The Ugly Duckling

Everyone knows the story of the ugly duckling, who turned out to be a gosling and turned into a graceful swan. Well, this ugly duckling has a very similar story. He also was a gosling so of course, turned into a graceful swan. Wrong. He turned into an ugly swan. Poor him. Maybe he got dropped on his head..

So my big venture this time was making choux pastry swans. A pastry that you make in a saucepan and then cook in the oven. A pastry thats soft and airy. A pastry that kills your arm; seriously. 

First you bring water and butter just to the boil. Then you dump in ALL of your flour and beat crazily with a wooden spoon until you get a ball and no pastry on the sides of the pan. You want arm muscles? This is the workout you need. 

You then gradually add beaten egg once its cooled till smooth and shiny. Then pipe into your desired shape. This could be profiteroles, eclairs, swans or just a big blob. Then bake till cooked and fill with yummy whipped cream. 

Other Bakes:

 Banana Bread. My friends absolutely love this thing and kept asking me to bake it. I was more than happy to oblige. Its heaven and vaguely healthy! Perfect! It was even nicer with marshmallow spread on top (see below).

Chocolate fudge cake. Well, the recipe for the icing said it was fudge, but there was no fudge in it.. just chocolate, sugar, vanilla and cream. Confused much? Still, it tasted lovely even if the looks aren't gonna win any prizes. 

Marshmallow Chronicles:

 Peppermint Marshmallows dipped in chocolate ganache. Even I liked them, and I don't even like mint that much! The dark chocolate completely completed it. 

Spreadable Marshmallow. It was actually spreadable! But a tad too solid so maybe less gelatin next time. I spent some time looking at recipes for marshmallow fluff and they all contained egg whites which I didn't want to use. Instead I decided to experiment with using half the normal amount of gelatin from my normal batch. 






Thanks for reading,
Somnium x