Summertime

I love the summer. The sun is out, the weather is warm, and best of all, I have time to actually be outside. A few weeks ago, I went home to California to visit my parents. I went hiking three times while I was there - once along the beach, and another two times to the beach and back. There is a trail by my house that I have wanted to hike for several years - I just couldn't find anyone that wanted to come with me. This time, my mom finally acquiesced. It is quite possibly the perfect hike - it takes an hour to hike from the trailhead to the cliffs, and another hour to hike back. The trail has enough uphill and downhill to keep you interested, but it's not so steep that you want to give up halfway. And, the whole time you are hiking, you see this view:
The last time I attempted a similar hike with my dad, we got lost. What should have been a 5 mile hike turned into a day long ordeal that included getting lost in an old riverbed, trying to walk through a field of horse dung without stepping on any "treasures", disrupting a stranger's barbecue, and then forgetting where we parked the car. It was an adventure, but not one that I would like to repeat.

If I'm not outside during the summer, I am definitely inside baking and cooking. My mom requested cream puffs for her Mother's Day present, so I used a recipe I tried earlier this year. Here it is:

Cream Puff Dough (Choux Pastry Dough)

1 cup water
1 stick unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces
1/2 tsp salt
1 cup flour
4 eggs
*Note: salted butter is ok to use - just don't put in extra salt if you are using salted butter.

So, cream puff dough is a little strange. You actually cook the dough before you bake it. So, first preheat the oven to 425 F, line cookie sheets with parchment paper (wax paper works too), and lay them aside for later.

To start the dough, put the water, butter, and salt in a large soup pot and heat the water over medium high until it boils and the butter melts. After the water boils, mix in flour all at once, lower heat to med-low, and stir. A sticky dough forms, and you need to keep stirring it, otherwise the dough will stick and burn. I leave the pot on the heat for about a minute while I'm stirring the flour, and then I take the pot off the heat and keep stirring the water/flour mixture.

At this point, you just have to stir the mixture until the flour is cooked and turns a nice light yellow (I'm probably not the best person to ask about subtle color differences). Then you add the eggs, one at a time, while the mixture is still warm, but not hot enough to cook the eggs.

Drop the dough in rounded spoonfuls (size is not important, but consistency is) onto the parchment paper and bake at 425 for 10-11 minutes, and then lower the heat to 350 for another 15-20 minutes. They should be golden brown and puffy.

You can use any filling you want. I used instant pudding, but whipped cream with or without pieces of fresh strawberries would also be good. Pastry cream or mousse would also be delicious. To fill the puffs, cut a small slit into the puff and use a pastry bag, or a Ziploc bag with one of the corners cut off, to inject the filling. Or you can cut them in half and fill them like a sandwich. If you are feeling really fancy, you can top these with powdered sugar or a melted chocolate drizzle.

This same dough can be used to make eclairs - they are just shaped differently before you bake them.

I've cooked a lot more than this since summer began - I'll post those recipes tomorrow. If anyone tries this cream puff recipe, let me know how it goes.