Pain Perdu

The best part about finally being on vacation is being able to have a lazy morning. I woke up on Saturday, without the assistance of an alarm clock, at the ripe, old time of 09:00. It was glorious. No stressing over deadlines, or studying. Yes, I have vac work, but it's not strenuous at all. There's no rush, none of the mindless panic that is usually associated with term time. Most importantly, however, is the fact that I do not have to rush breakfast. No more stingy piece of toast slathered with peanut butter clamped between my teeth as I rush out of the house. No more hastily gulped down cereal with scaldingly hot milk dribbling down my chin (that's not exactly true, but the imagery is fantastic and it's close enough to the truth). I sauntered into the kitchen and took stock of what was there. Two mini loaves of slightly stale brioche. About 6 limes. Strawberries. Inspiration strikes. Do we have eggs? Yes. Enough milk. Yes, again. Looks like I'm making Pain Perdu.

Ever since I saw Heston Blumenthal's Christmas Special, I've wanted to recreate that magic. If you've even so much as heard of the man, you will know that this is no simple task. Baby steps, I think, is the solution to this particular problem. The dessert he made for the meal was Pain Perdu with nitro-scrambled, reindeer milk ice-cream. I decided to stick with just the Pain Perdu. Liquid nitrogen and reindeer milk were sold out at the Woolworths. He had an excellent technique for creating an added crispiness to the toast. Dredging the cooked slices in bubbling hot, molten sugar. I will never again make it in any other way. The ice-cream that I used is shop bought, as is the brioche itself. The meal, after all, was impromptu. There will always be a next time for a leisurely breakfast, where I can make my own ice-cream and brioche.

Pain Perdu
140g milk
2 eggs
17g caster sugar
1/2 tsp vanilla extract
zest of one lime
Two brioche mini loaves, sliced into 1cm slices
1 tbsp clarified butter
Extra caster sugar
Vanilla ice-cream
Strawberries or any other fresh fruit

Whisk the milk, eggs, sugar, extract and zest together until homogeneous. Put the brioche in a plastic freezer bag and add the mixture. Wiggle the slices around to get the mixture in all the nooks and crannies. Remove as much of the air from the bag as possible using a vacuum sealer. Open the bag. Gently remove the soaked slices of brioche and lay them on a rack for a few minutes to allow the excess mixture to drip off.

Melt the butter in a non-stick pan until gently bubbling. Fry the slices of brioche until golden on both sides. Drain them on some paper towels. Wipe your pan clean. Pour enough of the extra caster sugar into the pan, so that the bottom is covered. Allow the sugar to melt and then put the brioche back in the pan. Sprinkle some more caster sugar onto the exposed side of the slices. Flip them over and allow that side to caramelise. Remove from the pan and place the slices on a silicone mat to allow the caramel to harden and no longer be molten lava hot. Sprinkle with some icing sugar and enjoy with good vanilla ice-cream and some sort of tangy fruit. Syrup is not strictly necessary on account of the crunchy sugar glaze coating the bread. There's enough for two people. I shared it with my brother and there was one slice left over.

Halloween Macarons

Macarons are difficult. Why do I carry on making them? Temperamental, glorified cookies.

I'll tell you why.

It's because they're fabulous. Pretentious, classy and also fun. And, you can say to people, "yeah, I can make them," with a smug tone. I made these for a Halloween party. I didn't have black food colouring, so I used a combination of blue, red and a smidge of yellow. Plus a healthy dose of cocoa. The orange ones were easier with just red and yellow. I filled the black chocolate ones with raspberry preserve. Pretty decent stuff from Woolworths. The orange ones got chopped peaches and double cream.

Making macarons requires a strategy. You have to be sure you have enough time; be sure you have enough egg white; be sure you know how to get the right colour. And even more important: know thine oven. Learning to make macarons is a trial and error process, but then, even when you've done it a million time, it can still go wrong. 

Vindictive little buggers.

I'll be helping my friends sister make them after my exams in about a month, so there shall be more detailed instructions forthcoming. These instructions will be pretty detailed anyway.

Step 1: Grind the Almonds

135g ground almonds

135g icing sugar

50g egg white

I know the almonds are already ground. Grind it again. Together with the icing sugar. Sift. Discard the bits that don't get through. Add the egg white and the food colouring. Mix mix mix. Cover with cling film and set aside.

Step 2: Making the Italian Meringue
135g sugar
30g water

50g egg white

Put the sugar and the water in a small saucepan and put on medium heat. You'll need a sugar thermometer. Stir until the sugar dissolves then don't stir again. Keep track of the temperature. When it reaches 110 degrees, start beating the egg white with an electric mixer. When the sugar reaches 118 degrees, remove from the heat. Add to the egg whites, while continuously beating on medium speed, in a thin (not too thin) stream. You won't get all the sugar. Don't stress about it. Put the beater on high speed and continue beating until the egg white cools to luke warm.

Scoop in the beaten egg white and fold in. This is the truly tricky bit. Mix until everything is incorporated, but don't over-mix or it will be too runny. Test the mixture on a plate by dropping a spoonful on it. Wait 30 secs. If there's still a peak give it a few more stirs. If it breaks it's circular shape, I'm sorry, but you'll have to try again. Unbaked, failed macaroon mixture makes a great semi-freddo base. Just add double cream.

Pipe the rounds onto non-stick baking paper. Allow to crust for 20 minutes to 2 hours. Bake in a pre-heated oven (160-170 degrees; it depends on your oven, but it has to be a convection oven, no fan assists) for 7-9min. Keep your eye on it. When/if you see the "feet", breathe a sight of relief.

Macaron chilling on the window sill.

My First Post

Hello there!

What does one say in their very first post? I considered just starting with a piece on Halloween, but that didn't seem right. I feel like I should ease people into my crazy. The thing is, I'm not a chef, or a baker (at least not anymore); I'm a student. No, not at culinary school. I'm studying economics. But I love baking. It makes me happy. So I thought I'd organise my happiness and expose it like an exhibitionist.

At one point I did bake on a grander scale as a business, but I've realised that we can't have our cake and eat it too. Don't get me wrong, I love economics too. But by doing both I was cheating on each and not giving enough of myself to either. So I chose economics. Somehow I feel that baking as a business would have eventually killed my passion for it anyway.

So here begins my journey back on the path of happiness. A balance of the passions.
Welcome to my story..