This MCO, which is the longest school holidays in our education history, our baking queen gets to experiment baking and cooking almost everyday. It’s hurting our wallets as she whips up non-economical bakes and dishes most of the time. But then again, having good culinary and baking skills are essential survival skills. Heck, she could one day run a food production factory or cafe! 🤑 So I let the girl play masak-masak on condition that she has to churn out healthy eats and clean up the kitchen. But I still have to clean up after her all the time 😓
Two days ago, she churned out some Choux Au Craquelin (crispy cream puffs) and eclairs. It’s her second time baking them and her cream puffs taste just as good as Beard Papa’s. Years ago when Beard Papa’s first opened its outlet in KL, we went crazy over their cream puffs. We would buy a half dozen box each time. Now that our baking queen could bake these cream puffs, we don’t have to spend so much on Beard Papa’s anymore.
Baking these cream puffs is time consuming and involves many tedious steps but our baking queen finds the entire process enjoyable and fun. So much patience, time and passion are required to churn out these delicate babies. From whipping the cream to mixing the pastry dough to poking holes onto the puffs before piping fresh vanilla cream in, this girl thoroughly enjoys each step without a huff or puff.
This ambitious girl even made five different flavors for her cream puffs – original, matcha, organic black sesame paste, caramel (which she made from scratch) and coffee. On the same day too, she made a batch of Gochujang Korean sauce from scratch!
Sherilyn uses fresh vanilla pods in the cream, thus the cream tastes almost identical to the ones from Beard Papa’s.
Black sesame flavored vanilla cream:
Matcha flavored vanilla cream:
Caramel glazed eclairs filled with vanilla cream.
These cream puffs are so addictive that I couldn’t resist popping a few into my mouth, though it was already way past my window of eating time in the evening! Diet be damned. Thus, the reason why I need to workout so hard everyday or I won’t be able to look down after the lockdown! 🏃♀️
Choux Au Craquelins and Eclairs in the oven, waiting to be filled with fresh cream.
Side track a little – hubs won this Sharp oven as first prize in a lucky draw organized by RT Pastry recently. The oven came at such an opportune time as our 11-year old built-in Fotile oven expired for good.
Cream puff monster! If she adds a tinge of blue coloring to the dough, this would look like Cookie Monster!
The following day, Sherilyn made a fresh batch of Eclairs (with freshly made vanilla cream filling) to gift to her ertswhile Sunday School teachers, who have moved back to Malaysia. I sent the Eclairs to S & J by Grab delivery yesterday evening after Sherilyn spent the entire afternoon in the kitchen churning out these babies with a small drama which almost rendered the gift impossible.
Coffee vanilla cream and caramel glazed with vanilla cream filled Eclairs.
In between baking cream puffs, she made a batch of Gochujang sauce from scratch! In the morning, she slow-roasted some fresh red chilies in the toaster, which resulted in very aromatic toasted chilies. Then she pounded the toasted red chilies with a mortar and pestle before blending the ground chili with organic miso paste, fresh garlic, organic soy sauce and Gula Melaka syrup. The result is a a batch of lip-smacking Gochujang sauce, which she used to cook Sundubu jigae (Korean Spicy Soft Tofu Stew) for lunch the next day.
Sherilyn has inherited her love for cooking and baking from her granny, my mum. Till today at age 74, my mum still bakes and cooks all her meals, breads, cakes, kuih, healthy soups and much more. She even makes her own gluten-free noodles and gluten-free flours.
Blending the Gochujang ingredients in Sherilyn’s best kitchen aid – the Kenwood Major food mixer that comes with a mixer bowl, blender, noodle maker, etc.
Our lunch the next day – Sundubu jigae (Korean Spicy Soft Tofu Stew) which tastes just like the real deal! Tastes like something that you’d eat from an expensive Korean restaurant.
Ingredients used: Homemade Gojuchang, radish, tofu, big onions, dried wakame, sausages, ‘foo pei’, eggs, squids, anchovies seasoning, radish kimchi (can be any ingredient) and lots of love💓
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