Swan Lake - Choux Swans from the GBBO

I've had my eye on making Choux Pastry Swans for a little while. I first saw them in Le Cordon Bleu Patisserie Foundations Classic Recipes and they seemed quite daunting, however I recently bought the Great British Bake Off - How to turn eveyday bakes into Showstoppers book which also features Choux Swans so I thought I would give them a go as I'm determined to master choux!

I have to say the GBBO didn't let me down, it was a really clear recipe to follow and the choux turned out successfully! The idea for the almond beaks came from the Le Cordon Bleu recipe book and I think they're a great addition to make the swans look even more realistic!

To make the swans I followed the Choux recipe below. In order to make my swans a uniform size I marked out the specifications on the back of the greaseproof paper and used it as a guide. If you wish to make choux swans, then to make the necks you need to pipe out 10 'S' shaped necks about 9cm long. To do this use a round piping nozzle about 6-7mm wide (or a Wilton 2A). You can either gently push in the almond beak just before cooking or alternatively when baked, cut a little notch and slide in the flaked almond. Gently glaze with beaten egg before baking.

For the body I marked out ten 8 x 4cm shape on the paper. Use two spoons to make an oval of choux this size. It should be roughly 2.5cm high. I didn't spoon the choux pastry terribly neatly which means any lumps and bumps are exacerbated during baking. Try and get a smooth oval, maybe by trying more of a quinelle action with the spoons to create the oval. Finally, brush with beaten egg before baking.

To construct the swans you will need to make a raspberry coulis (instructions available on the internet), this is just raspberries, icing sugar and a squeeze of lemon juice blitzed in a food processor and then passed through a sieve to remove the seeds. Also make up some Chantilly cream which is whipping cream and icing sugar. You will also need 1-2 strawberries per swan thinly sliced.

So once you have all the components in place spoon some of the raspberry coulis onto your serving plates to form a lake. Then cut your choux bun body in half horizontally, the top half can then be cut in half lengthways to create the wings.

The recipe suggests arranging the strawberries in the base of each swan but mine seemed to disappear down the sides. So I piped a bed of chantilly cream first and then arranged the strawberries before adding another layer of cream. The cream should be piped with a star nozzle. Next insert the neck before placing on the wings, these should be angled so they tilt upwards, allowing you to see the cream and strawberries. Et voila...serve immediately and enjoy!

I am entering these into Bookmarked Recipes as they've been on my 'to bake' list for about 6 months since seeing them in the Le Cordon Bleu recipe book. When I finally got round to making them, I used the GBBO book and Le Cordon Bleu for reference. Bookmarked recipes is hosted by Jac from Tinned Tomatoes and was originally founded by Ruth from Ruth's Kitchen Experiments.

Lottie from Lottie's World of Cakes and Bakes is hosting a GBBO blog challenge for the duration of the current series. If you have been inspired by the series and make any of the things you have seen or bake something related to the GBBO you can enter it into this challenge. It would seem appropriate to enter these swans as they are featured in the book accompanying the latest series.

Finally, I'm also entering my swans into Blue Kitchen Bakes 'Classic French Challenge' with the challenge this month being choux pastry.

 

Choux Pastry Recipe

100g plain flour
1/4 tsp salt
75g unsalted butter, diced
3 large free-range eggs beaten

It may depend on what you're making as to what oven temp you require but for this recipe it was 200c/180c fan/gas 6.

When making choux you need to be ready so start by sifting the flour onto a piece of greaseproof paper, this makes it quick and easy to tip into the saucepan. Put the butter and salt in a saucepan along with the butter. Melt the butter gently but do not allowed to boil. Once completely melted, turn up the heat to a boil and then immediately tip in the flour. Remove the pan from the heat and beat vigorously with a wooden spoon, this should give you a smooth dough. You should then return the pan to a low heat and continue beating a bit more gently. This cooks out the flour a little and you should end up with a smooth, shiny ball of dough which has come away from the sides of the pan completely.

At this stage, place the dough into a bowl and leave to cool, it will be ready to use when it is only slightly warm (this took a little while surprisingly). In the meantime break the eggs and beat them together. When the dough has cooled use an electric mixer and add the eggs a little at a time, mixing well after each addition. This should make the dough into a shiny paste which should fall off the spoon with a shake. You may not need all eggs, it doesn't want to be wet. Save the remainder of the egg as a glaze. If you do make the dough too wet it will not puff in the oven. It should be a pipeable consistencey.

You can pipe your choux pastry into swans, profiteroles, eclairs and many more. Follow the baking instructions from your recipe but for the this recipe the necks took 15 minutes and the bodies baked seperately took 30 minutes, then open and close the door quickly and reduce the oven temp to 180c/160c fan/gas 4 and leave fcr another 5 minutes. Finally, remove the bodies from the oven, make a small hole at the end of each one to let the steam escape and bake for a final 5 minutes, they should be crisp and dry.

