haloo! how is everyone's day?
or better yet, how was everyone's weekend? was the weekend better than today? umm, yes, probably.
i did some things that i liked.
i weekend lunched, like a lady does. we sat outside. i listened to facts about batman. i drank iced tea and got a salad. that's a lady move.
there was walking and talking, and stopping to watch a lovely casual wedding on the beach on the way home.
i baked chocolate chip cookies. milk and dark chocolate. sea salt.
i ate dinner at 10. woops. ..whatever.
there were also things i didn't like. a weekend rarely goes off without a hitch or two.
well, i fell asleep watching a movie again. i do that, and the fact that i do it fairly often annoys me.
i also got served with a parking ticket. sixty dollars!?! come on. i was three minutes late...a nickel's worth of minutes. i screamed in the car and let myself be mad for twenty minutes, then i got over it.
evening coffee on the lifeguard tower calmed my nerves.
a cream puff will also calm some parking ticket nerves. unless the first pan of cutie puffs deflate when you them out of the oven. sigh.
that happened. it made me feel sad. i mourned for them.
but then the second pan...oh baby. perfect.
alright, let's get our cream puff on. let's puff this place up. (with banana cream!)
banana cream, light, luscious, and truly banana-y.
i'm in love. i'd eat these all day long. oh wait, i might have [definitely] done that.
Banana Cream Puffs
adapted from pierre herme, dorie greenspan, and momofuku milk bar
for the cream puffs:
1/2 cup whole milk
1/2 cup (1 stick) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1 tsp sugar
1 tsp kosher salt
1 cup all-purpose flour
6 large eggs
line 2 baking sheets with parchment paper. fit 1 large pastry bag or plastic freezer bag with a small round tip.
bring milk, butter, 1 tsp sugar, salt and 1/2 cup water to a boil in a medium sauce-pan over medium heat, stirring occasionally. add flour all at once; reduce heat to medium-low. stir vigorously with a wooden spoon until a dough forms and pulls away from sides of the pan, 1-2 minutes. continue to stir quickly until a thin dry film forms on the bottm and sides of pot, about 1 minute. transfer to a bowl. add 1 eggs and stir vigorously with a wood spoon until egg is incorporated and dough looks dry again, about 2 minutes. repeat with 4 more eggs, adding one at a time and beating. the dough should be smooth, shiny and thickened.
spoon dough into prepared pastry bag; pipe out little 2-3 inch rounds onto the baking sheets.
preheat oven to 350. whisk remaining egg with a tablespoon of water and brush the dudes with egg wash.
put the baking sheet in the oven and turn the oven off. after 10 minutes, heat oven to 350 and bake for 10 minutes. then rotate the pans, front to back, and continue to bake until they turn deep golden brown, about 10 minutes longer. the puffs will deflate if removed from the oven before fully baked!
to assemble cream puffs: there are two ways to easily fill the cream puffs. take your cooled puffs, and using a serrated knife, slice off the top third of each. fill a piping bag fitted with a round tip with the banana cream and pipe the cream into the puffs, then smush the tops back on. the second method is to inject the cream straight into the puff from the bottom. just flip them over, insert the small round metal tip of the pastry bag into the center, and squeeze until the puffs feel heavier and fuller. dust the tops with confectioners' sugar and serve.
Banana Cream
from Momofuku Milk Bar
225 g very ripe bananas (about 2)
1/3 cup heavy cream
1/4 cup milk
1/2 cup sugar
2 tbsp cornstarch
1/2 tsp kosher salt
3 egg yolks
2 gelatin sheets
3 tbsp butter
couple drops of yellow food coloring
3/4 cup heavy cream
1 cup confectioners' sugar
combine the bananas, cream, and milk in a blender and puree until totally smooth. add the sugar, cornstarch, salt, and yolks and continue to blend until homogenous. pour the mixture into a medium saucepan. clean the blender canister.
bloom the gelatin in ice water. whisk the contents of the pan and heat over medium-low heat. as the banana mixture heats up, it will thicken bring to a boil and then continue to whisk quickly for 2 minutes to fully cook out the starch. the mixture will resemble thick glue, bordering on cement.
dump the contents of the pan back into the blender. add the bloomed gelatin (making sure to squeeze out the water) and the butter and blend until the mixture is smooth. color the mixture with the few drops of yellow food coloring, just to perk up the color, and get the cream not looking so blah.
transfer the mixture to a heatsafe container and put in the fridge for 30-60 minutes until it cools completely.
with an electric mixer, whip the cream and confectioners' sugar to medium-soft peaks. add the cold banana mixture to the whipped cream and slowly whisk until evenly colored and homogenous. in an airtight container, the banana cream will keep fresh for up to 5 days in the refrigerator.
