Do you remember that time when cream pies were being thrown at foodbeam? Well, this would be so very appropriate. Again.

The thing is that, aside from the long overdue bûches de Noël manifesto and the launch of la moustache, I’ve made a promise to Tony. A promise about something very exciting.

A taste of Mediterranean. Seven months, seven countries, seven co-hosts, seven prizes. January is all about France. And being the damn-busy-blogger-which-never-actually-posts French girl that I am, Tony asked me to join the team.
We both agreed that tarts would be a pretty sweet theme. Traditional yet versatile. And the very essence of French pâtisserie.

So no cream pies for today; hopefully you’ll like the tarte bourdaloue just as much.

As with many of the pastries I make at home, this tart has its own story. You see, I had to make it. To get ready for my first exam as a pâtisserie apprentie. Yes, you read right. A pastry exam. How terrific does that sound to you?
I must admit, I felt that way too.

A French classic. Crisp and sweet pâte sucrée, rich crème d’amandes, and delicate poached pears. I’m not certain about it, but from memory, I’d say it was named after the street on which it was first created. La rue Bourdaloue.
And, take my words for granted, this tart alone make me wish I had made a little détour by that street.

The recipe, which was handed me down by the school, is too easy to follow to be true. A dream. The pâte sucrée – made of flour, butter, sugar and eggs – gives a sweet shortbread-like dough. Effortless yet one of the best pâtes sucrées I’ve ever made. It’s a treat to work with, making the whole rolling and draping process a matter of seconds. And promise, it won’t shrink in the oven!
The crème d’amandes is a creamy (pleonasm alert!) tart filling made of butter and ground almonds, with a hint of vanilla, and a little flour to bind it all.
The poached pears bring some nice texture, and since they’re not poached in syrup but in water (with many split vanilla beans) they tend to cut the sweetness.

Hopefully, this will have gotten you inspired and you’ll come up with a pretty pretty version of what you perceive as the ultimate French tart. But mostly, have fun and create. And you might end up winning a fifty-dollar gift certificate.

As a side-note, I shall tell you the exam went really well. And yes, I’ll share the actual recipe for this tart soon, but well I’m in London right now with no access to my favourite recipe binder.

Coming up next (for good), she who felt like she lived in a forest made of golden plastic trees where the snow would be chocolate mousse.

I would understand. I mean, twelves days. Overdue.

Blame my Pascal Lac for this. His pâtisserie has been keeping me busy and super happy and excited for the past two weeks. I’m enjoying every second I get to spend there (and this will come in a later post), but arrive home tired and with many cake orders to deliver. October definitely is a birthday month around here.

Anyway, here are the second part of the cupcake awesomeness. Thanks for inspiring me. And for your patience.

Jennifer of Bowl of berries made breakfast vanilla cupcakes with salted caramel frosting.

Anna of Life’s too short for mediocre chocolate made lemon vanilla tea cakes.

Anne of a Foodie froggy in Paris made delicious-looking tiramisu cupcakes.

Y of Lemonpi made super*cute christmas cupcakes. Don’t you wish December was around the corner?

Sandra of Un tocco di zenzero made lemon and goat cheese cupcakes.

Caitlin of Engineer baker made chocolate cupcakes with peanut butter mascarpone frosting.

Lauren of I’ll eat you made pina colada cupcakes with a tangy lime frosting!

Kittie of Kittens in th kitchen made banana cupcakes topped with chocolate goo. Yum!

Elizabeth of Red kitchenaid made grown-ups all chocolate mousse cupcakes.

Marija of Palachinka made blueberry, raspberry and blackberry cupcakes.

Ivana of My little things made adorable cupcakes fragrant with vanilla.

Katherine of Earl grey truffle found perfection as she made fig and honey cupcakes.

Isa of Isa’s cooking made white chocolate cheesecake strawberry cupcakes.

Cindy of Hungry girl por vida made coffee cupcakes topped with almond streusel.

