Cloud Nine

Yet again my hectic summer schedule has interfered with my blogging ability, and I am sure I have left oh so many of you checking frantically daily for a new post to arrive. Well, here it is! I have recently discovered Pintrest, and by that I mean I have recently become an active member. I had known about it all along but never really understood what the big to-do was until now. In the last few days I have discovered more blog-worthy recipes than I know what to do with. Looking through them was what inspired me to crank out a new entry despite the fact that I haven't had time to do so. So here I sit at work, blogging away yesterday's breakfast.

It was the picture of the recipe that first caught my eye. A light, fluffy pancake of sorts, with fresh fruits baked in, and topped off with a drizzle of honey. I could (almost literally) taste the summer flavors through the screen. Being a late July morning, it was the perfect time to recreate this summer breakfast. The recipe is called Honey Cloud Pancakes, and can be found here. They may look daunting, or maybe that was just me, nonetheless they are super simple to make. Next time I make this I won't even need to look at the recipe...and that may be as soon as tomorrow morning.

Here are my ingredients: Milk, flour, honey, vanilla, salt, 2 eggs (1 egg white and 1 whole egg) and fresh soft fruits. The original recipe used strawberries, peaches and blueberries and I didn't find any reason to make a change regarding fruits. After all, two thirds of them are my favorite fruits. In one bowl whisk the egg white until it becomes white and peaky. In a second bowl, mix the milk, flour, honey, salt, vanilla, and a whole egg. Then fold the egg white into the other ingredients using a metal spoon. I'm not sure why you are supposed to use a metal spoon but that's what the recipe said, so I figured its important and I should pass it on. At this point you'll want to have your fruit sliced up and ready to go because you're going to need it.

Melt 1 T butter in a 6 inch (oven safe) frying pan. The one I used probably wasn't oven safe at all, I got it for $4.99 at Winco. But the handle didn't melt and the pancake turned out just fine so this is the pan I'll continue to use. Anyway, melt the butter on the stove top and pour in the batter. Leave it on the stove for just a couple of minutes until you can see it starting to set up around the edges. At that point, sprinkle the fruit on top and pop it in the oven for 7 minutes. Once its done, it will have risen up a little bit and be a light golden color.

 

Because of the butter on the bottom it slides out really easily onto a plate. Drizzle some more honey on top and its ready to eat!

The name honey cloud was spot on. It was light, fluffy and not overly sweet, and barring the butter, it isn't half bad for you. The cool thing about this is that you can substitute any fruits or toppings you want to adapt it to the season. I plan on making this again multiple times this week. Its that good.

Strawberry Danish

Its summer time (technically, but Mother Nature has little to show for it), which means fresh local strawberries are in season. I found a recipe online a few months ago for strawberry danish pastries that I had been wanting to try but hadn't gotten around to yet, so I figured this was a good time to so. The recipe can be found here. I followed the recipe almost exactly, except for the pastry cream - in which I used this recipe. Besides the pastry cream the other two ingredients are puff pastry dough and strawberries, so really it was the formula from the first recipe that I was actually following and not so much the recipe itself.

I made my pastry cream a day in advance so that it would have time to chill in the fridge. My days are usually packed pretty full of work and other various activities, leaving a 1-2 hour window of kitchen time - so anything that can be done in advance is extremely helpful. I unwrapped my puff pastry dough and set it out on the counter to thaw out for about an hour while I took a nap, which is one of my scheduled "other activities" that my day is so jam-packed with.  After I woke up  it was time to get to work.

The first step in the recipe involves draping the dough around a wooden dowel in order to cut even strips on either end, but I like to be a little rebellious sometimes and this was one of those times. (The wooden dowel approach seems confusing, so look the real recipe in order to see what I'm talking about.) Also, I didn't have an extra wooden dowel laying around so I just cut my dough into rectangles and then cut the strips one at a time trying to make them look as even as possible. It looks more rustic that way anyway. The only thing you really need to make sure of here is that there are the same number of strips cut on either side because these are going to be folded over on top of one another to create the braid effect. Each box of puff pastry contains 2 sheets of dough, which make 3 pastries each. The first two rectangles were easy to cut out - the third one required re-rolling scraps of dough in order make a large enough piece. Since I don't own a rolling pin and I was in ultra creativity mode, I cleaned off a bottle of flavored syrup that I had laying around and used that. I was pleasantly surprised with how well that worked.

Next, I spooned a few tablespoons of pastry cream on to the centers of each of the rectangles and topped them with a good amount of sliced strawberries. After tasting the finished product, I decided that I probably could have used more of the pastry cream than I did. Plus, I had over half of the recipe leftover.

Now it was time to braid the dough. It really is easier than it might seem, you just cross the strips over each other, alternating which one goes on top. There is probably a much fancier way to do this, but this method worked for me and it looked nice when I was finished too. There isn't anything sealing either end, so be careful when transferring the pastry to a baking sheet that the strawberries don't fall out of the ends.

6 pastries later, I lined them up on an ungreased baking sheet and topped them off with an egg wash to make them shine. The recipe didn't specify if the baking sheet should be greased or not so I took my chances and went without and didn't have any problems getting them off. I baked them at 375 for 35 minutes. When I pulled them out it looked like a murder had taken place in my oven. Strawberry juice had leaked from each of the ends, making blood red pools around each of the pastries. This didn't end up being a factor when removing them from the pan however.

You'll notice that some look nicer than others. This was due to the second sheet of dough being stickier than the first. I ate the one on the far right first so that no one else could see it.

And here is one of the nicer looking ones posing for a photo opp. They really did end up being pretty good, especially the next morning for breakfast. Like I said, I will add more cream to the center next time to add a bit more substance to the center. I may mess around with this recipe and adapt it according to fruits that are in season. I'm thinking a peach or raspberry version might hit the spot, or maybe a mixture of the two!