A Danish Pastry Weekend

 I am tackling Danish pastries full on!

Danish pastry dough is like a combination of bread (yeast) and croissant (layers) doughs. Yes, it is very time consuming. And requires meticulous attention. Which is why I devoted a whole weekend to it. Literally, ALL of it.

First, Danish pastry twists, laced with remonce (almond paste).

And topped with honey-stung cream cheese and cherry jam. 

Proofed and baked!

With a cup of coffee for breakfast. 

(Of course, I had to get up at the crack of dawn to make this happen...)

Nothing beats hot Danish pastry on a sunny Sunday morn!

Except perhaps Danish pastries for evening dessert. Muhahaha!

Apricot Danish pastry slips

(with homemade apricot lekvar)

I had my usual dinner. Meaning no dinner and two helpings of dessert!

Austrian Buchteln

 This was one of those recipes where I had no idea what I was making, so whatever I made would be "that" for me. I would judge my success by how good it generally tasted (rather than its resemblance "to" anything). 

A knob of buchteln sitting in a pool of coffee creme anglaise. 

It tasted like bread and cream! Not surprising, since it was in with the brioches.  

I'm not sure if I'd make it again, but I'd definitely try it again if I ever so happened to wander into an Austrian bakery:) 

Irish Inzozi: Red Currant Tartlets with Almond Cream & Fresh Berry Tart

I’ve just returned from a spontaneous trip to Ireland! I’m not actually one to travel, especially not spur-of-the-moment continent-hopping, but after over a year here in Rwanda, I do feel a need to “refresh” myself in a more conveniently systematized society, oh, once a quarter or so. Where things work the way you expect, where you can stock up on necessities (real or imagined), and where you eat yourself silly all things you’d been crazily craving. Oh, there were so many beautiful things to buy, satisfying things to eat, intriguing things to watch, magnificent sights to behold, and comforting conversations to share with a friend! Oh, the shear array of possibilities simply enjoyed! One would think I’ve just returned from the epicentre of contemporary civilization, not one of its lesser envied yet charming outposts. Maybe that’s just how much I needed it…

Of course, it all was a perfect opportunity to get baking! I originally planned to make the savory steak and kidney pie, but it seems veal kidneys are not readily available even in the pie’s place of origin. And then I saw these wee red currants… So I went with the red currant tartlets instead:)

It was absolutely wonderful using all locally grown, completely organic ingredients (I think they just call them food in Ireland). Seriously, the cream whipped up in less than a minute with a low-power gadget! Simply amazing!

But, disappointingly, the results were not as spectacular. Perhaps I wasn’t used to using such rich ingredients? Or I’m much too used to my own trusty oven at home? Whichever way, the almond cream didn’t cook as it was supposed to (creamy and a little spongy) and came out all dense and bready. Yet my friend loyally ate three on the spot...

Still, I had a lot of crust and pastry cream left over. And all these different berries were beckoning me...

So I remade the fresh berry tart! I made it once before only with blueberries because I couldn’t find all the berries at once. Even so, it was one of my favorites. But this medley of berry tart was simply glorious -- it is even on the cover of the Pie and Pastry Bible.

Luckily, this one tasted more or less the way it looked:) 

And now I'm back at "home," where I arrived to find luggage stuck in transit, giant supine cockroaches in my bathroom, car insurance nonsense to be handled, and a new emergency slowly erupting at work. But then, there are the friendly familiar faces that seem maybe a little glad (or relieved?) to see me, the much frequented cafes serving the best coffee on Earth, and even the crazy traffic that will serve as steady fodder for wacky stories some ways down the road... And I know I'll miss this place some day, if for no other reason than that reminiscing is as delicious as pie. And maybe, just maybe, I should enjoy all of this now as I'll miss it in the future... 

Sticky Buns

Sticky buns 

a.k.a. Cinnamon rolls

Made from brioche dough, rum-raisins, toasted pecans, and the mandatory cinnamon sugar

Proofed 

And baked!

It was the last course to a super-scrumptious Indian/Japanese home-cooked meal. 

One of the perks to an international life;-)

A "Slow" Breakfast: Snail Buns & Escargot Puffs

More like a heavy breakfast! Or a fancy one? 

Anyway, not your typical breakfast. But then, why not?

Where do you get snails? 

From a can, of course! 

(I have no idea where they actually come from... Maybe a snail farm?)

These two dishes called for a lot of parsley -- generous sprinklings of it everywhere.

Which is great because we (= my enthusiastic housemate) started a garden awhile back. How wonderful to just walk out of your kitchen for a handful of herbs! 

First, the snail buns:

brioche dough slathered with garlic butter and peppered with parsley.

And then rolled and stuffed with snails.

The dough rose beautifully this time, unlike the disappointingly lackluster rise from my first attempt at making brioche (I think I even wrote about how pie-baking skills were non-tranferable to pastry-baking...). This time, the brioche rose so much that the snails all popped out! Oy!

Hot brioche snail buns.

 And the escargot puffs:

savory cream puffs dabbed with garlicky-parsley butter and stuffed with escargot.

Breakfast is served!

I'm not sure if I've tried escargot before (well, now I know I have). They were a lot like golbangi, not surprisingly. Chewy and squishy as they are, I think I might opt for a more "accessible" filling next time!

Banana Split Pie

The final ice-cream pie of the project!

I lugged over a lot of ingredients for this one...

The bottom layer: 

vanilla wafer crust, homemade caramel, liqueur-infused bananas, and roasted walnuts.

 The top layer: 

triple vanilla ice-cream 

 And finally:

hot fudge, more caramel, more walnuts, and a baby banana:) 

Nomnomnom

Bear Claws

Making Danish pastry; is there anything so wonderful as a block of French butter wrapped in cardamom-infused dough?

 With dabs of remonce (buttery, sugary almond paste)

 How many claws does a bear have again?

 Actually, my first time not only making but eating a bear claw. 

Very almondy!

***

 Awhile back, I remade the Mango Passion Tart.

Some pies are impossible to make here because the ingredients are unavailable.

This is NOT one of them -- mangos and passion fruit are just everywhere!

It's a nice trade-off ;)

A sunny treat!