* Adapted from The Great British Bake Off - How to Turn EveryDay Bakes into Showstoppers.

Strawberry Shortbread Meringue Pies

Hurrah...it's officially the start of summer...British Strawberries have arrived...we might just have to ignore the weather though!! What could be better on a warm summer's evening than sitting in the garden with a glass of wine and one of these Strawberry Shortbread Meringue pies.

The recipe for these desserts specified to use shop bought shortbread which I would be more than happy to do but for this blog post I thought I'd add a bit more of a baking element and make the shortbread! The recipe I used is below but I perhaps found it a little crumbly...so you can either try the same recipe or how about this one from Delicious magazine...they also add a hint of Orange.

To make the base for these pies, it's a bit like a cheesecake, crumb up the shortbread and then add melted butter before pressing it into the tin. My only complaint about this recipe was that it was nigh on impossible to get the dessert off the base so in the end I had to resort to leaving on. To get round this problem, the recipe suggested making the baking paper for the base larger than needed. My other thought was to just use a food ring and leave the base as a whole circle of shortbread, baked in the shape for the purpose.

So once the base is chilled, it's just a case of cutting the straweberries in half and putting a circle around the edge. Inside of this goes whipped double cream with a little sugar, mint and crushed strawberrries. Then the finishing touch is to make a gorgeous Italian meringue which can be piped on to make dramatic peaks. The meringue is then browned off under the grill and voila! To make the meringue it does help to have a sugar thermometre but you can do without.

So the finished product is a dreamy desssert of shortbread, cream, strawberries and clouds of gorgeous Italian meringue...who could resist...certainly not me...I'm going to make this again next weekend!! :-)

It seems everyone has gone berry mad this month...and who can blame them! I'm therefore entering these luscious lovelies into the following challenges. The first being Tea Time Treats hosted by Karen over at Lavender and Lovage and Kate at What Kate Baked.

Next up is the One Ingredient Challenge hosted by Working London Mummy and Laura at How to Cook Good Food. The theme for their challenge this month is Strawberries.

Finally, we have Simple and in Season where you can pick any seasonal product you like...hence the lovely British Strawberries! The challenge is from Fabulicious Food and this month it is also hosted by How to Cook Good Food...a busy month for Laura!

Ingredients

65g unsalted butter, melted
200g shortbread fingers
500g strawberries
1 tsp vanilla extract
185g caster sugar plus extra for dusting
200ml double cream
Handful of fresh mint
2 eggs
Pinch of cream of tartar

So to put it altogether...start by melting the 65g of butter and breaking your shortbread up into crumbs. Combine the two and then press into the base of four greased and based lined 10cm tins (springform). It is suggested you make your base paper circle larger than the actual base to help you remove the dessert from the tin when it's finished. Chill this in the fridge.

Next up whip the double cream with 1 tbsp of sugar and quarter 200g of the strawberries. Mix the quartered strawberries with the vanilla extract and 1 tsp of sugar. Then add the whole lot together with a little mint and crush the strawberries slightly with a fork.
You should have 300g of strawberries left which can be halved. To make the Italian meringue place 185g of sugar in a heavy based saucepan with 60ml of water. Gently dissolve the sugar and then bring to the boil (do not stir). In the meantime shisk up the two egg whites until they are at the soft peak stage. Using your sugar thermometre heat the sugar and water to 115 degrees. When it gets to this heat begin whisking the egg whites again and slowly pour a steady trickle of the sugar syrup into the egg whites. Try to avoid the beaters as you pour, otherwise it tends to splatter everywhere.

Finally, to assemble place the cut strawberries on the shortbread around the edge of the tin. The recipe calls for alternating cut side and non-cut side out...however, I think it looks better with all the cut sides out! Place a blob of the strawberry cream in the middle and then using a medium size round nozzle and piping bag, pipe the Italian meringue into peaks on top. Fo finsh off, brown the meringues under a grill until they go golden or use a blow torch if you have one. The whole thing can then go back in the fridge to chill before serving.

Shortbread

200g flour
200g butter
50g castor sugar

Preheat the oven to 180c/160c fan. To make this it is suggested that you use a food processor but you can make it without too. Add the flour and butter into the food processor and mix, then add the sugar and combine, it should be crumbly at this stage. Ensure you have a 22cm greased fluted tart tin to hand and press the mixture into the tin with a spoon. Bake for 30-35 minutes, when it's golden it's done! Cut into wedges whilst still warm and then dust with a light covering of castor sugar.

* Recipe adapted from Delicious Magazine and is by Allegra McEvedy