Profiteroles and Peppermint

At a restaurant last night, I had a tasty delight...a profiterole. When I saw the name on the menu it conjured up memories of a cooking experience I had about three years ago.

A coworker invited me to go to a cooking class at Whole Foods here in Austin. His wife was going and I invited my friend Gary. Well I'm not the most sophisticated cook...so I quickly discovered that I was way out of my league! We were making a meal and each couple was given one recipe to produce for the meal.

Gary and I were assigned profiteroles. I had never heard of them before and Gary was equally baffled. The recipe didn't even have a picture so I wasn't even really sure exactly what I was making. We were in a kitchen with about 6 or 8 professional quality stoves and one couple at each stove. My coworker and his wife were at a stove far away at the other side of the room. Our instructor gave us the recipe and told us where we could find the ingredients. Since this was Whole Foods, the ingredients were top quality.

However, the instructor did not tell us anything about using the stove or our cooking task. I was used to my stove at home, but this stove had controls that were quite complex and totally new to me. Gary kept looking to me for cooking expertise, and I tried my best to dredge up my best cooking judgement....but we ended up being a comedy of errors. After struggling for about an hour we were finally finished with our masterpieces.

Through some sort of miracle, the profiteroles turned out to be quite tasty. The other couples enjoyed theirs and the entire meal was wonderful. However, our struggles that evening will stay in my memory forever.

So you can imagine what went through my mind when I saw profiteroles on the menu. I had to try them. This probably makes me sound quite naive...like I never see profiteroles on menus...but usually when I eat at restaurants, the main course is so filling that I don't even pay attention to which desserts are on the menu. For some reason, on this lovely evening a few weeks before Christmas, I looked at the desserts and found the word profiteroles staring back at me from the menu.

Well as you can see from the picture above, the profiteroles were lovely! The choux pastry was filled with peppermint ice cream. I was in heaven with the peppermint titillating my tastebuds and the pastry providing my  stomach with that wonderful feeling of fullness.

Just Hungry has a nice discussion on making choux pastry. This is not just the pastry used for profiteroles, but also for eclairs and beignets.

You can watch Le Gourmet make the pastry on YouTube. I found this very helpful after struggling through my first attempt at making profiteroles. Once the pastry is made, you can cut it in half and put a creme or sauce or ice cream between the halves.

Martha Stewart has a wonderful profiterole recipe with a raspberry filling.With just a small amount of effort you can easily make profiteroles with a variety of fillings.

Through profiteroles, I have found that seeing pictures and reading recipes before cooking helps me prepare unfamiliar recipes!

Sauerkraut: Pickled Cabbage

I encountered this contraption on my visit to Winedale yesterday. German immigrants used it to shred cabbage for making sauerkraut in nineteenth century Texas. Cabbage was placed in the box at the bottom, then the box was pushed over the blade (the gray part) and the cabbage was shredded.


Sauerkraut is a wonderful way to preserve cabbage for eating later. People make sauerkraut by pickling cabbage through a process called lacto-fermentation. This is the same process that is traditionally used to make kim-chi and pickled cucumbers.




For sauerkraut, fermentation occurs in three parts. During the first part anaerobic bacteria increase the acidity of the cabbage, salt, and water mixture. This makes the environment tolerable for the bacteria in later phases. The second part begins when the acidity becomes so high that different bacteria become dominant. During the third part, Lactobacillus bacteria species ferment the remaining sugars. The lactic acid produced from the fermentation creates the tart taste.

The picture on the right shows a bed of sauerkraut supporting a pickled ham hock.


You can find instructions for making sauerkraut, the science and history of making sauerkraut and additional recipes on the web.

A Winedale Christmas with Mustang Grape Wine

Yesterday I drove about two hours east of Austin to a collection of historic buildings called Winedale. They were having a Christmas celebration representing the era of the buildings, which was about 1830 to 1850. 


There I encountered Mustang Grape Wine. The wild grapes in the area are called Mustang grapes. They are so highly acidic that they can burn your mouth if you try to eat them raw. However, they make good wine. The trick is to add something in the recipe to neutralize or dilute the acidity.


Jack Keller has a nice website that explains how to make this kind of wine. In the picture, the large bottle holds home-made Mustang Grape Wine. I tasted it, and it was quite good. The wooden implement next to it is a grape pounder. 

