Tresses au beurre

I actually made these on Sunday (which is my baking day) but have only just got around to writing up the recipe.

I love to make these because they are so pretty. On Sunday morning I made one for each of the three of us, and a larger one which I put in the freezer for another day. Here's the recipe. Bon appetit!

Makes 2 medium or 6 small tresses

500g flour

1 tsp salt

1 tbsp sugar

75g butter

300 ml milk

20g fresh yeast

1 egg for glazing

Preheat the oven to 180°C

Mix the flour, salt and sugar and rub in the butter.

Heat the milk to body temperature and add the yeast, mix until it has "melted".

Pour the milk/yeast into the flour and knead for 5-10 minutes until you have a soft springy dough.

Cover and leave to rise for 1 hour.

Knock back the dough and knead briefly again.

Separate the dough in two parts (and each again in three parts if you're making the small tresses)

Separate again each part in three parts, which you should roll with you hands to a long sausage shape.

Take the three sausage shapes and make them into a plait, making sure you tuck in the two ends well.

Do the same with the remaining pieces of dough.

Lay them onto a baking sheet, cover and leave to rise for 30 minutes approx.

Brush with beaten egg and cook in the preheated oven at 180° for 20 minutes (small size) or 30 minutes (medium size) until nicely golden.

Leave to cool. They are nice and buttery so you really don't need to add anything to them, though I must admit I like them with just a little bit of jam.

Inauguration with music!

The small town in which I live was home to  the French writer and philosopher Voltaire from 1759 to 1778.

During his stay here and because of his outlandish way of life compared to the very serious Calvinist attitude in Geneva, Voltaire was often obliged to travel to and from Geneva. According to local legend, he used a road that ran straight from his French castle to the Swiss border.  The first part of the road crossed a field and was bordered with poplar trees but they were cut down "for safety reasons"  in 2008. The lower part of the road has, after various agreements and conventions between the town and the local landowners, been open to walkers, joggers and cyclists since last month.

Today was the official inaurguration of the lower part of the road, named l'allée de la Tir. It was a pity the sun wasn't out today, it has been beautiful for the past three days but I suppose we all knew it couldn't last. At least it didn't rain.

The mayor and other local dignitaries made the customary speech and cut the ribbon, but for me the highlight of the morning was the wonderful band who played from the centre of town to the beginning of the allée, followed by the crowd of well-wishers who particpated in the inauguration.

 

Now we're just waiting for the higher part of the road to be re-opened. It is in a large grassy park which will be further developed as an "urban park" (whatever that means). According to the town website it is open to competition among developers, and the project should be chosen by the end of 2010.

Scotch pancakes with apples

I had promised myself that this blog won't ONLY be a cooking blog. I don't want you to think that the only thing I do is cooking!  I have lots of other things to tell you but I have once again been very busy at work, and I don't want to talk about that, so I haven't had much time to put my thoughts together to tell you about everything else I have in mind.
So I have decided that for the meantime, I'll give you another recipe.
Scotch pancakes are one of my favourite breakfast recipes. They are quick and easy to prepare and appreciated by everyone I know. To make them a bit more special, I like to fry up some apple slices in butter and sugar and add put them between two pancakes, and top them with fromage frais. You could also use whipped cream but I do try to avoid too much fat (do you really believe me?) And this time I had some melted chocolate so I put a drop of that on the top too.

Here's what it looks like. For the recipe, click here.  Please let me know if you like this recipe.

Sunday is baking day

I got up early and decided to make croissants and pains au chocolate for breakfast.

I've lived in France for 27 years now, but only discovered the secret of croissant-making about five years ago. They do take a long time to prepare, about four hours from start to finish, but much of that is time waiting for the dough to rise, or the time they spend in the oven. I love to make them because they make me feel creative and all that work really is worth it when you bite into the delicious flaky, butteriness of them.

If there are any left over, they freeze very well and can be gently heated in a warm oven.

I make my croissants with organic flour, butter, milk, yeast, salt and a small amount of sugar.

For the recipe, click here.

Then in the afternoon here's what I made: an apple tart. The pastry looks a bit over-cooked but it was nice and crispy lol. I cheated a bit because I lined my pastry with apple sauce, it keeps the whole thing nice and moist.This was for afternoon tea. That's a lot of butter in one day - maybe it's a good job I only have time to make patisseries at the weekend!