Almond Cream Puffs : Free And Easy Bake-Along #33 - Theme : Cream Puffs

It's time again for our Bake-Along! For this week's theme bake, my baking buddy, Lena from Frozen Wings has chosen "Cream Puffs"! I was really glad that this theme was chosen, which really 'pushed' me into trying out this yummilicious recipe that I intended to make for ages. There's a sticker sticking out from this very page which I have bookmarked  for more than a year! Ah-ha! I bet I'm not the only one who has recipes bookmarked for ages! Don't we all!

These are downright yummy!

I made half a recipe, and got only 5. Used the store-bought frozen puff pastry, they really do make life easier! The pastry are cut into two sizes of rounds (3" and 2-1/2"), for the base and for the top. The filling is made up of eggs, flour, ground almonds, sugar and whipped cream. To assemble, simply place the 3" cut pastry onto the bottom of the muffin pan, scoop two tablespoons of the filling on top of the pastry and cover the top with the 2-1/2" piece, seal the two pastries together, brush with milk and bake. Easy, peasy! The only thing is I did not seal the two pieces together because when I placed the filling onto the bottom pastry, it covers the pastry, so I am unable to seal the bottom pastry with the top one. But that is not a problem, it turns out just fine!

Eat it while still warm, nice and crispy! Scatter some icing sugar over the top before serving, yumssss! 

A definite hit with the kids and myself! The puff pastry, is of course, very light and crispy, I would not expect otherwise! And the filling is an absolute delight, not too sweet and very good! So if you would like to give this a try, make the full recipe! It is really good eaten warm, about 10 minutes right after baking, but be careful, the filling is hot! Reheat the ones that has gone cold, just before serving. 

Let's visit my baking buddies, Lena from Frozen Wings and Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and all our baking friends who has baked along with us in the linky below.  For our next bake, we will be baking World's Quickest Yeasted Coffee Cake from Cake Keeper Cakes by Lauren Chattman, page 39 or you may get the recipe here. The linky will start on 8th October right up to 14th October. Do join us, everyone's welcome.

A friendly reminder when linking to our blog hop :

1. Please mention Bake-Along event in your own post linking direct to any of the hosts' post (Joyce, Lena or Zoe)

2. Please link only new and current post, related to the current bake or theme provided by us. Unrelated post will be deleted.
3. Feel free to display our Bake-Along badge in your post.

Almond Cream Puffs
(Pastry Cook by Catherine Atkinson)
Makes 10
275gm puff pastry
2 egg yolks
1 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
2 tbsp ground almonds
2 tbsp caster sugar
a few drops of vanilla or almond extract
150ml (2/3 cup) double (heavy) cream, whipped
milk, to glaze
icing (confectioners' sugar)

1. Roll out the pastry thinly on a lightly floured surface, and cut out ten 7.5cm/3in plain rounds and ten 6.5cm/2-1/2in fluted rounds. Keep the smaller rounds for the tops, and use the larger ones to line a patty or cupcake tin. Chill for about 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200C/400F/Gas 6.
2. Whisk the egg yolks with the flour, almonds, sugar and vanilla essence. Fold in the cream and spoon into the pastry cases. Brush the rims with milk, add the tops and seal the edges. Glaze with milk. Bake for 20-25 minutes until golden. Cool slightly. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

**These are best served warm, reheat any that become cold before eating.

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Garlic Buttered Prawns with Tomato and Coriander

I have bookmarked about half a dozen recipes to try from Masterchef, Australia website, and somehow time seems to slip by real quick this month! Well, this is my second submission to the blog hop event, Cook Like A Star, where the featured chef for September is "Masterchef" organized by my friend, Zoe from Bake For Happy Kids and her co-hosts, Anuja from Simple Baking and Baby Sumo from Eat Your Heart Out.

Now this recipe is not from any of the contestants, but rather from the sponsor, Western Star. Ever since I've seen this recipe, I really wanted to give this a try as we all love prawns in my house!

The recipe calls for 80gm of butter, but I used about 40-50gm. This is a really simple, quick and very easy dish to cook.  It uses lime zest and the juice, and the taste of this dish reminds me very much of Thai cuisine. Surprisingly the recipe does not call for any salt, maybe the amount of salt in Western Star butters are sufficient, but I added in a pinch of salt according to taste. And I used only 1 small lime as I do not want it to be too sour. There's no water required at all for this dish, all the delicious gravy are really from the chopped tomatoes and the juices from the prawns. And I can see why this is recommended to serve with fresh bread, to mop up all the delicious gravy! 

We had this with plain white rice, the gravy is really good eaten with white rice, my kids certainly enjoyed this dish. 

This is linked to Cook Like A Star blog hop, Celebrity Chef for the month September is "Masterchef", hosted by Zoe with co-hosts Anuja and Baby Sumo. Click on the link below to view other delicious yummies!

Garlic Buttered Prawns with Tomato and Coriander
(Masterchef, Australia)
80gm Western Star Butter
3 cloves garlic, crushed
500gm green prawns, peeled and deveined
1 small red chili, finely sliced (optional)
2 tomatoes, finely chopped
finely grated rind and juice of 1 lime
1/2 cup torn coriander leaves
salt to taste (my addition)

1. Melt butter in a large frypan over medium-high heat until foamy, add garlic, chilli and prawns, cook tossing for 2 minutes until almost cooked through.
2. Add tomatoes, lime juice and zest and coriander, cook, tossing for 1 minute.
3. Serve prawns immediately in the pan with fresh bread or tortillas and let guests help themselves.

Apple Pizza Pie

It was one of those weekends when my kids had a late breakfast and nobody wants any lunch. So I browsed thru my cookbooks to look for something that I could make for tea-time instead, as I'm pretty sure when the clock strikes past 3 o'clock, they would want something for their tummy! I found this wonderful recipe, Apple Pizza Pie, the name certainly caught my attention! Since I have some apples, which I really wanted to clear anyway, this is a perfect way to use them.

