yum, truffles
this doesn't have to do with baking, but you brought up the issue of chocolate. whenever my older sister travels anywhere and asks me what i want her to get me, i say chocolate. so the latest and greatest has been this box of chocolates from amsterdam- some museum she went to, so each chocolate is wrapped in a miniature picture of some famous painting. and i *just* ate the last piece.
no more dutch chocolate for me.
this past sunday i made eclairs, that apple cake, and a chocolate truffle cake for an msa event.
the eclairs were (and always are) the hardest to make. normally i have fun doing it, but because i was in a rush it was pretty annoying. you have to make the batter first (it's a cooked one) and make your pastry shapes while it's still warm (so it puffs up in the oven). my first several shapes are always duds; i get good at them like halfway through. i made the pastry cream (it's pretty much a custard) ahead of time, but you have to give yourself quite a bit of time to fill the pastries; it's not easy. and then you dip them into chocolate + heavy cream. however, one thing i did that i liked was that instead of dipping them into that, i put the chocolate in a little ziploc, snipped off the tiniest bit from a corner, and made a zig-zag design on each one.
man i need a camera just so i can take pictures while i bake stuff. i know that describing all that probably made zero sense.