Janet of Pretty tasty cakes made pretty pumpkin cupcakes, perfect for autumn.

Nicky Jean of Miss cupcake face made peanut butter and jelly cupcakes.

VF of Virtual frolic made a sweet come-back with Bill’s bakery chocolate cupcakes.

Alexa the Artsy foodie made lgluten-free lemon meringue cupcakes.

Joanna of Salute to sanity made cookies and cream cupcakes with strawberry marshmallow frosting.

Anita of the Dessert first made saffron and vanilla cupcakes with rose water buttercream.

Steph of A whisk and a spoon made vanilla datte cupcakes with buttermilk fudge frosting.

Elizabeth of Cake or death made black and white angel food cupcakes.

Martha of O-ink made very lovely chocolate, cinnamon and pear cupcakes.

Anna of Morsels and musings made pink grapefuit cupcakes, drenched with syrup.

Aparna of My diverse kitchen made honey and peanut cupcakes with a chocolate ganache.

Suzanna of Home gourmets made amazing saffron and cupcakes with lemon curd.

Sarah of Sarah cooks made white chocolate moccacino cupcakes, which do sound heavenly.

Cakelaw of Laws of the kitchen made pretty in pink cupcakes (me pink lovey).

Clara of I heart cuppycakes made election-friendly cupcakes for a change.

Kja of Il pranzo di babette made banana and caramel cupcakes; but also redcurrant ones!

Sheena of the Casual baker made drop-dead delicious blueberry cupcakes.

Denise of Chez us made vanilla cupcakes filled with strawberry jelly and fristed with peanut butter.

Lisa of Confessions of an apron queen made chocolate cupcakes with a peanut butter frosting.

Elodie of Mon petit biscuit cuit made Oreo cupcakes. So happy Oreao are now available in France.

Ivonne the sweetest Creampuff in Venice made cinnamon cupcakes with caramel frosting.

Ariana of Maduxa made posh chocolate cupcakes with fleur de sel caramel, ganache and fresh fig.

Patricia of Recipe book made Greek cupcakes topped with honey and walnut halves.

Leticia of Food, wine and friends made the always cute chocolate cone cupcakes.

Head over Anita’s blog for November’s SHF, which is all about spices!

Answered an interview. Put some green tea recipe together for an online magazine. And then, October showed up. So did deadlines.

Can you believe I forgot about the daring bakers‘ challenge. Yes, forgot! And I do really feel sorry for that. However, I did not forgot about you guys who sent me terrific pictures and recipes for delicious and creative cupcakes. You made my day, week and even month!

So here comes the first part of it. Thirty six lovely cupcakes. Just what I need to cheer me up. I’m starting my internship tomorrow and I am downright scared.

ps. thanks to all of you who so kindly offered to send me s’mores kits. You truly rock and I’m so happy to count you as my friends. However, Allison of the best blog ever for sushi addicts like me: Sushi Day. So thank you all, and now… onto the cupcakes. Enjoy!

Denise of Chicky Egg made those terrific cupcakes, fluffly as little clouds

Nic of Cherrapeno made Banoffee cupcakes. Now, may I suggest we focus for a sec.

Ash of Butterflyfood made beautiful lemon cupcakes with strawberry frosting.

Deedee of Bricole at home finds the perfect remedy to procrastination: cupcakes!

Michael of Herbivoracious made inspiring beet and goat cheese cupcakes.

Natashya of Living in the kitchen with puppies made corn cob-like cupcakes.

Vera of Baking obsession made self-icing ricotta and plum cupcakes.

Tori of Mama baker made the cutest capital city cupcakes, aka: nanaimo bars turned into cakes.

Monica of the Sour plum made delicate rosemary chiffon cupcakes.

Vaishali of Holy cow! made vegan baking easy by putting lemony vegan cupcakes together.

Joyce of Te@mo made simple yet delicious oreo cupcakes with a twist: honey and green tea!