According to the book, the base which is a yeasted butter pastry,  is even suitable to make the regular savoury pizza.

Let's get started on the Apple Pizza Pie :

1. Mixture of Fuji and Granny Smith apples, and some thymes from my garden.
2. The risen dough is placed on a pizza pan, the base coated with cornmeal. To make the dough, refer to the instructions in the recipe below. 
3. I use a rolling pin to roll out the dough to fill the pan and press the edges at the sides so that it forms an upstanding rims all around. Refrigerate for 10 minutes.
4. Scatter with bits of butter all over.

5. Prepare the apples as per instructions below. Arrange apples slices on the crust and sprinkle a mixture of cinnamon, sugar and rosemary (I use thymes) over the apples evenly.
6. Bake for 8 minutes in a preheated oven at 425F (I baked mine for 10 minutes),  remove pan from oven, then lower the oven temperature to 375F.
7. Scatter the top with shredded cheese and continue baking for another 5 minutes until cheese has melted but not bubbling. (It took mine an additional 10 minutes more as it was not brown enough).
8. The baked pizza pie is ready!

Testing time : Of course a slice was quickly cut barely 5 minutes out from the oven!

Let me just admire the pizza pie first!!  Haha!

Review : I like it, the kids love it, my hubby not so! When you take a first bite, first you taste the saltiness and softness of the cheese on top, then you get the next taste of the apples, a little bit sweet and tender.

The crust is lovely, with crusty crispy sides and bottom. Soft, spongy and tasty bread-like texture in the centre. It is especially good when eaten warm, my hubby does not like the combination of sweet and salty in this bake.  My kids love it, there was no leftovers!

Great with a cup of warm Earl Grey tea. I'll be using this easy crust for other savoury future bakes!

I'm sharing this with :

• Twelve Loaves, hosted by Cake Duchess, Creative Culinary and Life's A Feast, where the theme for the month of September is Cheese!
• Bake Your Own Bread (BYOB), hosted by Girlichef, Delectable Musings and My Discovery of Bread
• Recipe Box hosted by Bizzy Bakes

Apple Pizza Pie
(Apple Pie by Ken Haedrich)
1 recipe yeasted butter pastry (below)
fine cornmeal or semolina

Filling :
2 tablespoons cold unsalted butter, cut into small pieces
2 Golden Delicious or other firm-textured cooking apples, peeled and cored
1 tablespoon sugar
pinch of ground cinnamon
big pinch of finely chopped fresh rosemary leaves (I use thyme leaves)
2 cups sauerkraut (optional), drained and warmed
2 cups grated Gruyere or extra-sharp Cheddar cheese

1. If you haven't already, prepare the pastry and set it aside to rise for 1 hour. Meanwhile, lightly oil a large baking sheet and dust it with the cornmeal.
2. When the dough has risen, without punching it down, turn it out onto the center of the baking sheet. Using oiled fingers, press the dough out into a 13-inch circle, smoothing it, if you like, with a floured rolling pin. Try to keep it of even thickness; you want to aviod making thin spots you can see through. Pinch the dough around the edge, forming an upstanding rim. Refrigerate the dough for 10 minutes. Preheat the oven to 425 degrees.
3. Dot the surface of the dough with the butter. Halve the apples lengthwise. Place each half cut side down on a cutting board and cut into very thin slices. Arrange the slices on the crust, overlapping them slightly. Mix the sugar, cinnamon, and rosemary together in a small mixing bowl and sprinkle evenly over the apples.
4. Place the baking sheet on the center oven rack and bake for 8 minutes. Reduce the oven temperature to 375 degrees. Remove the pizza from the oven and sprinkle with the sauerkraut, if using. Sprinkle evenly with the cheese.
5. Bake the pizza for another 5 minutes, until the cheese has melted nicely; it shouldn't bubble. Do not overbake, since this is a buttery, porous dough, it tends to get fairly brown after about 15 minutes. Slice into wedges and serve as soon as possible.

Yeasted Butter Pastry

(makes enough pastry for 1 large pie)

1/2 cup lukewarm water

1 package (about 2 teaspoons) active dry yeast

2 cups unbleached all-purpose flour

1-1/2 tablespoons sugar

1/2 teaspoon salt 

1/4 cup (1/2 stick) cold unsalted butter, cut into 1/4-inch pieces

1 large egg yolk

1. Measure the water in a 1-cup glass measure. Sprinkle the yeast over the water, mixing briefly with a fork. Set aside for 5 minutes to dissolve the yeast.
2. Meanwhile, put the flour, sugar, and salt in a food processor. Pulse several times to mix. Remove the lid and scatter the butter pieces over the dry mixture. Pulse the machine 7 or 8 times, until the butter is broken into very small pieces.
3. Add the egg yolk to the yeast water; blend with a fork. Remove the lid from the processor and add the liquid. Pulse the machine repeatedly, until the dough coheres, then run the machine nonstop for 8 to 10 seconds to knead the dough. Remove the dough and place it in a medium-size oiled bowl, rotating the dough to coat the entire surface.
4. Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and set aside to rise in a warmish spot for 1 hour. If for some reason you're called away and you need to delay the rising, simply put the dough in the refrigerator.

kitchen flavour's notes :
For the filling :
~ Use a mixture of Fuji Apples and Granny Smith Apples
~ Use thyme leaves instead of rosemary leaves
~ Omit the sauerkraut
~ Use Cheddar cheese
I rolled the dough out with the help of a small rolling pin into an 11-inch pizza pan. Baking time extended by another 10 minutes as the pastry was not brown enough.