ and like the title suggests everything is so wonderful I’m not surprised everything is a classic. Overview of the lab: butter, butter, dough, butter, pastry cream, butter, whipped cream. Truly, I’m in love; not only are we baking with puff pastry erry day we also make a ton of chantilly cream. I don’t know about you, but I could seriously consume buckets of chantilly on its own…so I’m kind of in heaven. PLUS, WE MADE MY FAVORITE PASTRY EVER. The sun burst design galette is puff pastry filled with frangipane. I call it a galette des rois and it sometimes has a feve, or bean, in the center and a crown around the outside but it’s also known as a pithivier.

Basically, I used to have this cake every year for my birthday and when I attended Lycée Francais when I was a tiny tot. It was so much fun, because whoever gets the feve in their slice of cake gets to be queen or king for the day. Because I’m still such a kid at heart I obviously am crazy in love with both the galette and the game.

     Napoleon

One of the only teensy tiny problems I’ve had is that we had to coat our completely delicious mille- feuille a la creme (or napoleons) in fondant! Can anybody say that they actually enjoy eating fondant?! I seriously doubt it but maybe I’m biased because I hate the stuff and I really don’t see why we have to put it on anything. Yes, yes. It does look pretty with the black and white stripes, but I threw out the whole top layer of puff because I really wanted to avoid the fondant. SO, in my opinion I think fondant should only be used to cover cakes for decoration. Any other application is blasphemy!

Rant over.

Okay peeps. Hope you all have a chance to experience that fresh laundry euphoria! ..oh and also a super weekend!

Aug24

Beyond Amazing Peanut Buttery Chocolate Chip Cookies

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Beyond Amazing Peanut Buttery Chocolate Chip Cookies

Oh. Wow.
Again, the Rose Bakery book has been good to me. so good. god. I was desperate for something to do today and of course the first thing I do when I am bored is bake. At first I was considering making cinnamon rolls, however I do not possess the will power to resist those fluffy buns of joy and since I was the only one home I knew I’d end up eating them all. {My stomach is very clever about this. Instead of me eating multiple in one sitting and then feeling the remorse and the stomach ache, instead I’ll just pick at them (taking bites every time I happen to take a jaunt through the kitchen) and by the end of the day: all gone}


On to the main deal. I decided to try peanut butter cookies, which I have a love/hate relationship with to say the least. I am the biggest fan of peanut butter (especially when it is accompanied by its trusty and delicious sidekick chocolate) however I’m never quite satisfied by the end results of a peanut butter cookies. They are either crunchy or strangely chewy: neither a result I much fancy.


This recipe was also a tad strange. It only called for brown sugar and I had to chill the cookie dough for 2 hours before baking. I put my trust in the Rose Bakery book, and I have to say that it did not disappoint (and in fact has yet to). When I took them out of the oven I could tell that it was a success. Not only was the air chock-full of delicious smells but the cookies hadn’t spread out super thin (aka they weren’t going to turn out crispy).
I waited for the cookies to cool just long enough so that I wouldn’t burn my tongue on molten chocolate chips and then I proceeded to sample…a few.. of the divine cookies. Holy moly me oh my. Seriously, that was my reaction. They were fluffy, melt-in-your-mouth, peanut buttery packages of yum. Again, I took them to the non-profit that works with veterans and I’m glad that other people get to enjoy how delicious these things are.
Conclusions: Rose Bakery Book=keeper, peanut butter and chocolate: still number one flavor combo, and my stomach uses the same tactics for eating all of the cookies in the house as it does for cinnamon rolls.

        

Aug14

Peanut Butter Caramel Cookies

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Peanut Butter Caramel Cookies

YES! I made CARAMEL successfully on my first try; this is such a major accomplishment on my part because I always get nervous when I’m dealing with potentially dangerous food materials. I mean really can you imagine molten hot sugar getting anywhere near your unprotected and dainty self? *shudder* NO thank you. However, I managed to pull it off without any bodily harm (though I couldn’t take a picture of the boiling caramel because I was too afraid that if I left to get the camera some disaster would occur…thus you only have an after shot).

The cookies are out-of-this-world good. Soft peanut butter thumbprint cookies with caramel and chopped roasted peanuts in each center and drizzled with just the perfect amount of chocolate…..wow, I’m drooling. I’m so excited to bring these into work tomorrow for my co-worker who was willing to be the guinea pig and try this new recipe out for me (which I got by the way from the beyond amazing and fabulous David Lebovitz’s blog…can you tell I worship him just a smidge?). Anywho, I hope everyone’s week got off to a similarly wonderful start!