TWD: Peppermint Cream Puff Ring

I modified this week's recipe nearly beyond recognition. Some of the modifications were on purpose, some were accidental, but I doubt any of them were for the better.
The recipe calls for precisely 40 mint leaves, left to steep for hours. I didn't want to deal with 40 mint leaves, and I didn't want to wait for my pastry cream to sit, so I used Dorie's vanilla pastry cream recipe instead. I'd like to try peppermint pastry cream some day, perhaps when my mint starts to grow and I have so much I don't know what to do with it (fingers crossed!)
The part of the dessert that really led me down the road to failure was the puff pastry. I know nothing of the science of a pate a choux, but from what I've read on the TWD Q&A, my failure has something to do with imprecise temperature readings on my oven. Internal temperature is a crapshoot at our house. They fell into ugly little messes by the minute after their removal. It must've resembled the look on my face.
The success of some desserts rely on aesthetics. An eclair is the perfect example. Don't bother if you have a finicky oven.

TWD: La Pallette's Strawberry Tart

Last night for dessert we had La Pallette's Strawberry Tart, out of the Baking book, as chosen by Marie of A Year in Oak Cottage. It was delicious, but I will reserve this recipe for a very rare occasion.
The most important part of this dessert is the fresh, ripe fruit, and the lack of perfect fruit makes the dessert a waste of time. I don't have perfect fruit accessible at this stage in the season, so I left my strawberries to macerate in some sugar for a few hours. It helped a little. I thought I had some delicious strawberry jam to add to my dessert...but it has somehow disappeared from my refrigerator and I cannot imagine what has happened to it...so I was stuck with Safeway brand strawberry jelly that must've been left behind by whoever stole my good stuff (seriously, I think I had a few jars of it! I'm doing a little crime investigation to get to the bottom of it.)
The recipe calls for a mix of fresh strawberries, high-quality jam, a dash of kirsch or other related liqueur, a sweet tart dough crust, and a topping of whipped cream or creme fraiche. I topped our dessert with some freshly whipped cream and added some ground almonds on top and called it good. It was simple, it was delicious, and if you have the freshest, most delicious strawberries of your life, this might be a good way to use them.

TWD: Divine French Chocolate Brownie

I am simple (really, there's not much to read here...). Sometimes, it's OK to be simple, like when it comes to cookies and brownies. I rarely (never) turn down a dessert, but I often regret the wasted calories on certain defiled traditional desserts. Maybe I'm tough; some people like their brownies with raisins or their chocolate chip cookies with nuts. But eating a chocolate chip cookie or a rich chocolate brownie is like getting back to the basics, old reliable. You can always count on a buttery, thick and chunky chocolate chip cookie (how I believe it should be made), or a rich chocolate brownie (best with red wine or coffee, depending on which meal it happens to follow) to make everything just perfect...which is why I will have no part in the mere mention of a chocolate brownie with raisins. Kaka.

After getting over my disappointment of Dorie's inclusion of the aforementioned raisin to the aforementioned otherwise perfect and reliable dessert, I set out to make the French Chocolate Brownie, acting is if I had never noticed the raisin bit in the first place. And you know what? I'm right. Old reliable. I had it for breakfast with my coffee, then in the middle of the day with my re-heated coffee, and after dinner with my red wine. All very discreet so as to not have to share with the two year old. She's better off without it.

Here's my description of this particular version of this wonderful traditional dessert. It is somehow light and rich at the same time. I love the consistency of a thick crust atop a gooey brownie--perfect. But it has its window of goodness. When Dorie says it's good for three days, she means it. Not that it becomes inedible, but that it loses its character. It lost its crust. By the third day I had concluded that it didn't have enough chocolate. There's only one thing to do to keep the brownies perfect in your memory: eat them fast. They're so light, it's actually pretty easy to do.

French Chocolate Brownies

- makes 16 brownies -
Adapted from Baking From My Home to Yours (with my input in italics)

Ingredients

1/2 cup all-purpose flour
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/8 teaspoon cinnamon (optional)
1/3 cup kaka raisins, dark or golden
1 1/2 tablespoons water
1 1/2 tablespoons dark rum
6 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces) unsalted butter, at room temperature and cut into 12 pieces
3 large eggs, at room temperature
1 cup sugar

Getting ready: Center a rack in the oven and preheat the oven to 300°F. Line an 8-inch square baking pan with foil, butter the foil, place the pan on a baking sheet, and set aside.

Whisk together the flour, salt and cinnamon, if you're using it.

I advise you to overlook this entire paragraph, and add a bit of rum with the chocolate in the next paragraph! Put the raisins in a small saucepan with the water, bring to a boil over medium heat and cook until the water almost evaporates. Add the rum, let it warm for about 30 seconds, turn off the heat, stand back and ignite the rum. Allow the flames to die down, and set the raisins aside until needed.

Put the chocolate in a heatproof bowl and set the bowl over a saucepan of simmering water. Slowly and gently melt the chocolate, stirring occasionally. Remove the bowl from the saucepan and add the butter, stirring so that it melts. It's important that the chocolate and butter not get very hot. However, if the butter is not melting, you can put the bowl back over the still-hot water for a minute. If you've got a couple of little bits of unmelted butter, leave them—it's better to have a few bits than to overheat the whole. Set the chocolate aside for the moment.

Working with a stand mixer with the whisk attachment, or with a hand mixer in a large bowl, beat the eggs and sugar until they are thick and pale, about 2 minutes. Lower the mixer speed and pour in the chocolate-butter, mixing only until it is incorporated—you'll have a thick, creamy batter. Add the dry ingredients and mix at low speed for about 30 seconds—the dry ingredients won't be completely incorporated and that's fine. Finish folding in the dry ingredients by hand with a rubber spatula, then fold in the raisins along with any liquid remaining in the pan.

Scrape the batter into the pan and bake 50 to 60 minutes, or until the top is dry and crackled and a knife inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a rack and allow the brownies to cool to warm or room temperature.

Carefully lift the brownies out of the pan, using the foil edges as handles, and transfer to a cutting board. With a long-bladed knife, cut the brownies into 16 squares, each roughly 2 inches on a side, taking care not to cut through the foil.

Serving: The brownies are good just warm or at room temperature; they're even fine cold. I like these with a little something on top or alongside—good go-alongs are whipped crème fraiche or whipped cream, ice cream or chocolate sauce or even all three!

Storing: Wrapped well, these can be kept at room temperature for up to 3 days or frozen for up to 2 months.