Happy Monday, all! Hope everyone had a great weekend.
Mine was a bit crazy. My triceps are aching and my hands sore. Yards of cold dough rolled and butter assaulted. Pounds upon pounds of butter! I spent the weekend beating on huge blocks of it with one of these. Now conjure up a mental image of that. Got it?
Yea, Mr. Humble tread lightly in the kitchen this weekend.
So after the Epi-blog "10 hardest" things I admit, I took the bait. I hit the kitchen this weekend intent on tackling several items. I even purchased extra butter this weekend so I could tackle the pastry making and I already buy a stupid amount of butter each week.
Naturally I'm attracted to the baking-type challenges on the list. The rest of them I'm a bit 'meh' about. Maybe because coq au vin doesn't seem like much of a challenge. Perhaps it would be if you were cooking the traditional geriatric barnyard fowl, but my local market is out of grizzled laying hens.
Dang.
So I decided to take on some of this 'tough' baking. Its been years since I've made a croissant from scratch or a true puff pastry but I'm a food blogger now and culinary self-flagellation is part of the job.
Now I am not saying there are not perks to having that much pastry lying around looking for use.
Oh yes. Happy Monday morning to me!
Unfortunately, I spent all weekend doing a super-human amount of cooking and didn't get around to preparing Monday's post. Since I don't have any recipes typed up I'm going to round up several photos taken over the course of the weekend just to fill space. Ha!
Homemade agnolotti stuffed with prosciutto and ground pork simmered in spiced red wine, with a creamy vodka sauce.
Mascarpone brownies with chocolate ganache
Mr. Humble's Spiced Kebabs
Two Pounds of diplomat cream for napoleons. Om nom nom!
Savory palmiersAll that out of the way, I'm going to go roll out more pain au chocolat and croissants to proof, finish my napoleons and then get work on my next batch of laminated dough.
I'm going to have arms like a pro-wrestler if I keep this up.
Mascarpone brownies. Drool.
ReplyDeleteomgomgomg I wanna come stay at your house!! Our weekend consisted of mainly old frozen calzones (handmade!) and things much more dull than napoleans and brownies.
ReplyDeleteThat agnolotti dish looks stunning. PLease please post the recipe for that baby!
Love your blog, thanks for the great inspiration!
Those brownies look SO good, where's the recipe!??? And savoury palmiers? That's a first for me!
ReplyDeleteRecipes, recipes, recipes! please! Pretty please! Thanks...
ReplyDeleteI'll start posting recipes tomorrow. Once I get caught up on the massive amounts of pastry I need to wrap up today.
ReplyDeleteI've also been an absolute force of entropy in the kitchen this weekend. It's not in good shape. I need to restore order before I sit down at the computer again.
Ooo, those palmiers look tasty.
ReplyDeleteI really shouldn't read this blog while hungry!
Umm...can you die from foodie pleasure overload?
ReplyDeleteI think I came close. I had to look away from the screen.
Everything looks AMAZING.
I wish I could ship you some butter from the Amish farmers we have living next to us...The butter is so rich and fragrant and Golden YELLOW it's almost like cheese.
I buy all my eggs, poultry, pork and of course butter from them. I haven't had the guts to get unpastorized milk...although I know butter is homemade so I don't know what my problem is. Weird. That's my problem LOL.
I demand that the recipe for those brownies go first. I have been dying for really good homemade brownies.
ReplyDeleteI'm curious about something though. How many iterations of a recipe do you go through before it's bloggable?
Some recipes never get blogged. I only post about 40-60% of the stuff I make. Just because I don't have time to post every meal or baked good that comes through the kitchen.
ReplyDeleteIf I am making a recipe created by someone else, I usually post after one try (if the results are good). If I am posting a recipe of my own, I kitchen test it a few times to make sure the dish is reliable.
For you brownie nuts:
The recipe I used is here: http://www.recipezaar.com/Chocolate-Mascarpone-Brownies-83867
I did make a few tweaks to the recipe to give them a richer flavor. Which I'll post later in the week.
They're quite a curious brownie. They have a lighter, more cake like texture but they are still very moist and fudgy.
Oooo...pain au chocolat AND the most delicious-looking brownies I've ever clapped eyes on? I'm on my way to the airport right now!!!
ReplyDeleteJust.. wow. So looking forward to this weeks posts already :D
ReplyDeleteYou are amazing! I can't wait for the recipes! Everything looks totally fabulous!!!
ReplyDeleteHow did you have time for anything else? Are there two of you? My god woman! And there's an ice-cream maker on its way.
ReplyDeleteWe're in for pleasure.
you don't have a taste tester do you? I would gladly volunteer. Even the chocolate. om nom nom is right. I drool just looking at your photos.
ReplyDeleteGoodness, all of the pictures and captions are makin me salivate as I'm reading this!! Creamy vodka sauce sounds totaly amusing, being Russian I feel like I have to gie this one a try lol
ReplyDeleteYou are amazing!! You can't see me but I am bowing in your honor....LOL. Seriously though, what a super talented person you are and I love that you share it all online so that I can TRY to imitate you!
ReplyDeleteYou deserve a culinary medal! Great work :)
ReplyDeleteI am drooling. Again. Your blog makes me hungry even after I've just finished eating a huge meal. Not fair. I envy Mr. Humble- he gets to enjoy a lot of your labor, I'll bet.
ReplyDeletehttp://reneetbouchard.blogspot.com
I don't know if you have mentioned this in a previous post somewhere, but what camera are you using? Your shots are wonderful!
ReplyDeleteBriana,
ReplyDeleteI use an entry level dSLR:
These photos were all shot with a Nikon D3000 and a Nikon 35mm f/1.8G Lens.
ms. h...you are superhuman! & i admire that trait!
ReplyDeleteall that baking...wow!
curious about your mascarpone brownie tweak...looking forward to that & of course after tempting us with your "diplomat cream" i trust you will be sharing your napoleon recipe!
i truly love your blog & your desserts are perfection...truly!
OMG! you made all this in ONE weekend??? I need to go hide my face in shame!
ReplyDeleteBtw, I made mole on saturday... While not the toughest thing to make.. it is super time consuming and quite a bit of an effort.. but totally worth it, it was FANTASTIC!!!..So I guess, it sorta makes sense to be on the Top 10 daunters list :)
In case it hasn't been said enough times yet - chocolate marscapone brownies? WOW.
ReplyDeleteHow'd you make the palmiers?
ReplyDeleteI love your blog, I'm waiting the agnolotti recipe :P
ReplyDelete