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On the subject of rank heresy and innovations, WHATEVER possessed bakers to start using inferior eclair filling???

Gaudior, who does not like innovations

Alice
I would live in that same perfect world of sweets, but when I try that in this world there are ugly little consequences! Sigh....
Michele

Dear Gaudior - welcome to the Byzantine Inquisition! That may be presumptuous, since you've declared your proud membership before I even thought of so doing, but please accept my admiration!
Meanwhile, to eclairs. The inferior fillings are usually surrounded by inferior pastries. The sensible solution (apart from finding a real pastry chef prepared to sell us real eclairs) is to make our own - which isn't too difficult, fortunately.
The pastry is the same as for cream puffs, just shaped differently. The good filling is creme patissiere, for which there are several recipes on the Internet (any recipe which proposes using liquid vanilla, let alone vanillin, instead of honest-to-goodness vanilla beans should of course be junked at once). The two classic flavors are vanilla and chocolate; they're both good. And it's not hard to invent some more flavors (hmmm).
Then, if we are true purists, we shall drizzle some melted dark chocolate (the best available, of course) on top of the finished eclair, let it all set in the icebox, and enjoy it.
Bon appetit!

Incognitus the Inquisitive Inquisitor

ooooo eclairs - proper ones.

Yup those are like the ones I get in France , plus of course all the variations on the theme , Religieuses , Divorces and another , which for the life of me , I can't remember the name [ it has 3 sections to it].

What really gets me is how the Creme patisserie filling varies. Every wee baker has his own secret recipe - and each is more delicious than the one you sampled the day before.

MMmmmmmm .

Beware Incognitus - I'm going to have to track you down and come and visit and sample your handiwork and cadge a slice of Imperial Torte too

Anhelyna

Dear Anhelyna - come and be welcome - just bring lots of recipes. By the way, was the pastry whose name you couldn't remember by any chance the Napoleon?

Incognitus the Inquisitive Inquisitor

Really I found the whole thing to be just disgusting.

....I knew that I was back on the fallen continent, North America, when returning here from God-fearing Italia in 1990 I found all of the cannole stuffed with creme instead of Ricotta!

Imagine that!

But even earlier, I had had an inkling that our North American culinary regime had descended into complete licentiousness.

Back in the 80s, we had a Milanese student in our dormitory in college in Baltimore. Bright fellow, chemistry major and son of a petroleum engineer. A true gentleman, he kept to his books and barely raised his voice. But one evening, he blew a gasket - exited the dorm screaming in a high pitched shout of disbelief, "You gonna put pizza on a bagel?!?!"

I should have known then.

Dear I the I I

If I can time it properly I'll even bring some samples

Noooo - I don't think it was a Napoleon <doubtful >

A divorce is in 2 sections - coffee at one end and chocolate at the other - and very nice too , the other one was in 2 sections - 1 coffee , 1 chocolate and the third section had pale green coating of a glaze type icing - sort of Pistachio colour. I may well try it on this trip

Anhelyna

Dear Andrew,

Now that was pretty cheesy . . .

Alex

Dear Andrew,

I was about seven years old and was playing alone in my backyard, when our Italian neighbors who were having a party in their backyard called me to the fence-- "Can we offer you this pastry...try it, it is really good!"

Well, I took it inside to the kitchen, sat down, and tried it....it was a pretty genuine cannoli, and the best cannoli I think I can ever remember eating....(ahh, the memories of youth!)

I have been hooked on cannoli ever since, and have been lucky to have had Italian neighborhoods close by wherever in the NY area I have lived, (even here in the suburbs).

Can I tell you what the most awesome birthday cake my local bakery (owned by Italian/Americans) ever suggested was? A chocolate layer cake, with whipped cream frosting, and cannoli filling between the layers. It has been a hit at every birthday party I ever held for my children--even with those stubborn and sometimes narrow minded Greek born guests who think that there is nothing better in the world than baklava! :rolleyes:

Alice, who is still on a diet, but knows that dreams don't have calories!