You cannot stomp Mustang Grapes because their acidity would burn your feet. Therefore, an implement is needed to crush them.


I was confused about the difference between Mustang grapes and Muscadine grapes. Both of these grapes are native to North America. Mustang grapes are Vitus mustangensis and Muscadine grapes are Vitus rotundifolia. Both are found in Texas.


People also use Mustang grapes to make jams and jellies. The important thing to remember though is not to eat them directly from the vine. They will burn your mouth and taste absolutely awful. But they were quite useful for the settlers in Texas.

Winedale is located in an area that was settled by German and Czech immigrants. The buildings show their distinct influence. The ceilings of the houses have painted designs that have a definite German/Czech influence.

Wooden Christmas pyramids originated in the Erzgebirge region of Germany, and a wonderful historical version is on display at Winedale. Some people believe that the tradition of the Christmas Tree originated with these wooden Christmas pyramids. The pyramids date back to the 16th century when miners tied wooden sticks together, made a rack and placed wooden carved figures and candles below the rack. They called them Light Racks or Lichtergestell.  



The pictures are not great because the pyramid was in a glass case and many people were making it difficult to find a good photography position.

The pyramid version in Winedale even has wooden miners on it in honor of the originators of the pyramids. The docents told us that this pyramid was only brought out one time, Christmas Eve, during the year for the children to see.  


My adventure to Winedale was fruitful because I had never tasted Mustang wine before. It would probably be a lot of fun to make Mustang wine if I had the time.

Adventures in Candying Citron!

This bumpy little fruit enticed me with its floral, lemony fragrance and unusual appearance. I had to have it, so I brought it home and wondered what to do with it since I had never seen a citron before. 


I decided to make candied citron peels so I found a recipe. With anticipation, I cut the citron open and noticed the thickness of the pith as you can see below. Although the flesh had very little juice, I needed the pith and skin, so I didn't mind.

The first step in making the candied peels is boiling the pieces in water, then pouring off the water, then repeating about 3 or 4 times. The purpose of this is to remove the bitterness from the pith. I thought this was going really well.


At the end of this process, I drained the water. I then added sugared water syrup and turned the heat back up. I simmered the mixture until the peels were nearly transparent and the syrup had been absorbed by the peels.

I then proceeded to make a huge mess as I tried dragging the peels through powdered sugar. I needed to coat the pieces in sugar.  But I managed, and you can see the results below.

The next step was to taste my masterpiece! I blissfully popped a piece in my mouth and noticed that it had a touch of bitterness, but the sugar made the taste tolerable. Maybe I had just eaten a piece that had not been boiled enough.


So I tried another piece and the same thing happened. By the time I tried a third piece, I think my taste buds were getting used to the bitterness and it tasted okay.


So then I tried a piece out on one of my unsuspecting family members. She tried to say nice things, but I could tell that she was tasting the bitterness when her mouth puckered!


I thought maybe they would taste better in the morning. I put them in a zip-lock bag and went to bed. The next morning I was anxious to try them so I hurried to the kitchen. I picked up the bag and noticed that the pieces were "mushy" and limp. I opened the bag and with caution picked out one of the pieces and popped it in my mouth. During the night it had taken on the consistency of a "gummy bear" candy. And the bitter taste was even more pronounced. 


I have no way of explaining my failure in executing this recipe! I threw the rest of my "masterpiece" into the garbage. Maybe you will have better luck with candied citron!


However, while working on the citron, I also candied lemon peels that I had left over. The picture below shows them simmering. This endeavor was much more successful luckily!

As I looked for a candied citron recipe, I discovered that the citron has quite a history. Although not successful with the candying, I am glad I brought the citron home because the fragrance delighted me for several days. And it was a beautiful yellow color.

Moroccan Pastries from a Church Bazaar!

Church bazaars and craft festivals pop up all over Central Texas during December. Last weekend I visited a few. A Moroccan lady at one church was selling pastries that she made in her own home. I had to try them.

She told me what they were, but of course I promptly forgot. I can only remember the name for the crescent shaped "Horns of the Gazelle,"  or Kaab el Ghazal. I find it interesting that Kaab el Ghazal translates literally from Arabic as ankles of the gazelle, but the pastries are shaped like crescents to resemble the shape of gazelle horns.

