WorldCat Chocolate Eclairs - National Library Week Day 5

Chocolate filled Eclairs with Vanilla Bean Glaze

 

Whew! It's the end of my celebration of National Library Week 2011! This week, I’m highlighting a library thing, baking something and giving something away. Thanks for joining me in the celebration of libraries and librarians!

Today's library, baking, and giveaway are linked in a crazy synergy... I baked this week's French Fridays with Dorie, Chocolate Eclairs. But I made them in the shape of the WorldCat Logo, and I'm giving away a copy of the Dorie Greenspan book!

The Library Thing:   
WorldCat. No, not a worldly feline, but a totally cool online union catalog of a gazillion items from a ton of libraries. WorldCat's currents stats are here - 72,000 libraries and 1.7 billion records. You can see if your local library has a title or if it's only in a library in Australia; you can then go to your library to start an Interlibrary Loan to get books from all over the world. Pretty nifty, huh? I use WorldCat all the time. Give WorldCat a try on your computer or with their mobile app.

The Baking Thing:
I belong to two baking/cooking groups: Tuesdays with Dorie and French Fridays with Dorie. This week, the French Fridays with Dorie group made Vanilla Eclairs from Dorie Greenspan's cookbook Around my French Table.

I've made cream puffs with pastry cream in the past, but never eclairs. Eclairs use the same cream puff dough, but piped into logs and glazed. I made mine into the WorldCat logo and tinted the glaze with food coloring (Thanks JustJenn for letting me borrow your dyes!) Chocolate pastry cream filled my eclairs. Since my eclairs were mini, I piped in the cream and didn't split the eclairs.

Be sure to check out my fellow French Fridays with Dorie members and see their creations!

Recipe:

Please note: French Fridays with Dorie will not be posting recipes. Please support Dorie and purchase the book or find it at your library (WorldCat Link!!!)....or win one from me!

The Giveaway Thing:

Day #5: I'm giving away the lovely Dorie Greenspan's book, Around my French Table! (Although French Friday with Dorie members have the book...a second copy makes a great gift! Believe me...I received mine as a birthday gift!) Have you seen this month's Oprah magazine? There is a wonderful article about the Dorie baking groups! Read it online here.

To enter, just leave a comment on this post. If your email isn’t associated with your Blogger account, please be sure to leave your email in the message.
Note: This giveaway is limited to United States mailing addresses. One winner picked at random.
Deadline: Wednesday, April 20, 2011 at midnight, Pacific Daylight Time
Disclosure: This giveaway and shipping is paid for by me.
*** Updated: Contest is closed. Congrats to Frannie (entry #35) ***
Don't forget to enter the Day #1 (Sarabeth Bakery Cookbook) and Day #2 (Crate & Barrel Ramekins) and Day #3 (Everyday Food magazine) and Day #4 (Silpat) giveaways!

Thanks for celebrating National Library Week with me! See you at the library! - mary the food librarian

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Croquembundt - Day #23 of I Like Big Bundts

Croquembundt. Enough said.

It's Day #23 of I Like Big Bundts. Pull out your calendar. Go ahead. I'll wait. One week from today...it's National Bundt Day! Seriously great time of year! Make a Bundt cake to celebrate the awesomeness of the Bundt. I Like Big Bundts because they have a low frosting to cake ratio (I'm a frosting hater), are super easy to make, and can be eaten for breakfast, lunch or dinner. :) Bring a Bundt to an office meeting and you get out of taking minutes. Maybe not, but it'll make the meeting more interesting.

After making 200 cream puffs for Jun's wedding (post about the dessert bar and beautiful ceremony is in the works), I felt like a cream puff machine. Pastry cream...you don't freak me out anymore! And I have my friend Pastry Chef-in-Training Rosie who is attending Johnson & Wales to thank for that!

I've never made a Croquembouche, the tradition French wedding cake that is a tower of cream puffs and caramel. And why start with the tradition when you have 30 Bundts to make? When I saw Matt Bite's awesome Churroquembouche, I knew what I wanted to try.

It didn't come out perfect, and kinda just looks like an unfinished croquembouche, but you get the idea. I hope you can see the vision...and the fact that I made this at 5:15 am on a rainy Monday morning! :)

Don't forget to enter my Amazon giveaway for my 39 11/12th birthday. I'm less than one month away from my 40th birthday so please help me celebrate! :) The giveaway ends Sunday, November 14th (yes, that is ONE day before National Bundt Day!)

Also, if you make a Bundt for National Bundt Day, I'll send you a JustJennDesign's I Like Big Bundts button! They are small and stylin'. You'll need to send me a link to the post (or a photo if you don't have a blog) and I'm going to do a round up after National Bundt Day. Also, be sure head over to JustJenn's site for her free shipping week!

See you back here tomorrow for...wait for it...another Bundt! - mary "I'm 39 11/12 and one day years old" the food librarian

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Cream Puffs or Countdown to 40 Giveaway - I'm 39 8/12 years old!

One cream puff for every year...

As I mentioned exactly a month ago, I'm turning 40 this year. And it kinda knocked me over a bit. So, I started my celebration last month and will continue to celebrate the end of my 30's until December 7, 2010. Today I'm 39 8/12. (And yes, math nerds, I know I can reduce that to 2/3, but just work with me here... ;)

Last week, Chef-in-Training Johnson & Wales student Rosie came over and taught me and my friends how to make Challah (see post here), Cream Puffs and Pastry Cream. I've always been afraid of pastry cream, but Rosie's excellent teaching technique brought us two perfect batches: vanilla and chocolate.

Aren't these cute? Just wait til you see what's inside...

Oh yes! Glorious chocolate and vanilla pastry cream. I could (and did) eat a boatload of these little gems of goodness.

Here is the 8/12th cream puff! :) Heading toward 40...

We used Vanilla Paste - an inexpensive alternative to real vanilla beans. It gives you all the flecks of vanilla beans for much less green.

Making some cream puffs. Rosie brought over her family's sheet tray...um, it has some "patina" on it.

All lined up. Ready to be eaten! :)

To celebrate my birthday, I'm having a MONTHLY giveaway until I turn 40. For the "4 month" countdown, I'm giving away a $39 8/12 Sur la Table gift card to one lucky winner! ($39.67 US Dollar gift certificate to Sur la Table). FCC Disclosure: My birthday giveaways are paid for by me.

To enter, just leave a comment (if you aren't connected to a blog, leave your email address...and if you have a blogger account but it's private so I can't see it...leave your email address). Deadline is Saturday, August 14, 2010 at midnight PDT. (*Updated 8/8: I had Wed 8/14, but that is wrong so it is now corrected to Saturday, 8/14! Thanks Edana for the correction!)

**Updated: Contest is closed. Congrats to Laurie #22 who won!**

Thanks to Rosie for the great pastry class, and thanks to all my readers for the warm pre-birthday messages last month. Yes, 40 is the new 30! Whooo hooo! - mary

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