Bubble Eclairs

My tasters, nor the baker (me), are experts on eclairs…some had tried them before but others never had.   I for one, had no idea there were so many options…crackle topping, streusel topping, pearl sugar topping…and that is just the toppings… the fillings are a whole different story.  These that we are making are “bubble eclairs” because the cream puffs are placed right next to each other creating a row of three little puffs so close they bake together.

I have to share my favorite comment about this recipe…”these look so good…they remind me of when I was a kid and we went to get donuts…these were the ones, the fancy ones on the top shelf we weren’t allowed to choose” haha!

There are the bold eclairs, simple eclairs and everything in between.  I decided to do a more simple one with just a dusting of confectioners sugar and then go all out on the filling, making the Chocolate Pastry Cream.  I would say both are relatively easy.

This recipe makes quite a few eclairs which is nice..it also allowed for seconds.  My husband had the suggestion to add some whipped cream on top of the chocolate cream, which to hear everyone’s reaction, took it over the top.   According to my tasters, to say these were a hit would be an understatement!  Everyone loved these!  They were called “the bomb” and in one taster’s top 5.  Not too difficult and quite showy…I would say they are a keeper!

Cherry Crumb Tart

This was a fun one!

• I loved how easy the recipe was
• I loved that I remembered this time to have a light touch with the tart dough
• I loved that I remembered to tent the crust
• I loved how I could make each part and move onto the next one during the waiting time
• I loved decorating with the delicious cherries
• I loved that my parents said “I hit a home run with this one”
• I loved that my in-laws “adored this one”
• I loved that my husband loved it and said the next day he couldn’t believe it was even better than the first slice
• I loved that every single taster said this one was amazing

This makes the not so good ones worth it…you know you will come across some that are truly keepers.  I have a feeling this one might be requested 🙂

Miniature Florentine Squares

I had a feeling as I was baking, that these might be more widely accepted by my tasting group than the last few recipes we have made.  We have already made the Ladyfinger Genoise, but in this recipe it is created into mini-cakes with a very showy marbleized design on top…”echoing the intricate patterns celebrated by Florence’s master papermakers.” I always try very hard to follow the recipes we bake as is…that is the point, but there were a few modifications I made in this one…both because of what I had on hand and for ease of getting these to my tasting group. I used Limoncello for my gloss of wine syrup and blackberry jelly for my filling. I cut my cake into 16 squares instead of 36 and to help preserve the moistness until I got them delivered to tasters, I glazed each side of each cake as well as the top.  We had plenty of the white chocolate glaze and I figured who ever complains because there is too much glaze, right? I also individually decorated each top instead of before the cake was cut. The most fun in this recipe was decorating the tops of each mini cake.  After you pipe milk chocolate and semi-sweet chocolate into lines on top, you pull the glaze and chocolate with a “multi-pronged tool” to create the pattern.  I used a toothpick and just did it multiple times and it worked perfectly. I would say these are very pretty and would look great on a dessert table at an event.  ALL of my tasters loved this one, surprise, surprise…and even I ate it.  For me, it seemed like a lot of work and it looked better than it tasted.  They were inhaled and gone though so I guess everyone else would disagree haha!