I’m trying to get into the routine of doing some baking every Sunday-so there are some homemade snacks to go in Shane’s lunchbox and for when we get home from work. I like to make a few things-cupcakes and biscuits as a standard, and then try a different recipe. Last week it was vegemite and cheese pastry rolls and this week it was éclairs. We’ve had two lemons on the tree ripening (our only ones this year) so I decided to make Lemon Éclairs based on recipe from SBS Food. Making the choux pastry reminded me a bit of Mum making playdough for kindy….minus the food dye colouring and glitter. It doesn’t really look like it should be food. As I don’t have any pasty bags for piping, I used a zip log bag and cut the corner off. It worked well for the first tray. Piping the second tray I had a blow-out, with a few holes appearing in the bag-that got quite messy. The escaped dough became profiteroles as it was easier to dollop them into round shapes. Making lemon curd is something I have attempted before-with horrible eggy results. So I decided to skip this in the eclairs and just make a lemon cream instead-so much easier and very tasty, I must admit I was eating this by the spoon ‘testing’ it. They turned out quite well-though I think the pastry needed to cook a little longer as some were a bit soggy in the middle. Recipe
Ingredients For the choux pastry 130g Butter 300ml Water 1 tablespoon sugar Pinch salt 1 cup plain flour 3 eggs For the cream 1/2 cup thickened cream 1 teaspoon icing sugar 2 tablespoons white sugar Lemon zest Lemon juice For the icing Lemon juice Lemon zest Icing sugar Method 1. Preheat oven to 180 degrees. Add the butter, water, sugar and salt to a saucepan and heat on low until butter has melted. Turn the heat up and wait for mixture to boil. When boiling remove from heat and add the flour, mixing with a wooden spoon until it forms a smooth dough that comes away from the sides of the pan. 2. Tip the dough into a mixer and let cool slightly. Add one egg and beat until combined with the dough. Repeat with remaining eggs. 3. Spoon the dough into a piping bag (or ziplock bag) and cut off the end. Pipe 10cm lengths of the dough onto a lined baking tray. Leave enough space between each for them to double in size. 4. Place in the oven for about 25-30 minutes. 5. Place cooked dough on a baking tray to cool. 6. Place all the ingredients for the cream in the mixer and whip until thickened. Pour into a bowl and set aside in the fridge. 7. Place the lemon zest and lemon juice into the mixer and add a little icing mixture at a time and whip until it reaches desired thickness. 8. Cut each éclair in half and spoon on a generous amount of the cream. Stick the two halves back together and put on a plate. 9. Spoon the icing over the eclairs -don’t worry if it runs down the side. Put them in the fridge to set. 10. Once icing is set, serve immediately or transfer to an airtight container to store in the fridge.
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Our kale and brussels sprouts have been growing really well. But we noticed they have been getting lots of holes in the leaves. The usual culprit, caterpillars were nowhere in sight. While weeding I'd found a couple of slugs so wondered if these might be the cause. I'd read that beer was an effective trap for slugs, so put some out-and boy did we have slugs in the garden! All the traps were filled with slugs in just one night. More bulbs have begun to shoot-one of the hyacinths I planted under the pomegranate, and some I planted in pots (I can't remember what sort-from the leaves I'm thinking maybe daffodil). My flower seeds continue to grow too-with a bit of luck there'll be spring flowers. Lots more mandarins have been ripening-the puppies are sure these should all be for them. We've also had the first flower on the snow peas. Not many snow pea seedlings came up from the seeds I planted-I think I should try to get some more growing. Shane installed the sprinkler in the new big bed so I planted out the sweet potato-it had formed nice long roots in the water. They haven't been looking too happy since being planted out-maybe it's been the cold snap. We'll see if they come good when it warms up. If not we'll try again, and maybe let the roots grow even more before planting out. That or we'll go buy a seedling to get things started. I'd read that bok choy would reshoot if you left the roots in the ground-I've been trying it with the current seedlings we have and it works! I just slice the bok choy off with a knife just above the roots and after about a week new shoots start appearing, and these grow into a full size plant. I've just chopped one back for the second time, so we'll see if it regrows again.
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![]() "And this, our life, exempt from public haunt, finds tongues in trees, books in the running brooks, sermons in stones, and good in everything." William Shakespeare Archives
February 2017
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