Wednesday, September 30, 2009

Profiteroles

I hate having to start these posts with an apology for how slack I have been, though I have been very slack this past few months. Apologies.

Thesis work is moving at a moderate to slow pace, and despite my asking for continuous extensions, and consistently failing to get things in on the date we agreed on, my ever patient supervisor is yet to wash her hands of me. My most recent chapter was well received, and I am trying to think about the next one. There is a moderate degree of stress building however, as my supervisor is pregnant, which is wonderful, but will be on maternity leave the semester I was planning to submit. This is a problem. I am thinking I will defer first semester next year and either go to England for a bit, or tutor a lot, but mainly work hard and try to write up and then try to submit as soon as possible after June.

In the baking world, things have been much more interesting especially since I have entered the world of creme patisserie, and am not looking back. My first effort was Nigella's chocolate meringue layer cake, of which the filling is a deliciously rich chocolate creme patisserie, and the second foray was with profiteroles. Not being familiar with choux pastry either, I made the first batch unmanageably small as I thought that they would expand more than they did, and also thought I was using a recipe that my friend said made a lot. ( I worked out a week later that I was not). The second batch were much better, though I need to work on my piping technique. The vanilla creme patisserie was beautiful, and over all I was quite pleased with my efforts. When I have more time and energy, I will revisit this new and wonderful world. I think next I will make a fruit flan.... I do love them.






HH

5 comments:

mscrankypants said...

I gave one squeal when my RSS feeder said you had a new post, and a second squeal when I saw the word 'profiteroles'.

Squeal!

Squeal!

Alicia Foodycat said...

Profiteroles! I stand in awe! I like creme patissiere too - flavoured with cointreau nom nom nom.

HH said...

Thanks for the squeals MsC! lol!

Cointreau FC!! Oh yum!! I have also since moved into the world of real custard - also excellent!

Karine said...

Your protiferole sounds delicious! Can I have a piece?

Yeah, thesis can be stressful. My boyfriend had a Ph.D seeming him going through a Ph.D. made me want to stay one from doing one. :(

HH said...

Thanks Karine! I would love to send you some, although I am still working out the kinks in my international shipping!

Yes, the PhD is stressful - but it does have some good points as well, although I find it hard to remember that sometimes when I am burried under a pile of books.