Wednesday, August 26, 2009

Counting calories - part II

Today I will continue counting calories of the pastry and dough recipes I gave. The topic will be puff pastry - how much calories each recipe contains (quick and long versions)

Puff pastry (quick version)

In recipe you take (about)

200g of butter or margarine
2 cups of flour
1/2 tea spoon of salt
1 tea spoon of sugar

And get 510 g of puff pastry, 100 of which contains

calories - 415,6
carbohydrates - 44 g
fats - 24 g
proteins - 6,7 g

Then goes puff pastry (long version)
In recipe you take (about)

1 egg
1 tea spoon of sugar
1 tea spoon of salt
1 big spoon of vinegar (7-9%)
1 big spoon of oil
about 200 ml of water
3.5 cups of flour (about 500g)
200 g of butter or unsweetened margarine

And get 918 g of puff pastry, 100 g of which contains

calories - 339.6
carbohydrates - 39.8 g
fats - 17.2 g
proteins - 7 g
So, if you have some time, there is a point to make a long version of puff pastry, it has more layers, rises better and has less calories and fat.

Tuesday, August 11, 2009

Choux pastry (recipe with pictures)

Yesterday I decided to make eclairs and for that I had to do choux pastry.

Pluses of choux pastry
1. It's volume increases during baking by 2-3 times, that means that you get PLENTY of eclairs or whatever you are making with this pastry.
2. It doesn't need any time to rest after preparing
3. It is ready within 15 minutes in oven

Minuses
1. Look up at plus number 1, since my recipe of this pastry is for about 50-60 eclairs I used oven 3 times, but result is totally worth it !

To make choux pastry you'll need

250 ml of water
100g of butter
pinch of salt
250 g of flour
4-6 eggs

How to make choux pastry

1. Sift a flour

sifted flour2.

Pour water in a pan, add butter, salt and boil everything until the butter melts

water and butter


When the butter has melted and mixture is boiling mix it with flour


flour and water with butter

choux pastry

Then put the pan with pastry back on the stove and mix everything until you get an even shiny pastry and some white sediment on the bottom of the pan

choux pastry

Then put the pastry in the clean bowl and mix 1 egg into it



choux pastry

When the pastry is mixed well you can add another egg. This way you add all the eggs, I used 4 big eggs, but if you see that it isn't enough, add 1 or 2 more. The pastry should look like this

choux pastry(you should be able to put the pastry in the cake decorator)
That is all! I used cake decorator to make stripes for eclairs, you can use it too or just a spoon, by the way many people say that choux pastry treats are more crunchy if you use spoon to put them on the baking tray.
And this is how I made eclairs

eclairs before baking

eclairs after bakingeclairs
eclairseclairs
For eclairs is usually used scalded cream, to make it you need

500 ml of milk
200 g of sugar
1 egg
1 table spoon of flour
1 table spoon of starch
100 g of soft unsweetened butter

How to make scalded cream

Put all ingredients except butter in the pot, mix with a mixer then put on the small heat and mix all the time. After few minutes you will see that consistence of the cream becomes thicker. Then you take it from the stove and let it cool down. When it is cold, mix a soft butter in it and put in the fridge for at least 20 minutes. I recommend to start making eclairs with cream, this way when it will be cooling down - you can make a pastry, so you will use your time wisely.

Saturday, August 8, 2009

Counting calories!

Today we' ll be counting calories, fats, carbohydrates, proteins in some of the pastry recipes I gave, because I know that every woman would like to know this.

So, let's start with unleavened dough

In recipe you take (about)
egg - 60g
flour - 400g
salt - 3g
oil - 30g
water - 170g

And get 663 g of dough, 100 of which contains

calories - 256
carbohydrates - 42 g
fats - 6 g
proteins - 8 g

Then goes yeast dough
In recipe you take (about)
2 eggs - 120g
milk - 500g
flour - 1000 g
sugar - 30g (not sweet dough)
butter - 50g
yeast - 50g

And get 1750 g of yeast dough, 100 g of which contains

calories - 254
carbohydrates - 44 g
fats - 5 g
proteins - 9 g

And if you make sweet yeast dough (add 250 g of sugar)
You get 2000 g of sweet yeast dough, 100 g of which contains

calories - 272
carbohydrates - 51 g
fats - 4 g
proteins - 8 g

That's it for today, later I'll count the calories in other dough types too.

Thursday, August 6, 2009

Puff pastry recipe with pictures (long version)

The recipe is not mine, I found it in internet, today tried to make it for a first time and IT IS AMAZINGLY GOOD! Of course making of this puff pastry takes a lot of time and effort, but firstly you get a fantastic result, secondly it is really cheap in comparison with the same thing in stores and finally you know what it contains and can be sure that it doesn't contain any unhealthy components, so

The recipe of puff pastry

You need
1 egg
1 tea spoon of sugar
1 tea spoon of salt
1 big spoon of vinegar (7-9%)
1 big spoon of oil
about 200 ml of water
3.5 cups of flour (about 500g)
200 g of butter or unsweetened margarine

How to make

1.Mix an egg, sugar, salt, vinegar and oil in a cup and add some water (about 200 ml) to make total volume 270 ml (mixture + water = 270 ml). If you do not have scales - just fill in the cup with water.

p.s. DO NOT USE HOT WATER!
Also watch the percentage of the vinegar (mine was 30% so I put some water in it and made 10% - took 1 big spoon of vinegar and 2 big spoons of water)


2. Add flour and make a pastry and let it rest for some time (15-20 minutes)


3. Divide the pastry into 4 parts


AND EACH PART
4. Roll into 30 cm* 55 cm piece

5. Cover it with 50 g of soft butter or margarine


6. Roll the pastry on a rolling-pin

7. Cut the pastry along the rolling-pin.

8. Take the pastry off the rolling-pin and fold in four

Finally, you will get 4 perfect pieces of puff pastry, each about 200-250g, altogether I got 920 g. Put those pieces of pastry in cellophane and put in a fridge for at least 4 hours, better to leave it there for a night. After that you can use it or freeze it.

I used only one part (240g) and made mini croissants with cheese


They were so good that disappeared in the mouth of my boyfriend in an hour (there were 12 pieces) and I received many compliments, so I strongly recommend this recipe!