More Danish Pastries, Apple Pies, and an Update

I have moved on from the land of a thousand hills! I have not given up on this project, and will continue until I finish, even though the deadline and blogging are long since passed/passé. I am now living in a compound where food is provided and it is hard to cook anything for yourself. So the project is on hold for the time being. But before I get there, the last thing I baked from the Pie Bible while in Rwanda were some Danish pastries: Danish snail buns and the “alligator”. This was way back in September, more than half a year ago…

The Danish snail buns, I made for a potluck brunch with my work buddies. We had been meaning to do it for so long and managed to do it only once before I left. Looking back at my time in Rwanda, most of what I remember is just working a lot! And then coming home, too tired to do much else. But there were the little bright spots: going to Sole-e-Luna for quiz night and congratulating ourselves for not coming in last, searching for new coffee shops (a little bit pointless since everywhere has amazing coffee), going to the market to buy gitenge to have yet another dress made, having long lunch breaks because, well just because, and the little home gatherings we managed to have once in a while. I wish I had worked less and explored more. But as a workaholic, I think this will need to be “worked on”, slowly, in the future.

The alligator was a bit of a flop because it didn’t keep its shape while baking and spread out into more of a bread. But it means that I’m done with all but one of the Danish pastries! I don’t think I’ll make Danish pastries again once I’m done with the project – you have to go through the hassle of both proofing and layering. While the results are amazing, I’m not sure it’s completely worth it…

I was back in the land of the morning calm for Christmas and New Year’s. I did a remake of the designer apple pie for Christmas dinner because it is such a gorgeous pie and I didn’t like how it turned out the first time. That was such a long time ago! I have to say, I really have improved since then! After living in Africa for two years, I appreciated tremendously all the little and large conveniences Korea had to offer. I enjoyed the food like a foreigner hooked on Korea and ate everything shamelessly. But I realized, all over again, that I am more of a tourist in Korea; I have grown more detached from its cultural “myths.” So while I see that everything is beautiful and wonderful, they are quite empty to me. I foresee at least a few more years of floating ahead.

And the present day. We were stuck in the compound all day because of outside events, and it was a lucky thing that I had gotten my ingredients just barely in time (I had just bought the apples when we were called back). It was a little difficult baking in the kitchen in the compound. Everything is industrial sized: they keep flour and sugar in trash can sized bins, the pie pan is as big as 2 normal pies (so the filling ended up being a bit sparse because I didn’t realize it in time..), and there was only a one liter measuring “cup” to do all the measuring. But I’m really glad that they let me into the kitchen at all, as I probably got in the way of the staff’s lunch and dinner making routines! Besides getting to bake, it was a revelation to see how food for a lot of people is made. I never imagined how everything has to be orchestrated just so: all the vegetables have to be peeled by hand, someone has to continuously do the mountains of dishes, everything is cooked in abnormally large pots and pans (I could barely pick up one of the cutting boards). And there were just so many people I had never seen before – the silent and invisible people who run the compound. I’m not sure if I will bake another pie here (again, I was probably such a nuisance), but it was an experience! 

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