a few desserts

Being busy socializing this holiday season means that most of my baking has deviated from the blog agenda, but I don't like the idea of not posting just because I'm not doing family recipes.  And I'm a bit proud of my efforts so I might as well show off.

First up, my croquembouch! Making the profiteroles was super easy, as was making the orange blossom flavoured pastry creme to fill them. The spun sugar/caramel was a bit more difficult, I had to have a few tries to make it without burning it. My downfall, I think, was in over-filling the profiteroles because they were very heavy and as I built the tower up higher, it started falling in on itself, I don't have a croquembouch cone so I was free-forming the tower which might have been my other downfall. Never the less, I was well pleased with myself. Delia Smith's choux pastry recipe (x4) and a basic pastry creme recipe (x4) with orange zest and orange blossom water added instead of vanilla (I read about 5 pastry creme recipes and can't remember which one I used).  I decorated it with spun sugar and hand piped chocolate stars.

Second is my baked chocolate and orange mousse.  James Martin rarely sends me wrong, I added a shortbread base as I was afraid of it sticking to the bottom or not being able to serve it neatly and decorated with candied orange slices.  Much as I love James' love for desserts, I think he doesn't realize that most people don't need as big a serving has he indicates, the full recipe stated serves 4, I also only made a half recipe of mousse and it easily made 6 generous slices.

Lastly is my Christmas dinner dessert, Chocolate and Chestnut souffle Mont Bry, based on a Larousse Gastronomique recipe (I added a bit of cocoa powder to make it chocolaty).  I don't have a souffle dish, nor do I have 6 ramekins, so I used 4 mugs, there wasn't enough mixture to fill them right to the top as per instructions (I guess my mugs were a too big) so they didn't rise much over the top of the mug and the slanted sides of the mug probably added to the result of the souffles capsizing a bit, but not bad for a first attempt.

Sorry, I haven't written out the recipes, but I have referenced what I can remember so you can so you can go track them down if you're interested.