Tuesday, June 17, 2008

Peppermint Cream Puffs! Hooray!



This weeks Tuesdays With Dorie recipe was a fun one.

I love cream puffs. Always have. Eclairs too, of course. Lucky for me, I visited an old friend over the weekend to explore her beautiful gardens in town and to dig up some of her mint. I came home with close to a square foot of mint, roots and all, which I promptly put in one of my whiskey barrel planters. There will be no flowers in that planter this year, if the mint decides to live! Fresh mint is one of my favorite herbs to have on hand. I live in Montana, and our growing season is short; those adorable window herb gardens that many of you have just don't make it through the winters here. I also came home with a bag of salad greens, a square foot of oregano (filling another whiskey barrel)and some radishes. What a wonderful gift on a Sunday morning.

So, the cream puff ring, although beautiful, wasn't practical for me to make this week. I converted them to puffs and packed them up to share today. One container will go to my coworkers and the other container will go to a board meeting I have to attend. I sit on the board for our region's Head Start school- what an important organization Head Start is! Our board meetings tend to be long and occur during prime lunch time. These should help us all get through the meeting as there's nothing like a sugar high to keep you going.

I followed this recipe really closely. The only changes I made were:
1. I left one yolk out
2. I beat the eggs together beforehand in a measuring cup
3. I allowed the paste to cool for a bit before adding the eggs
4. I slowly streamed the egg mixture in while the mixer was running
5. I used Agave Nectar to sweeten the chocolate glaze

They came out crisp and wonderful. Some prettier than others, of course, but that's the beauty of the puff!

I've been too busy frolicking in the sunshine to post lately. Finally, summer has arrived here in Montana. Just last week, we had a FREAK snow storm. Yes, that's right, snow. While you guys on the east coast were burning up in the heat, and the poor midwesterners were/are dealing with the terrible floods, we were dealing with snow. In June. What a winter it has been.

My husband and I picked up our permit to go Morel mushroom picking this week. I can't wait. Morel's are so delicious and they are going off like crazy right now. These tend to show up in areas that burned the year before and last year we dealt with a big forest fire nearby. So, it's off to the woods we go to forage. Hopefully, I'll take some photos of the pasta I plan on making before we devour it.

Thanks Dorie Greenspan, for another wonderful, homey, inspiring dessert. I have a feeling I'll be buying some extra love today with them! Thanks also to Caroline of A Consuming Passion- you can view the entire recipe on her site.


16 comments:

ostwestwind said...

Your cream puffs looks perfect!

Ulrike from Küchenlatein

Dianne's Dishes said...

Your puffs are gorgeous!

Engineer Baker said...

Wow - nothing like a square foot of mint, roots and all. And I think I'd take snow over the flooding we had, given all of the water damage in homes and closed down roads. What a weird June.

Prudy said...

Love the little puffs. So pretty!

Anonymous said...

Well, even if the season is short, your garden sounds like it'll be wonderful. Ver cool plating with the cream puffs!

Rebecca of "Ezra Pound Cake" said...

Oh, these are lovely! Bet mine would have tasted less eggy with a yolk left out.

Rebecca
http://www.ezrapoundcake.com

Susie Homemaker said...

smart idea with the prewhipping of the eggs - too clever!
as for morels - are these the same things that we southern folk call miracles? if so - umm, yuck. but have fun anyway! :)

LyB said...

So beautiful, they look like they were a success!

steph- whisk/spoon said...

they look fabulous!! i made puffs instead too. am totally jealous of morel-picking (but not of freak summer snowstorms!)!!

Shari@Whisk: a food blog said...

They look delicious!
Shari@Whisk: a food blog

Jules Someone said...

Your puffs are gorgeous! Yum!

Bungalow Barbara said...

Lovely cream puffs! Good idea to put your mint in a barrel, it has a terrible habit of taking over the garden otherwise.

Yes, the weather has been strange and nasty all over the US -- my mom in New Jersey was sweltering in an early heat wave, Jim & I in the upper Midwest were very lucky not to be flooded, and my sister's family in the Pacific Northwest were complaining about how cold it is.

Bungalow Barbara said...

Morels are wild mushrooms, yum, yum! Here's a link:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Morel

Hey, look at that! Yes, they are called "miracles" in some parts of the South. Don't you just love Wikipedia?

People pick morels here in Wisconsin too. I don't know if you need a permit in this state. The tricky part is knowing where to look for them -- most folks keep the locations of their picking spots a deep secret.

Christine said...

So pretty! Good job!

Jaime said...

beautiful cream puffs!

Mary said...
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