Mae of Rice and noodles made drop-dead gorgeous pandan cupcakes with nutella frosting.

Illyana of NYAM made fluffy chocolate pavlova cupcakes topped with fresh fruits.

Cathy of La prochaine fois made crunchy peanut butter and chocolate cupcakes: puppy chow.

Elsa of Buzz et companie made adorable pink and blue hello kitty cupcakes.

Sylvie of Amuses-bouche made crispy crackles chocolate cupcakes; love them, eat them.

Vanille of Down under made sophisticated pistachio and chocolate cupcakes.

Enza of Da grande made luscious ricotta-frosted chocolate cupcakes encased in crisp pastry.

George of Culinary travels of a domestic goddess made brownie cupcakes with Baci hearts.

Hannah of Bittersweet made stylish adzuki bean-mousse filled cupcakes.

Laurel of Corpus bon vivant made organic chocolate and marshmallow cream cupcakes.

Rita of Clumbsy cookie made genius yoghurt cupcakes served in yoghurt pots!

Rachel of Coconut & lime made chocolate and vanilla tiger cupcakes.

Candice of Mmm tasty! made chai latte cupcakes. Trust me, I’m bookmarking the recipe.

Holly of Phemomemon peanut butter banana chocolate chip cupcakes with ovaltine frosting.

Arika of Yummy life made beautiful cherry and chocolate black bottom cupcakes.

Stef of the wonderfully cupcakey blog Cupcake project made toasted ravioli cupcakes.

Brilynn of Jumbo empanadas made delicate and deliciousvanilla cupcakes. Me lovey.

Shari of Whisk made stunning cupcakes baked in clementine shells.

Annalisa of the cutest Pera cotta made to-die-for pear, cinnamon and chote chocolate cupcakes.

Aimée of Under the high chair made pink buttermilk velvet cake cupcakes.

Elga of Semi di papavero made pomegranate cupcakes con panna. Perfect for autumn!

Jasmine of Jasmine cuisine made comforting apple and spice cupcakes.

Lorraine of Not quite nigella made gorgeous Ispahan cupcakes. Not quite Nigella, quite Pierre!

Laura of Earth muffin bakes made breakfast gingerbread cupcakes with apple and raisin.

Kelly of Sass & veracity made walnut and apple cupcakes, with apple chips. So delicious!

Part deux, coming very very soon(ish). I promise!

Hey guys, I’m so sorry I haven’t been around lately. I had high intentions: from carrot cake to peanut, chocolate and salted caramel; from vanilla and chocolate crispy crackles to pineapple and coconut.

In the end, my thesis (and presentation) took much more time than what I originally had expected. But I guess, this could be my life’s motto: everything I’ve done has taken me much longer than I thought it would.

Anyway, I really do hope you who haven’t submitted your favourite classy cupcake recipe for this month’s SHF, go and make some. Then email me!
Can’t wait to share all the terrific cupcakes you made. Stay tuned, I’ll be back on monday.

PS. I’m not answering your SHF email? Well, I’m moving house right now, so don’t worry. xxx

I came across S’mores quite late in life. A Michael Recchiuti book. A tiny note at the bottom of a page.

S’mores.

A piece of chocolate and a marshmallow, sandwiched together in crisp graham crackers. After a quick moment in the oven, the chocolate and marshmallow melt into each others, making for the most delicious sweet sandwich ever.

As good as it may sound, I’ve never had the chance to taste S’mores – let alone graham crackers – in real life. And although I could have just made some myself, I simply didn’t find the time to.
But S’mores kept hauting me. Just like someone you’ve never kissed, and yet miss. A lot.

I even thought of making a S’more tart. Picture a crust of crushed homemade graham crackers, topped with a thin layer of dark ganache, and covered with a pile of fluffy Italian meringue. And then Deb did it. And it looked good.

But well, I eventually forgot about it. The tart, that is. S’mores still had their place in my dreams.

When I started thinking about all the cupcakes I could put together for this month’s SHF, you can guess what came first.

