Bubbles and bubbles, hot + cold appetizers

Chilled verrines. And red cheddar gougères.
Appetizers, but this set could make a whole lunch.

Simple classics, always appreciated.

A lighning of green tea : matcha éclairs

Des éclairs au thé matcha. A flash of light in the middle of rainy season. Un éclair is a lightning during a storm. And this dessert…

Green tea version.

Same crust as the petits choux (recipe here), but longer.

The filling is very Japanese at the base with matcha (green tea for ceremony) and shiro an (paste made of white beans and sugar), with gives a matcha an (green tea cream).

mame

About this paste.

… I creamed it with coconut cream, and added a little brandy for flavor. They look rustic as it’s a week-day snack so I didn’t smoothen my cream with the sieve and I didn’t pipe the dough. Do that for guests !

On top, sugar and matcha green tea.

Cygne et choux, puffy swan

Cygne is the name of this cake, it’s swan in French. I need to precise as mine could be a turkey as well… It’s kitsch like an after-school salon de thé visit with granny. They were proposing those when I was a kid…

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

BTW, I’ve opened a Daring Baker Pinterest Board. Mostly my posts now, but I’ll add others’ progressively.

So, let’s go, mon chou. The recipe is already here (click on text) :

flockenshane

Well, the puffs. Very simple, I eyeball ingredients : water, oil, flour, eggs… a little salt, sugar, vanilla. I shape with the hands like a kid with playdo. So that doesn’t look pro.