Recipes

[RespectLife]

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@AuntMame wrote:

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@RespectLife wrote:

Anyone ever made real cream puffs?

I see them on the baking shows all the time!!!

I made a 'Pata Choux' cake once....it missed...LOL

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I used to make cream puffs from scratch when my mom visited because she loved them. For the filling I would use cooked custard like the kind in eclairs rather than whipped cream. 

They're not hard to make. 

Haven't made them in years because DH doesn't like them, and I don't want to be alone in the house with an uneaten plate of cream puffs. DH's food preferences never fail to leave me puzzled. Who doesn't like cream puffs?? 

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@AuntMame 

Ha!  I'm with you!  Thanks for sharing with us!!  Welcome!!!

They make cream puffs look so easy on TV too!

If you wouldn't mind, would you share your cooked custard filling recipe?

Even if I am too chicken to try cream puffs....I can think of a great many desserts you can use a custard with...or even enjoy on its own.

I know I can google it...but I always much prefer to have tried and true recipes that someone has actually used....(not that I don't trust the internet...ha ha)

If you don't mind...TIA...and please join us any time.

@ChiliPepper   posts the greatest things!   Great recipes, good info...and things that just make me smile all the time!!!

[AuntMame]

@RespectLife  My pleasure. The cream puff custard recipe is from The Betty Crocker Picture Cookbook, 1950, an old grand dame of a cookbook. 

Rich Custard Filling for Custard-Filled Puffs, pg. 231

Mix together in saucepan...

1/2 Cup sugar

1/2 tsp salt

6 Tablespoons Gold Medal Flour

Stir in...

2 Cups top milk (or milk and cream)

Cook over low heat, stirring until it boils. Boil 1 minute. Remove from heat. Stir a little of this mixture into...

4 egg yolks (or 2 eggs) beaten

Blend into hot mixture in saucepan. Bring to boiling point. Cool and blend in...

2 tsp. vanilla or other flavoring. 

(Note: I stick with egg yolks rather than whole eggs because I worry about the whites cooking into white bits when I mix them into the hot milk.)

[RespectLife]

@AuntMame 

Thank you SOOOO much!  Really appreciate the time you took to post it!

I might even have that old cook book still, I'll have to look.

I copied this down right away.

I'm happy it isn't an 'instant puddding' recipe also!   Totally from scratch!

You are the best!

[AuntMame]

The 'instant pudding' custard recipes are obiquitous, aren't they? 

Another good from-scratch custard recipe is the one in the original Nabisco vanilla-wafers-and-bananas-with-egg-whites-on-top recipes. For that one you simply mix 1/2 Cup Sugar, 1/3 Cup Flour, dash salt, 3 egg yolks and 2 Cups milk in a double-boiler over boiling water. Stir and cook 10 minutes until thick. Then add 1/2 tsp vanilla. 

That recipe is all over Food.com. It's good. It works. It's also simple. But the one from Betty Crocker is richer and more velvety. 

Have fun and good luck!

[RespectLife]

@AuntMame 

That's a pretty easy one!  Thanks again!

I don't know quite why, but I find instant puddings to be so off tasting!

Excessive amounts of sugar....Plus all the ingredients I may not want.

[AuntMame]

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@RespectLife wrote:

@AuntMame 

That's a pretty easy one!  Thanks again!

I don't know quite why, but I find instant puddings to be so off tasting!

Excessive amounts of sugar....Plus all the ingredients I may not want.

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I used to love instant vanilla pudding when I was younger. These days it tastes bad to me. The ingredients list is unidentifiable chemicals.  

Years ago one could buy two different types of instant pudding. The stuff you would just whip with cold milk. And the kind you would cook which would taste much better. Haven't seen the kind you cook in years. 

Also, these days so many products contain artificial sweeteners like sucralose, and the only place it's mentioned is in the fine-print ingredients list. That seems to be a trend in the instant desserts aisle. (And the bread aisle as well.)

If you look at the ingredients for Jell-O brand instant vanilla pudding the first two ingredients listed are "sugar, dextrose." Dextrose, which is made from corn, shoots up one's blood sugar much faster than regular sugar, and it makes baked goods taste  sweeter than regular sugar alone.

There's a "fat-free and sugar-free" variety which contains aspertame among other questionable things. 

[RespectLife]

@AuntMame 

You are so right on every valid point!

Sometimes I need a magnifier instead of just readers in order to read the fine print to see what really is in products.

I def need to avoid Dextrose.  Just so much better to make things myself from scratch....including 'Cream of Whatever' soups!

Gosh they put a lotta junk in those!

[ChiliPepper]

[ChiliPepper]

[ChiliPepper]

NATIONAL TEMPURA DAY

On January 7th, National Tempura Day encourages us to celebrate with a dish made with a tempura batter. This Japanese fare includes either seafood or vegetables dipped in batter and deep-fried. 

 

Where did tempura originate? No one really knows. What we do know is back in 1549, Portuguese sailors arrived in Japan and introduced a way of battering and frying food that is now infused into the culture.

Today, chefs all over the world include tempura dishes on their menus. They use a wide variety of different batters and ingredients, including nontraditional broccoli, zucchini, and asparagus.

Chefs also dip dry fruits in a tempura batter too. In addition, some American restaurants serve chicken and cheeses, particularly mozzarella, in a tempura style.

For sushi lovers, a more recent variation of tempura sushi provides a new way of enjoying the delicacy. Shushi chefs tempura fry entire pieces of delicate sushi and serve it on a beautiful platter.