The Kaab el Ghazal have a wonderful taste! The outer covering is sort of hard and crunchy and an almond paste filling is inside. Orange flower water gives the concoction a fabulous flavor. These cookies are commonly made for special occasions in Morocco. The recipe for these looks interesting and would probably be worth a try...although I have not made them myself. I think I will give them a try when I have a chance.

The round cookies dusted with powdered sugar are called Ghoriba.They had a delightful almond flavor. The triangular pastries on the left seemed like Baklava, but they might have a specific Moroccan name. The other triangular pastries tasted like coconuts.

Lemons: They Come in Pink?

What if pink lemonade could be made straight from the lemon? Well these little babies can do the trick!

They are variegated pink lemons. According to a New York Times Article the variegated pink lemons came from a mutant in an ordinary lemon tree, Citrus limon eureka in Burbank, California around 1930. Lycopene gives the pink color to the lemons, much like it does for pink grapefruits.

These variegated lemons come from trees with attractive variegated leaves. The trees can be grown in pots, and are popular among gardeners because of their beauty.

Lemon trees are more susceptible to cold weather than orange trees, however they can be grown in poor soil.

The picture on the right shows the flesh of three kinds of lemons. The variegated pink lemon is in the front, and the small lemon in the back is a typical Eureka lemon. The large lemon in the back is a Meyer lemon. The Meyer lemon is a hybrid of a lemon and mandarin orange.

So of course I had to do a taste test. I first tasted a bit of the flesh of each lemon. Between tastes I had a cracker to cleanse my palate. I then tasted the juice of each lemon. My impression of the pink lemon was that it had a slightly peppery taste. Otherwise, the taste was quite similar to that of the regular lemon. They Meyer lemon tasted the best to me. The lemon taste component was much stronger than the orange, but the orange moderated the tartness.

The juice is shown on the left. The regular lemon juice is on the far left, the pink juice is in the center, and the Meyer juice is on the right. I had pretty much the same impression of the juices as I had of the flesh tasting.

The great advantage of the pink lemon is its beauty. I can visualize sitting on the back porch in the summer with a glass pitcher of lemonade with some pink lemon slices floating in the juice. How magical!


The origin of the lemon is uncertain, although it is commonly thought to have originated in or near India. Lemons were known to the Ancient Romans, so they must have entered Europe earlier than the 1st century AD. They were introduced to Persia, Iraq, and Egypt around 700 AD, and was first mentioned in literature as a component of Islamic gardens in the 10th century. Christopher Columbus brought lemon seeds to the New World on his ships.

Lemons have many uses, including

• stain remover
• bleaching freckles
• furniture polish
• perfume and cologne
• cattle feed (the peels)
• keeping flowers fresh longer than normal
• diuretic, laxative, cold preventative and remedy, scurvy preventative and other medical uses.

Lemons provide a familiar enhancement to many foods, and delight us with their beautiful colors and flavors.
What is your favorite use for lemons? Have you tried pink lemons?

More information about lemons can be found at http://www.hort.purdue.edu/newcrop/morton/lemon.html.

Gugelhupf: German Sweet Holiday Bread

The last time I visited the market I was delighted by a wonderland of European Christmas treats. I spotted one called Gugelhupf which was described as Marie Antoinette's favorite cake.

Gugelhupf is actually a yeast cake and has some properties of a cake and some properties of a bread. I found out that the name comes from two old German words, gugel meaning sphere and hupf meaning sphere. These words describe the shape which is traditional and is said to resemble the turbans worn by Turkish soldiers who participated in battles in Central Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries.

There are several spellings for Gugelhupf including kugelhopf, kugelhupf, and gugelhopf. Versions of it are traditional to Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Croatia, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Poland, and Hungary. 

The texture of the gugelhupf is bread-like, as shown in the picture on the right. Currents and raisins are either added within the dough or in layers within. The bread texture is achieved by using yeast instead of baking powder or baking soda. 

The taste of this version of gugelhupf is slightly sweet. It provides a good foundation for butter and jellies or preserves. Gugelhupf is eaten more as a coffee cake than as a dessert. It really is not sweet enough to be a dessert.

A recipe can be found at gugelhupf.