I haven't been on the forum much lately, but I was intrigued by the title of this thread, and thought I'd check it out. Imagine my surprise when the first post I saw was Gaudior's complaint about inferior eclair fillings!

I now see that I have missed this community greatly, and it is clear that I must return forthwith and with all due haste.

I do make a sublime cheesecake -- I never even order it in restaurants anymore, because I'm always disapponted. It is, however, one of only two recipes that I decline (oh so gracioiusly) to share. (The other is my secret glaze for grilled leg of lamb.... mmmmm....) Come to my house for Pascha dinner sometime, and you may sample both!

Thank you all for this conversation, which brings a smile to my face and a rumble to my tummy.

-- Penthaetria

I mean, "Alicia." I have to get used to using my name now that I'm -- ahem -- out of the closet.

Dear Penthaetria,

Do you do air express "to go" orders? Being a priest, I am definitely tied up on Pascha, but it sounds like something I have to check out.

Tasting the cheesecake and lamb during this fast, what a sinner I am .

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+

Dear Alicia,

It is very good to have YOU back with us again!

May God bless you, and as for those delicious recipes you have mastered, there is a blessing/ saying in Greek for someone who has just cooked something delicous: (hehehehe!!!--and okay, I know that it may lose something in the translation, but nevertheless, I thought it was both kind of cool and wierd at the same time when I first heard it in Greece):

"May your hands always have good health"! :p

With sisterly love in Christ,
Alice

Hey, has anyone ever noticed, speaking of culinary delights, how ordinary foods from different regions of the country just have a special taste that can't be replicated anywhere else. One obvious example is the sourdough bread made in San Francisco-the weather conditions there create a very special flavor. But one of my fondest food memories comes from a visit to my grandmother's house in Connecticut. She would buy fresh rolls, probably from an Italian bakery, and serve them with real (sinful!) butter. To this day I have never tasted rolls and butter that good again. Some combination of location, ethnic baking skills and recipes just created magic that you can never seem to recreate in your own kitchen.
Hungrily,
Michele

Michele:

My mother-in-law revealed to me the secret of Italian bread's crust. When you boil potatoes the next time, save that water that you would ordinarily pour out before mashing them. If you look at it, it's got some milkiness in it. That's starch that has come off the surface of the potatoes. She says that you save this for mixing your bread dough the next time you make homemade bread. That starch in the water is what gives the bread that wonderful, light crunchiness.

BOB

dear Michelle,

In line with your post, I remember as a kid my beloved grandmother making french fried potatoes from scratch. It would be something that no one missed the meal for, and generally there were more potatoes than the entree. Never was there a one left though.

Well, among certain recipes I have up my cassock, that and my secret "abbot" pasta sauce are my claims to fame. When I have guests here they are not bashful in asking for a quart to go home with them. Of course, I get the tupperware back in the mail. It is funny, but my own mother once was commenting on the sauce, and asked for the recipe. After I stopped laughing, I told her it was her recipe, with some additions to it. She could not believe it.

All in all, in the monastery I did my noviate in, all were assigned to the kitchen to cook. Each had his own specialty. For some that may have involved boiling water for tea, while others like myself took a a basic recipe and went to work. But as Saint Benedict stated in his rule, that we offer to God the best of our labors, even if it is in the culinary dept. I am surprised at the general ignorance of most of the food knowledge at hand we have here.

If this keeps up, we may have to petition the admin for another forum section, dealing with the best food recipes we have. Imagine that as an evangelization tool. Feed them, make them docile, and then when they too full to leave, teach them faith. I bet that was not even considered at the Whiting conference.

Joking around aside, maybe we should have a small section devoted to the food that are indegenious to our cultures and along with fasting recipes. It is a lot cheaper that a cookbook. What would you think, and yes we can have the elusive search for the recipe of the Imperial Torte included.

In IC XC,
Father Anthony+