Baking | Profiteroles (Yet Another Tanya Burr Recipe)

So this week I tried to make profiteroles. It was a learning curve, and I certainly know what and what not to do next time. Despite coming across a few bumps, they ended up being a lovely dessert, enjoyed by all!

Like last time, I won't bore you with the step-by-step recipe- that can be found in Tanya's book. But I will recount how it went.

As I've said before, I have never made profiteroles before, let alone any choux pastry recipe! So it was a challenge, but nonetheless, I was determined to try it out. Unfortunately, even though I had read the recipe through a few times before I started, I skipped one vital little word, well, sentence. I forgot to let the first part of the recipe simmer. Whoops! Well, I hadn't really noticed, it was when I added the eggs that I thought it was a little too liquid to pipe. So I naturally thought it was the eggs, and it wasn't until I went to re-do the mixture, that I realised it mustn't have simmered. And that made a big difference in the second mixture. And don't worry, the first one did not go to waste, my mother had the idea to use it to make pancakes, which I will get to later. So no batter or ingredients were wasted in the making of these profiteroles!

They turned out quite well, regarding it was my first time making them. You're supposed to slit a little crack in them to add the cream later, but they seemed to have holes in the bottom of them regardless. I did cut into them, as I only saw the other holes after I took them off the trays. Piping could have less messier, but I got the cream in, and then then attempted to make a pyramid, which took a while to get right, then adorned them with melted Lindt chocolate. Yum.

As for the other batter, we ended up trying to make pancakes. It did take a few tries or adding in four and milk, and trying different-sized pans, before we got a pancake batter-like consistency, but in the end we managed to make some not so bad pancakes! At least nothing went to waste, and I got pancakes for breakfast!

That's all for this post, there wasn't too much to write about, I suppose. The profiteroles were a success in the end, loved by all who ate them. They are also surprisingly healthy in comparison to other confectionery baked goods! Not too much sugar, I guess it's the cream and chocolate that take away from them being healthy- although dark chocolate isn't too bad!

Until next time,
Sarah xxx

Baking | Tanya Burr's Chocolate Chip Cookie Recipe

Last week I bought Tanya Burr's cookbook, Tanya Bakes. It has so many delicious-looking recipes, I couldn't wait to try them out! I love baking, and in recent years my love for the craft (it is an art, after all) has grown deeper and deeper. So naturally, when you go to the bookshop to buy one book, then see that there's a promotion to buy two books and get the cheapest half price, you jump for it. I was buying Carrie Hope Fletcher's new book, On the Other Side, which I had been waiting to buy since the day it came out, the day I was in the airport travelling to the US for my big trip of the summer. Unfortunately we had no time to stop at any shops in Dublin, and in Heathrow the book hadn't arrived yet, so I satisfied myself with waiting until my journey back through Heathrow. When it still wasn't in stock there yet, the minute I had the chance to go to the bookshop here at home, I went and got it. The last copy at that. And with it, I decided to do the whole buy-one-get-one-half-price shindig. And so I picked Tanya Bakes. Why not treat yourself with some books once in a while? After all, it has been a while since I last bought a book...

So, getting back onto the topic of this blog post, this week I finally got to bake. Ever since I got the book (and got home from America in general) I'd been itching to bake something. But I had no reason, nor is it the healthiest option, really. But an opportunity arose, and so this past Wednesday I got to bake cookies! And may I say, they were yummy! So a big thanks to Tanya for sharing her recipe in her book (and YouTube channel).

I also felt like making a video, just for the sake of editing (yet another thing I've missed doing), but didn't really feel, since there's no talking- just a montage of footage, that it didn't qualify as a main channel video. And since I don't have a second channel, I realised that, along with this blog post I had already intended to write before I decided to film, I could upload it directly here, as a sort of accompaniment to the post.

So I guess I should probably get started on writing the post.... I mean, I could go on all day about how I love baking, reading and editing videos, but that's not what this post is really about. It's all about the cookies, really. I mean, cookies are great, right? One of life's best inventions. And one of life's unhealthy inventions too... but lets just forget about that side of it for a minute and enjoy it, just like we ought to!

If you want to, you could just watch the video and ignore all the above, but that would be pointless, as if you're reading this, you've probably read all 469 words previously written before this sentence. Anyway, I am going to write more about the actual baking of the cookies in the following sentences, so by now it's too late- you've been sucked into this endless blog post of random tales and information you'll probably forget when you've finished reading this.

So I made my batch of cookies a little different to the recipe, I used dark chocolate instead of white and milk, but you could use any chocolate you prefer, or even any filling (is that the right word to use?) you want, such as raisins or almonds- whatever takes your fancy.

It truly is a very easy recipe, there isn't very much to it, which is great! And it's pretty quick to do too.
Now since this was my first time baking these types of cookies (as far as I can remember), not everything was as perfect as it looks in the video. I was rather quite proud of how they turned out, but I learnt a few things that I will do differently, or better, next time round. First off, in the recipe it says to bake for 12 minutes. I ended up having to let them bake a little longer than that, but I reckon every oven is different, so that is often the case with recipes (that they take longer, or shorter, than it says). Another thing I know to do differently next time, is to put less chocolate, especially when using dark chocolate (it can be overwhelmingly strong sometimes!). The recipe says to use 200g of each chocolate (white and milk) so since I was using one type of chocolate, I boldly decided to put 300g in. It ended up being a bit too much (depending on the cookie- some had more chocolate than others), but it was my first time baking from that recipe, so mistakes are acceptable. The third thing that differed from the recipe, which isn't a big deal really, it meant extra cookies, was that I had to use three baking trays instead of two. Maybe I was just too scared they'd all stick together, or maybe the trays are slightly smaller than what Tanya uses, but it worked out fine anyway, so no harm done!

Altogether, the cookies were a great success, I'm really glad I got to try the recipe out, and I'll definitely be using that recipe again! I can't wait to see what I'll try next from Tanya Bakes!
My mum's birthday is coming up, and I've promised her some profiteroles- maybe they'll be my next baking endeavour! And maybe I'll write a blog post about making them too (if they're not a disaster- it is my first time making something like that! But I can't wait to see how they turn out, I do love me some profiteroles!), I guess we'll see. I also hope to make some proper baking videos (maybe even some collabs) on my YouTube channel at some point too, so I suppose this video here is kind of like a mini preview or promo to what I'll be doing.

For now, that's all. I will hopefully blog more, but I am super busy! I didn't even get to write more about my trip to San Diego- but I promise, more will come! I'm also working on lots of YouTube projects, so we'll see where those take me.

Until next time,
Sarah xxx


P.S.: In the end I also uploaded the video to YouTube, as the quality is a lot better there, and why not? I might as well share it on my channel :)
Click here for the YouTube version of the video.