Cream Puffs and Chocolate Eclairs

I don't know if anyone else does this, but I will often get a new book and then not do anything with it for what can seem like ages. Well, sometime last year (I actually think around Christmas of 2011, actually) my not-sister got me a cookbook that I actually only used for the first time last week. Having now made the same recipe twice (because it was just that good), I am now looking through it to figure out when I am going to be making the other recipes suggested. Seriously; I am planning my next couple of weeks meals around what I can make out of this book! Looking at the picture on the left, though, can you blame me?

Even before having to go gluten free, I never made pates-aux-choux, believing that it would be either totally loaded with butter/dairy or just way too complicated or difficult. Let me just say that I am very glad that I was wrong on both counts. Yes, you do need to use a "butter", but Earth Balance works beautifully, and the GF flour that I use produces a light and crisp texture that made me very happy that I attempted these. They take practically no time at all to put together, and as they contain no added sugar, they can be made both sweet or savoury, depending on what you'd like to do with them.

This recipe comes from "gluten, wheat & dairy free: Over 70 delicious and nutricious recipes" , (for some reason, though, their web site doesn't have this book listed; interesting) though I actually only use the pastry part of the recipe. So, without further ado....

Puff Pastry
serves 4

• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons GF flour mix
• 1/2 teaspoon xantham gum
• 1/4 cup dairy free butter substitute, I use Earth Balance
• 1 cup water
• 2 eggs, beaten

Preheat oven to 425F. The original recipe says to grease 2 baking sheets, but I simply covered 2 baking sheets with parchement paper.

Sift together the flour and xantham gum. In a medium sauce pan, boil the water and the "butter"; once it is boiling, remove from heat and quickly beat in the four mixture (my electric beater died a couple weeks ago so I do this with a whisk). Allow to cool for about a minute or so, then beat in the eggs until you have a thick, glossy dough.

Either spoon the dough into a pastry bag fitted with a 1/2-inch tip or into a clean plastic bag that you can then snip the tip off of; pipe about 16 golf ball-size balls of dough (or if making eclairs, 4 - 2"X4" lengths) onto the baking sheets.

Bake in preheated oven for 20-25 minutes, or until risen and golden brown. Cut a slit in each puff (or eclair) to allow the steam to escape and return to the oven for 1 minute. Let cool on a wire rack.

From there, you can do pretty much what you'd like with them! The first time I served them, I filled them with a whipped cream substitute (NutriWhip, if you want to know the truth) and served them on a raspberry and blackberry compote. The second time, I made them up as a chocolate eclair. I am now toying with the idea of savoury fillings though, like something with an avocado based 'cream', or maybe a salmon mousse. Regardless, these were quick and easy enough that I am quite sure to be doing these again very soon. Life is so rough some times, isn't it?!!

Enjoy!

Rawesome Cakes

There are days when I forget that there is a camera on my phone. Considering how many stupid pictures I take with it, you'd think I'd have that cased. Apparently not. Essentially, that is the disclaimer as to why there won't be any personal photos following. Oops.

A couple of months ago, I decided to pop into one of my favourite stores to grab something to take with me for lunch at work. While snooping, I noticed in their refridgerator section that they carried little slices of cake from a company called Rawesome and that according to the packaging, they were raw, vegan, gluten free and made here in Montreal. Sweet! (pardon the pun) I grabbed a card for the company and then kinda forgot about them.

Last week, while cleaning out my wallet, I was going through all the business cards that I accumulate and found it. Now, I haven't seen any of the little cakes in the shop recently, so I went online to see where I could maybe get my hands on some, and realized that I was screwed. Not only were they very much still in business, but their head office/bakery is located about 500 meters from my apartment in the Nux Wellness Center (almost right across from the Vendome metro). Oooooh dear.

On Thursday, my friend Natasha and I spent the day together, and on our way home from the market, we stopped off at the Nux cafe. Firstly, everyone was very friendly, and we were able to pick up three different pieces of cake to take home and try. We most assuredly could have stayed to eat them there, but decided to actually have lunch before moving on to dessert.

This is where my lack of camera preparedness will become apparent. The images below are taken directly from the Rawesome website, and while mostly close to what we got, the individual slices do look a bit different. The pieces are each sized about as big as a playing card, which is actually reasonable, and price wise, they aren't really any more expensive than a non-specialty dessert out at a cafe.

The first one that we tried, the Pecan Caramel cheesecake, was the one that we didn't end up liking at all. The texture of the cake was fine, however! Very much as a cheesecake ought to be. It had an almost sour taste to it, that might have been from the caramel, with a pronounced coconut flavour, but whatever it was, neither of us enjoyed it, and we didn't even finish it.

The second cake that we tried, the Strawberry cheesecake, more than made up for the Caramel! The fellow who was helping up thought it was a raspberry, and because of the colour of the cake, I believed him even though the website doesn't list a raspberry. It didn't matter though as the flavour was delicious, light and fruity and so obviously not artificial that when you got a piece of actual srawberry from just over the crust you were almost expecting it. You could tell there was coconut in this as well, but only in the most peripheal way. Would definitely get this one again!




The third cake that we tried, the White Chocolate Cheesecake, was also amazing. Again, this was a wonderful vegan cheesecake; light and rich and frankly decadent. The top is dusted with raw cocoa powder, and the crust was a rich chocolate flavour, which framed the white chocolate filling beautifully. Wasn't too sweet, either, which I often found with traditional cheesecakes, so this really would make for a lovely dessert even after a substantial meal.



All in all, while I would have liked to have been able to try one of each kind of cake, I'm actually kind of glad that I now we didn't. I am looking forward to trying the lime and the lemon cakes very much. Not really a fan of chocolate and orange, but in the Name Of Science and Experimentation, that is a sacrifice I am more than willing to make!