Bokkenpootjes

Bokkenpootjes are some sort of macarons, but made in a different way.

Macarons and bokkenpootjes both have sugar, almonds and egg whites. But the bokkenpootjes have a little bit flour in it too and they are fluffier. It's mostly the shape that's different and the texture is lighter than macarons.

The paste between the two biscuits is called "butter cream".

So I just wanted to try making these long shaped "macarons".

The following link gives a video of how I will make it.

How to make the biscuit:




You need:
- 250 g broyage (70% almond powder and 30% powder sugar)
   = 175 g almond powder + 75 g powder sugar
- 40 g flour
- 200 g egg white
- 225 g sugar
- some salt

Whip the egg white with the sugar until soft peaks. Add the flour to the broyage, mix it. Then add it to the whipped egg white.

Make long shapes of the pastry on an oven tray. Bake it in the oven for 15 minutes.


How to make the butter cream:

You need:
- 250 ml milk
- 50 g sugar
- 2 egg yolks
- 1 table spoon of flour
- 250 g butter
- 60 g powder sugar

Add milk and half the sugar in a pan and warm it up. Mix the egg yolks with the other half of the sugar in a bowl and then add the flour to it. Put this egg yolk mixture in the pan with milk. Cook it on low heat and then let it cool down. We call this "confectioner's cream".

Mix the butter and the powder sugar. Then mix it with the confectioner's cream.


How to make the Bokkenpootjes:

Add the butter cream in between two biscuits and dip them in some molten chocolate.

The result?

This was my pastry:

These were the "bokkenpootjes":

Conclusion:

These are the most work-intensive things I have ever made. I gave up on the chocolate as it was too much work. My confectioner's cream wasn't right the first time because the heat was much too high, so I had to make it a second time on lower heat. Then I didn't have enough butter for the butter cream. There was so much weighing and mixing and cooking and baking to make such little things. So many pots and pans that I needed to make it. I'm not going to make these again, that I'm sure of. It's not worth it.

Brusselse Wafel

I said I wasn't going to make waffles again, but that was only for Luikse Wafels. I'm now trying to make Brusselse Wafels. The nice thing about these waffles is that there is no sugar involved! You will need to put ice cream on top of it, or add some whipped cream with strawberries.

I took this recipe from Jeroen Meus:
http://www.een.be/programmas/dagelijkse-kost/recepten/brusselse-wafels

You need:
- 1 egg white
- 1 egg yolk
- 150 g self rising flour
- 50 g molten butter
- 125 g milk
- 125 g warm water
- 3 g dry yeast or 9 g fresh yeast

First you activate the dry yeast by adding yeast to the milk and water mixture. Do not overheat it, the temperature may not go above 35 °C. Then you add this milk/yeast mixture to the egg yolk and mix it. If you use fresh yeast, you take 3 times as much the amount of dry yeast. For example: 3 g dry yeast is 9 g fresh yeast.

Next on, slowly add the flour to the mixture and keep mixing it. Then add the molten butter to the mixture. Add a bit of salt if you want.

Finally, whip the egg white until stiff and fold it to the mixture.

Let it stand for 20 minutes in a warm place of 35 °C at 75% humidity.

Then bake it in a waffle iron at hottest temperature.

This is the resulting mixture, it's a pretty liquid dough:

Now I bake it and this is the final result:

They were perfect! Crispy on the outside, creamy on the inside and no yeast taste.

Kaasbroodje

A "kaasbroodje" is a dutch speciality (especially those from Panos are really great) and is actually cheese with roux wrapped in crispy puff pastry. It's one of my favourite snacks.

To produce the cheese-milk-flour-butter mixture I used this recipe from Fans of Flanders.
In this video you see how they make "Cheese Croquettes". But instead of making a cheese croquette, you make a "kaasbroodje" in puff pastry.

To make the cheese mixture do this:
- cook some flour with butter
- add milk
- add white wine
- add cheese (e.g. Old Bruges Cheese or Leerdammer)

Make sure you add enough flour to the butter to make a pretty thick pastry. Cook the roux long enough to get rid of the flour taste. Add the milk until the pastry gets smooth, but stays thick. Then add some wine and then some cheese. There are no recipes for this, just experiment, it's not that difficult. Don't forget to season with pepper and salt.

Then wrap the cheese mixture into some puff pastry and bake it at 180 °C in the oven.

Spinach Quiche

Quiche is not a very difficult thing to make. What you need are eggs and vegetables. You will also need pastry. I like to use puff pastry.

I use this recipe:
- 2 eggs
- 9 egg yolks
- Two cups of heavy cream (about 500 ml)
- Salt and pepper
- 500 g spinach or broccoli to fill the bottom of the pan
- Gruyère cheese
- Parsly

First, you bake the pastry till it's crispy. Second you mix the eggs, egg yolk and the cream. Add some spices to it. You can heat it up so it gets baked faster. The spinach should be cooked in hot water for half a minute and then you chop it in little pieces. Add the spinach to the pastry bottom and fill it in with the egg/cream custard.

Then bake it for about an hour on 170 °C. Ten minutes before end you can add some gruyère cheese. Or you can also add the cheese to the custard. It's how you like it. Not too difficult really.

This is the end result:

The taste and texture was pretty good. Not too much liquid, not too dry. Just perfect.