It is done, I will do it today : My first canapés tasting.

It usually takes me a while to pass over my fears and my questions : ‘Will they all show up ? Will they like my food ? Will I mess up one of my recipe and I will be late and it will be a disaster ? If they like my food, will they call me anyway when they will have to organize a party ?….’

After a few months of finding bad excuses, I set the date with the manager of the restaurant cause I knew that : if I commit with someone, I have to do it no matter my fears…. So I started sending my invitation…

So the big day is today, I am running late and I have 17 people coming to try my canapés tonight… Scary…

I did my shopping and serious testing 2 days ago. I didn’t have any vegan dish and in London we have to think about vegetarian, vegan, gluten free, allergic, kosher and hallal people… So here is the menu :

– Prawns ravioles

– Chinese cabbage, chicken and peanuts bouchée

– Salmon terrine quenelles on brown bread

– Cold cucumber soup and creamy ice cube

– Mango and red onion croustade

– Lime cheese cake

– Mini profitéroles

– Irish coffee shot

It is normally 4 or 5 canapes per person, for today I will make 8 differents for people to have a better idea on what I can do.

I am working on my chouquette-choux à la crème for 2 weeks now, I can tell you that everybody tried them, my neighbors, my colleagues at work…

I tried 3 different recipes, different sizes of choux (depends on if it is chouquette, choux à la crème or profiteroles) to end up with the best recipe which gives you very puffy cute choux even with a bad and old gas oven like mine!  The kind of gas oven where you have the flame at the back, the one which burn your tart at the back (because too close to the flame) and doesn’t cook the front part. My oven is like that and it has no window so you can’t see what’s going on inside. So I am trying for 2 weeks not because it is difficult to make choux pastry but because I had to find the right temperature (the one on my oven which correspond to 200°) the right height for the baking tray (again if it’s too high it will burn my choux on the top and not cook them in the middle, and if it’s too low it will take 2 times more without being cooked properly as the temperature as to be high if we want the choux to puff up).

Ladies and gentlemen here is the recipe for people who have a normal or anormal oven !!!

Chouquettes deserve that kind of announcement, I’ve always loved chouquettes, we eat a lot of chouquettes in France, you buy them in bakery and you can eat and eat and eat without being full ever (me at least) as it is so light and airy… Just the perfect treat, the thing you eat by pure pleasure.

With an oven with no window the good thing is that it’s always a surprise… You should see me when I open the oven’s door and see a good surprise, jumping and shouting alone in the middle of my kitchen !

‘Chouquettes’ recipe’ (for around 40 little choux)

– 250ml of water

– ½ tea spoon salt

– 1 tbsp of sugar

– 80g butter

– 125g flower

– 4 eggs

– Grain sugar ‘special chouquette’

Bring water, salt, sugar and butter to the boil. When the butter is melted add the flower at once and mix energetically with a wooden spoon on a low flame till the dough breaks down from the pan.

Remove from heat and add one egg, mix again till the dough absorbs it completely, do it the same way for the 3 eggs left.

Preheat your oven to 200°.

Place some greaseproof paper on a baking tray. Take some dough with 2 tea spoons and place your choux with 2-3cm space between each. You can also use a piping bag. Drop some sugar grain on each choux and put in the oven (baking tray to middle height) for 15 min then put the temperature down to 175° for 15 min more.

After 30 min, leave your choux to cool down in the oven.

You probably have a window on your oven so you will enjoy seeing them puffing ! And be able to do choux, profiteroles, chouquettes and éclair au chocolat as it is the same dough.

I found some kind of sugar grains at the ‘Scandinavian Kitchen’ in London, it is not exactly the same but it works well with it. In a French deli you should find some, otherwise on internet, ‘Beghin-say’ has launched a new range of ‘sucre en grains’.

Awoke this morning at 4.15 am by my friend saying that he won’t be able to come and help me tonight. It was impossible to go back to sleep after that but it’s good as I can write this post and start cooking, 6.17 am is a good time to make chouquettes no ?