S’more cupcake. A graham cracker inspired cake – or at least a cake that tastes like graham crackers do, in my mind. A thick and smooth meringue. A deeply flavoured chocolate ganache coating.

The S’more cupcakes were born. Proving the world there is so much more than buttercream frosted cupcakes.

S’more cupcakes

With a healthy dose of chocolate and fluffy marshmallow, those delicious cupcakes will make everyone happy.

The cake is fragrant with brown sugar, cinnamon and vanilla; and has that slight saltiness I suspect graham crackers have (or maybe, I just see graham crackers as English digestives).
The marshmallow cream is sweet but not overly so. I think it’d be terrific to add the seeds of one vanilla bean to it.
And well, the ganache… Deep, dark and smooth. You definitely don’t want the chocolate flavour to be overwhelming here, so aim for a thin coating.

You’ll have more gaanche than needed – but that’s only because you have to have enough to dip the cupcakes. I suggest you make plain truffles.

And don’t forget. Sugar High Friday is running until the 26th of September. So put your aprons on. Get your wooden spoon and whisk. And make cupcakes!

It all started with the crazy cool idea of making my own coconut extract. Something I had been dreaming about for years without thinking I would actually one day get rid of the horrid fake-tasting stuff my cupboard is full of (I tend to stock it every time I visit Jane Asher’s shop because it tends to disappear quite quickly).

Now it’s done. Delicious coconut extract, which also happens to make delicious vodka shots.

Trust me (however, I’m strongly against drinking while baking, dangerous things can happen in one tiny kitchen).

The next step was quite obviously the coconut cupcake. A delicate-crumbed cake, subtly flavoured with our extract, the water from the coconut itself, and some homemade coconut milk. Smooth ricotta as a frosting. And a pile of fluffy grated fresh coconut.

Of course, since I intended to serve this for breakfast, I had a light hand on the frosting; but if you’re feeling sweeter than me, please make an Italian meringue and pile it on your little cupcakes.
I hope a bite at those will encourage you to participate to September’s Sugar High Friday. Please. Pretty please.

Fresh coconut cupcakes with ricotta frosting
Adapted from Alton Brown.

I love this cake. The crumb is so fine it’s divine. It will melt in your mouth as it hits your tongue.
Of course, it will taste better if you make your own extract, however, if you don’t have the time or will, I recommend you just skip it. No fake stuff, please.

You can also turn this into a layer cake, as Alton does, but I think cupcakes work nicely here, because you get an even part of caramelised crust and soft inner, all at the same time.

Since we’re going to work with fresh coconut here, I think it’s time I share my secret about how to open a coconut when you’re a girl.
Preheat the oven to 180°C. Place the coconut onto a folded towel set down in a large bowl. Using a screwdriver, hammer holes into the eyes of the coconut. Turn the coconut upside down over a container and drain the water from the coconut. Store the water in an airtight container in the refrigerator for up to a week. Place the coconut onto a baking sheet and bake in the oven for 15 minutes or until cracked. Place the pieces into a bowl of iced water and when cool enough to handle, separate the flesh from the husk. Wrap as is, or grate it; and store in the fridge.

And don’t forget. Sugar High Friday is running until the 26th of September. So put your aprons on. Get your wooden spoon and whisk. And make cupcakes!

If you’re anything like me, you probably think that cupcakes do deserve their disputable standing. I mean, just a quick look around you, and the only thing you’ll see are colourful, sprinkle-packed, prettily piped buttercream topping tasteless (or even worse, awful-tasting) cakes baked in cups.

So yes, that’s what you think.

However, if you’re anything like me, you might also have the inner feeling that you can change that. Make delicious cupcakes, baked with flair, sophistication and novelty.

And well, this is totally what I want you to do for this September edition of Sugar High Friday – aka, SHF; the terrific event created many months ago by the no-less terrific Jennifer, the Domestic Goddess.

