I credit my mom with pretty much every creative fiber of my being I possess. Mom is the original master seamstress, papercrafter and cook in our household - the three of us were fortunate enough to get some of that gift. One of the distinctive memories I have of one of the things Mom made while we were growing up was shu-cream (Japanese Cream Puffs, known to most folks as a variation of the French pastry, Pate a Chou). Mom used to make them often, and I have been thinking about these Cream Puffs.

So, in honor of Mother's Day, I set out to recreate some of the magic that came out of Mom's kitchen.

Japanese cookbooks are written with weighted measurements, as opposed to cups - which, if you read Alton Brown's I'm Just Here For More Food you'll see that he thinks this is a more accurate way to measure for baking. So I remember my Mom (and my sisters, when they would bake) carefully measuring things out on a bright red manual scale. I don't have a beautiful red scale. I have... a modern digital thing which is smaller than Mom's scale but doesn't have the personality it has.

So with my scale I set to work with Alton Brown's Pate a Chou recipe. Having never made them before I was more than a little worried when they came out of the piping bag looking like this.
Really Alton? Measuring by weight is BETTER?!


Then, after the baking process they surprised me by doing their magical baking thing and turning into this
I'm sorry Alton, I should have never doubted you


The challenge, as it is, was finding a good custard recipe. I didn't want a white, over sugary confection in the middle. I wanted a very distinct and pudding-like custard. It has been many years since having had Mom's version but the flavor and texture of the custard is imprinted in my brain (tastebuds). Thanks to the internet, I found a recipe:

Vanilla Custard

330g milk
1/2 vanilla pod or 1 1/2 teaspoon vanilla extract
110g sugar
40g cornstarch
6 egg yolk
1/4 teaspoon salt
1 cup whipping cream- until soft peaks form

1. Scald milk and vanilla, let it infuse for 5 minutes.
2. Mix the egg yolks, sugar, salt and cornstarch making sure there are no lumps.
3. Heat the milk until it starts to boil.
4. Temper your yolk mixture by pouring 1/3 of the milk into the yolk mixture and combine, then pour back the yolk mixture into the pot.
5. Continuously stir using a whisk until small bubble appear. Cook for another 2 minutes. Remove and pour into another container and cover with cling film. Cool down and chill for 2 hours.
6. Once cold fold in the whipping cream. Place in fridge until ready to use.

*I should note here that my version did not set up properly after that first chill because the recipe called for corn flour and it just didn't set up. I had to put everything back on the stove and cornstarch in small quantities until it set up in custard-form. Then chill it again. Small setback, which I think could be avoided by using cornstarch from the get-go.

Eventually it was perfect. Once it was chilled and piped into the Puffs they were just as I remembered them.


Almost as good as Moms.

Bias Tape

Bias Tape, originally uploaded by pikatures.

Bias tape makers are awesome (and incredibly simple to use).

1/2 inch bias tape for a shirt I made for myself, plenty left over for something else. I can see myself making a slew of bias tape just for kicks. That is probably not very healthy.

125/365

125/365, originally uploaded by pikatures.

8:45 p.m.

It is pretty dark outside and these lights are the only thing lighting the way to the door. They are solar powered lights and therefore a little on the weak side, you can see how they usually look (just the top of the lamp lit) in the second lamp. With the magic of night photography, the lights look much more powerful (and the house very warm and inviting)

Tips courtesy of Shutter Sisters and Sarah-Ji