Homemade Croissants - Paris style!

During my last trip to Paris, i took this amazing pastry class at La Cuisine Paris. It was the highlight of my trip. I felt at home!! The chef was the sweetest lady ever and the people taking the class with me were from all over the world!

But let me tell you, croissants need time! And the smallest mistake can mess them up. You even have to make sure the weather outside is suitable for these french yummies. 

Lebanon weather is very humid, so yea I had some trouble making them but they turned out pretty good.

I guess I'll just have to keep trying (and eating) more croissants in order to get the perfect one.

So here are my babies before I left them rise!

And here they after rising! They rose quite  a bit didn't they?!!

And here they are after baking!!!

Et voila!  

Pin It now!

Summer, Sun and Strawberries

I love this weather. Summer's almost here but there's still a light breeze in the air!

Also, I can eat my Strawberries!!!

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

And other than simply eating the awesome juicy sweet citrus-y  (yes, both :P) fruit all by itself, I did the next best thing:

A Strawberry Tart

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

I used the same pie crust recipe I always use. It took me some time to find the perfect one but I finally found it (and by some, I mean YEARS). Then I used the Cake Boss's Italian Custard Cream recipe (I wanted to try and use something other than my French Crème Pâtissière recipe). 


The pie crust is too good not to share so you'll find the recipe below.


Then I sliced up some strawberries with my new strawberry slicer =D and arranged them on top of the tart.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Then I used some my Aunt's strawberry jam to glaze the top.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Pie Crust

What You Need

• 2 cups all-purpose flour
• 3 tablespoons sugar
• 1/4 teaspoon salt
• 170 g unsalted butter, cold and cut into small pieces
• 1 large egg, separated
• 2 tablespoons ice water

What to Do

1. Mix all the dry ingredients together in a bowl.
2. Add the butter and mix using your hand or a pastry blender.
3. Whip the egg yolk with the water.
4. Make a well in the middle of the mixture and add the egg mixture.
5. Mix the dough well until it holds together. If it's too sticky add some more flour, if it's too crumbly add some more water. (But be careful not too add too much as it will affect the texture of the crust)
6. Wrap the dough and let it rest in the refrigerator for at least 30 minutes.
7. Take out your dough, roll it out and place it in your pie pan. Place in refrigerator for 15 minutes.
8. Using a fork, punch holes in the dough in order for it not to rise during baking.
9. Place aluminum foil over your dough and place some beans over the foil (this will also help the pie not rise)
10. Bake for 30 minutes in a preheated oven at 176 degrees Celcius.
11. Take your crust out of the oven and using a brush, spread some whipped egg white over it.
12. Return and bake for another 8 minutes, until it's golden in color.

Pin It now!

Cinnamon Rolls

A while ago, (and after everyone kept asking me for them) I finally made some cinnamon rolls!

Cinnamon Rolls and Cream cheese frosting!

Aren't cinnamon rolls just the most delicious cinnamon-filled gooey-ness ever created?! I would very much like to meet the genius who created it and give him/her a big big hug!!

It's just heavenly!

They were surprisingly pretty easy to make, they just needed some time (for the rising/baking).

While looking at recipes online, I realized that most dough-related recipes need some kind of bread machine. But I did NOT let this put me down :P I continued my research and finally found the perfect one on Allrecipes. (One of my go-to-sites for recipes)

It has the easiest cinnamon rolls dough recipe. I made the dough, let it rise for a while (I used instant yeast so the process was pretty fast!) Then I rolled it out and spread the dough with a mixture of brown sugar, cinnamon and lots n lots of butter!! =D Then I rolled the dough into a log and cut it into circles. I let the rolls rise a bit and baked them in batches over the weekends.


Oh and I finally found a delicious cream cheese frosting recipe to drizzle over each hot roll!

Pin It now!

A million sheets of heaven: Mille Feuilles

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Mille Feuilles: Puff pastry with French cream and a topping of powdered sugar! Is there a more perfect combination?

I found in this recipe in the Cake Boss's book. (I plan of trying out all his recipes! There's a 100 of them =D ) But he calls these Napoleons. The only difference is the topping. I used powdered sugar, whereas his had icing on top.

My family has been asking for this dessert for a long time now, and I've always been afraid of how the puff pastry will turn out. It's a bit hard to control, but once you know how to work with it, you'll get the results you want.

Anyway, I made this dessert by following these steps:

1. I baked two rectangle puff pastry sheets.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

2. In order to make French Cream, I mixed both Italian Custard Cream with Whipped Cream. Whipped Cream is simply 1 cup Whipping cream to 1/4 cup sugar whipped until thick. The Custard is bit more complicated but the basic idea is that you should simmer some milk with vanilla essence on medium low heat. In a separate bowl, whip up egg yolks, sugar and cake flour. Then mix both together until thick. After taking of beat, you add a LITTLE bit of butter and refrigerate. (I'll make a more detailed recipe soon and add it to the index :) )
3. You cut up the puff pastry and assemble!
4. Sprinkle some powdered sugar on top.

Photo Credit: Diana Loutfy

Bon Apétit! 

Pin It now!

Éclairs

Who doesn't love a good old looong cream filled chocolate covered deliciousness?!

Éclairs! One of my favorite french pastries and one that my family (mom!!!!!) keeps asking (nagging) me to make! I made some this afternoon and thought I'd share them with you =)

These decadent pastries are filled with Italian custard cream and topped with dark chocolate icing.

Don't they look great? 

This recipe is again from the amazing Cake Boss (Khaled! Danke!!) 

Pin It now!