Please, help me prove the world that cupcakes can be as tasty as they look. Prove that they aren’t dead.

I heart them. For their size; for their cuteness; for they practical-ness; for how fun they are to make. And to look at. And to eat.
Today is your chance to show that you heart them too.

Et en français? Non non, je ne vous ai pas oubliés. Voici les instructions (résumées) pour participer à Sugar High Friday.

1. Faire des cupcakes. Un seul mot d’ordre: originalité et sophistication.
2. Les prendre en photos et écrire un article.
3. M’envoyer un email avec votre nom, le nom et l’url de votre blog, un lien vers votre article SHF et une photo de votre choix d’au moins 205×205px.
4. Profiter de ces cupcakes avec les gens que vous aimez.

I checked on the daring bakers’ recipe quite late this month, thinking I would have to miss out on this one (yet again) given how tired I felt.

However, things turn out to be a little different. Far from what I expected them to be. As I opened the forum thread, I was thrilled by Meeta and Tony’s pick.

But I mean, who wouldn’t?

1. It’s from Pierre Hermé. Yes, this is totally the point where I blabber about how I loved working him, getting to make all the pâtisseries he sells in his shops, blah, blah, blah. Someone, please stop me. I love him. Period.

2. It has chocolate. Lots of it.

3. It’s made from pâte à choux: perhaps my most favourite thing in the entire world (if you put my consistent inability to produce nice looking choux puffs aside).

And if that didn’t convince you, I’ll have to force the following into your minds. How could you not love something that oozes chocolate crème pâtissière everytime you sink your teeth in it?

I knew it, you’re sold. So was I.

The experiment
- golden choux encasing
- the most luscious chocolate crème pâtissière
- and iced with a simple chocolate fondant

The pâte à choux is a basic. Flour is cooked into a smooth mass with water, milk and butter. First, the butter is cut into small even-sized cubes that are thrown into a pan along with water and milk, and a little salt and sugar. Both the milk and butter make for soft and golden-coloured choux. Indeed, milk is the perfect ingredient to enhance the Maillard reaction that naturally occurs between amino acids and reducing sugars. Heat milk proteins and lactose together and the magic will take place: deep brown colour, and lovely caramel and smoky aromas.

Anyway, this mixture is slowly brought to the boil. And as soon as the butter has melted, flour gets incorporated off the heat in one go, and beaten until it forms a smooth dough.

Then, the pan is placed back over medium heat. The dough is beaten vigorously with a wooden spoon to get rid of excess moisture, and also slightly denaturate the proteins behind gluten – glutenins and gliadins. This prevents the gluten from forming too strong a network, and thus, enables the development of the choux in the oven.

Once the flour mass is ready, I moved it into a pyrex bowl and added the eggs, one at a time; beating well after each addition.
For me, four 60g eggs were enough to get a thick yet soft dough. It should hold its shape but be pipe-able as well.

Since I don’t have my piping tools here, I used a Ziploc bag, but as you can see from the not so perfect choux above and below, well, I didn’t do a good job. The thing is, if you want to get nice even choux, you must pipe from above, not pressing the piping tip against the baking sheet (in comparison with how macarons are piped). Well, do this, unless you want multi-air-pocket-choux.

The dough will most likely form peaks which you can press down using your wet fingers. Next step is the baking: preheat the oven to 200°C, but reduce it to 180°C as soon as you place the baking sheet into the oven. As you do so, sprinkle water over the little balls of dough, then close the oven door and do not open it before the choux have risen well – approximately, 10 minutes later.

At this point, you want to open the door slightly and keep it that way. Given that I suppose you have other things to do than staying close to the oven maintaining that door opened, I suggest you stick a wooden spoon in there. It does a magnificent job at it.

Now, you should bake the choux for 10 more minutes or until golden-brown, and dry and firm to the touch.
Take out from the oven, and quickly pierce the bottom of each choux using a pointy knife to help the steam escape and not making those choux all gooey inside. Allow to cool then store in an airtight container.

