Garlic Paste

I am a huge fan of Middle Eastern/Mediterranean food. I am lucky that there are many wonderful Mediterranean restaurants within 6 miles of my home. One of our favorite things about eating there is the fresh pita bread and garlic paste that they bring to every table as a starter. If you are a garlic lover, you will probably LOVE this recipe. If you're not a fan of garlic than you should stay far away from this recipe!

After the first time I had garlic paste I ran home and "Googled" G.A.R.L.I.C. P.A.S.T.E to see how to make it. I found this great video that shows step-by-step the proper technique for making it. It was a huge help in my quest to make the perfect garlic paste. After watching the video I knew exactly what I needed to do and it was a piece of cake. Mission complete!

I highly recommend you watch the video before attempting to make garlic paste. Here's the link: How To Make Garlic Paste

Pita Bread

Here's some great pita bread that I learned to make in class awhile back. It's great for sandwiches or for dipping into hummus or garlic paste. More on that later...

Have a great Monday!!!

Brioche

Bread...it's been my favorite thing to make in culinary school so far. I love portioning out the rolls/loaves, shaping them into uniform rolls or uniquely designed loaves, watching them double in size, and then pulling them out of the oven to smell that fresh bread smell. I am quite a carboholic as well. It's got to be my favorite food.

So here's yet another bread recipe we made in school. Brioche (bree-OHSH). Isn't it such a lovely name? Brioche is a rich, tender bread made with a generous amount of eggs and butter. It's great to eat right out of the oven, with sandwiches or french toast, or even as a PB&J sandwich. There are many ways to shape it as well.

For part of the recipe I used mini brioche pans (picture above). They almost look like little flowers. I also made some mini loaves as well as a regular size loaf of bread.

*I only made half of the recipe below and it still made a TON of bread! I ended up with 8 mini brioches, 7 mini loaves, and 1 regular loaf. Enough to share with my neighbor and my husband's coworkers!

Culinary School - Weeks 6 and 7

Just to give you an update as to what I've been baking in culinary school these last couple of weeks.

Last week we learned all about Pâte à Choux (pronounced paht ah shoo). I have to admit that when I first saw that term I thought, "What the heck is that?!?!" Come to find out, Pâte à Choux is another name for Éclair paste. Éclair paste is unique among doughs because it is cooked before baking.

Éclair Paste or Pâte à Choux bakes up into golden brown, crisp pastries. Inside these light pastries are mostly air pockets with a bit of moist dough. They can be filled with sweet cream, custard, fruit or even savory mixtures. We used the Pâte à Choux dough to pipe Paris Brest, Profiteroles, and Chocolate Éclairs. YUM!!!

Paris Brest are rings of baked éclair paste cut in half horizontally that we filled with Paris Brest Cream and topped with slivered almonds. Profiteroles are small cream puffs that we filled with chantilly cream and then dipped in caramel sauce. Éclairs are baked fingers of éclair paste filled with pastry cream and then topped with chocolate ganache.

We also made New York Style Cheesecake (delicious!), Strawberry Crepes Fitzgerald (amazing!) and Parmesan Sun-dried Tomato Crackers (ok). As you can tell...this was yet another week that was VERY hard on my waistline!

This week we focused on cakes and had a brief introduction on cake decorating. We made 2 pound cakes drizzled with lemon simple syrup, 5 high ratio yellow cakes decorated with a light chocolate buttercream, a Sacher Torte cake layered with jam and then coated with a chocolate ganache icing, and an orange chiffon cake decorated with an Italian buttercream.

Can you tell how much fun I am having making (and eating) all these amazing pastries?

Citrus Spritz Cookies

I have a cookie press or two that I always pull out around Christmas time. I recently learned that I don't need the extra piece of equipment to make fancy spritz cookies. With a pastry bag fitted with a star tip and a steady hand, I am now able to make cute, uniform spritz cookies by hand!

These little bite size cookies are fun to eat and the little dollop of strawberry jam in the middle makes these cookies quite attractive!

And the Winner is . . .

Congrats to entry #5, Sabrina @ Twiggles and Trunks who was chosen as the winner via Random.org.
Sabrina, please email me your address so I can ship these adorable little tart pans to you!

Thanks for playing everyone! This contest is now closed.


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GIVEAWAY

Wouldn't this fruit tart look adorable in mini personal size tarts too? I thought so...that's why I am giving away one set of mini tart pans (6 total) to one of my lucky readers! Without you I would have no reason to blog. Thank you for being such great readers!



To enter:
Leave a comment telling me what your favorite recipe on Kathie Cooks is.

Want extra entries? (Leave a separate comment for each.):
* "Like" Kathie Cooks on Facebook
* Share this giveaway on your blog or Facebook page
* Tell me something new you would like to see on Kathie Cooks
* Tell a friend about Kathie Cooks (someone who's never heard of it before)

You have until Sunday, August 21 at 8 pm EST to enter.

The winner will be picked at random and announced on Monday, August 22.

Good luck!

Refrigerator Pickles

I am thrilled that several of my friends are now bloggers and have such cute, inspiring blogs. If you haven't done so already, check out Lois Pearl Designs. She has all kinds of great recipe and crafty ideas. One of the most recent recipes she's made are Refrigerator Pickles. What a great way to use up those fresh summer cucumbers. This makes a great side dish and as Erin points out this dish is even better the next day!