The crème pâtissière is pretty classic too. Except for the extra-chocolate. You start by making a simple crème pâtissière: bring the milk to the boil, then temper the egg yolks, sugar and starch mixture. Place back into the pan and cook to 84°C.
This crème is then transferred into a container, and chocolate is incorporated. When it reaches 60°C, a little butter gets mixed in for extra smoothness and thickness.
Cover with cling film, making sure the film is right onto the crème – filmé au contact, as we say in France; and refrigerate.

To pipe the crème pâtissière into the choux, simply fill a piping bag fitted with a fine noozle and use the hole previously made to fill in the choux.
Chill while you get on with the fondant.

For this, I forgot Pierre’s recipe and went with a very simple fondant: warm milk, icing sugar and cocoa powder, mixed into a smooth and thick paste.
Then it’s all very easy. Dip the choux, allow the excess fondant to drip and arrange the choux onto a serving plate. Refrigerate for at least 20 minutes.

Soooo…
What if I say that the crème pâtissière was out of this world? Thick and luscious, with the most delicious chocolate flavour.

Anyway, I’m quite happy with how this all turned out. I’ve now officially conquered my choux-fears; not that they look perfect. But at least, I know why they look this way – read multi-air-pocketed. It also made me realise I’m not that bad at making choux. I mean, when I look at my second attempt, they somewhat look goo to me.

Ok, so enough digressing. Back to those chocolate choux, I’m pretty sure I’ll make them again, but this is something I knew even before I started making them. Now the next step is to top the unbaked choux with what French call craquant: a dough make of sugar, flour and butter; rolled very thinly, that gives the choux a lovely crackly look.

I wish I’d come here today to tell you about how super excited I felt when I found out about Chris‘ pick for July’s daring bakers challenge. But things happened to be a little different.

It’s not that I didn’t like it. It’s just, that, well, there is so much more than buttercream-layered-cakes out there. Hence, this challenge initially felt a little frustrating.

Initially.

Then ideas started to pop like crazy. I knew I wasn’t going to make it buttercreamy, because, we all know I don’t dig buttercream.
I wanted it to have a summer feeling. Berries imposed themselves in the most natural way.

So did the cream filling; flavoured with a fragrantly nutty paste made from almonds and sugar.

The experiment
- three layers of butter and almond enriched génoise, sandwiched with
- an almond and cream filling, and
- fresh raspberries, and glazed with
- a dark chocolate ganache

The cake is a génoise, enriched with butter and ground almonds, which both make for a moist and tender gâteau.
I kept the given proportions – almost – unchanged, but slightly tweaked the process because I dare to be different. I first whipped with egg whites until they formed soft peaks, then added one fourth of the sugar, and set those aside. Using the same whisk (no cleaning involved), I beat the egg yolks with the remaining sugar until white and fluffy, then carefully folded those into the whipped egg whites.

In a small bowl, I had handy the flour, cornflour and ground almonds – all, thoroughly mixed. I dumped this mixture onto the whipped eggs and folded using a large metal spoon, until just combined.
Finally, the warm melted butter (not clarified) was poured over and incorporated as fast as possible.

The batter was then transferred into a 20cm cake buttered-and-baking-papered tin. And the cake was baked for 30 minutes, or until it feels springy to the touch and separates itself from the sides of the pan.

The filling is made by folding almond praline paste into softly whipped cream.

The almond praline is very straightforward to make. The only you really need is a powerful food processor, and you’re in.
Just make a syrup with caster sugar and water, and bring it to 120°C. Next, ditch the blanched almonds in there, mix quickly and transfer onto a lined baking sheet. Allow to cool and chop into smallish pieces that you blitz using your super processor until smooth and creamy.

Now, you simply have to slice the cake into three layers, sandwich them using the filling and throwing in a couple of handful of raspberries; and finally glaze the cake using a basic ganache made of equal parts of dark chocolate and double cream.

Sooooo…
My cake was so moist that I didn’t find it necessary to brush it with syrup before going on with the layering part of the process.

In the end, I really liked this challenge, but who can go wrong with berries, almond and cream?
Oh, sure, I did find the chocolate a little overpowering and will totally leave it out if I ever happen to make this again. Because I will.

The cake is so delicate and fragrant; and most importantly, rose beautifully. The filling was thick and creamy, which perfectly complemented the tanginess brought by the berries.

When I found out about what Kelly and Ben wanted us to make for June’s daring bakers challenge, I was thrilled.

Danish braid.

Read, layers of sweet buttery dough enclosing whatever filling you can dream about. And shaped into a lovely-looking braid.
Oh so marvellous!

The experiment
As said above, the Danish braid is made from:
- a pâte briochée feuilletée [egg-based yeasty laminated dough]
- a simple vanilla crème pâtissière [custard]
- a sprinkle of insanely good dark chocolate chips

Before I begin, let me assure you that unlike most yeasty doughs, Danish pastry is very quick to make.
The recipe calls for a five-hour rest once the final turn is made, but trust me, I started making the dough at two in the afternoon, and by six o’clock, the braid was out of the oven.
Sure I did bypass – or at least, reduce – a couple of steps, but the end result was beyond my expectations. Taking risks sometimes pays off.

Anyway, let’s move onto what I first intented to start with. The dough. Perfect as it is.

Made from flour, yeast, sugar and salt, to which milk, eggs and vanilla extract are added, and into which a beurre manié (simply butter mixed with a little flour) is encased; it is one of the most forgiving doughs I’ve ever worked with.

The détrempe is chilled for 30 minutes before the beurre manié is spread onto its lower two thirds. The dough is then folded into what could be called a business-letter fashion.
This is the first tour [turn].

After another chill in the fridge, the dough is rolled and folded; into three, according to the recipe, and into four for me. Making a double turn makes for a quicker process, without a loss in quality.
I love double turns.

The dough is chilled again and then folded in order to complete a single turn.
Then, the recipe calls for a long rest in the fridge. And well, I’ve been a bad baker here. Daring, but still bad.
I managed to wait for a dozen of minutes before rolling out the dough into a 1/2cm thick rectangle. I guess the fact that I kneaded the détrempe for almost ten minutes helped the gliadin and glutenin to come together into the darling gluten.
I love double turns and relaxed gluten.

Quite evidently, I put all those resting time to use by getting the filling – a vanilla speckled pastry cream – ready.
And this is all simple. Egg yolks, cornflour, vanilla seeds, sugar and milk. The milk was brought to the boil, along with the vanilla seeds and sugar.
I mixed the egg yolks and cornflour into a smooth paste; tempered this mixture with the warm milk, then put everything back in the pan and cooked the cream over low heat until thick.

As you can see, left the cardamom and orange juice out. Ornage juice isn’t a great thing to use in baked good. Sure it does bring flavour, but also acidity. Hence, it’s way better to use orange zest instead of juice.

Once I the dough and filling were both put together, it’s time for some shaping action.
The dough is cut to a mere 20 x 30cm rectangle. And cut into what reminds me of an Indian totem shape.

I then piped the crème pâtissière onto the centre of the dough, sprinkled with chocolate chips – yes, you do read right: amazingly delicious Barry Callebaut chocolate chips –, and folded the lateral dough stripes over so the whole thing forms a pretty braid.

Since my braid was around 30 cm long and 8cm wide, it fitted perfectly the Pyrex loaf pan I took from my parents house the last time I visited.
I left the braid in there for an hour, until it doubled in size, then baked it – still in the pan (to prevent it from ‘opening’) in a hot oven for 30 minutes.

Sooooo…
This challenge is one of my favourites so far. The braid was so very yummy. I love how the pastry turned out: flaky, yet très-brioche. And I think the crème pâtissière brought a pleasing softness.
I’ll definitely make this again.