Friday, January 30, 2009

Time to make the donuts.

The wife's grandmother is a big fan of éclairs. I happen to know how to make éclairs, and since her birthday is today I decided to make up a batch. The problem is that baking is a precise endeavor that requires the use of ingredients that are inconsistent. It took me a while to get my pate a choux dialed in, combine that with making pastry cream from scratch, and I was up late last night. Factor in tasting each piece to make sure things are right (don't snicker it really is the only way to know how your product is turning out) and eating a few too many of the 'failures' I feel like re-heated doggie doo this morning.

Training last night:
1x hang clean 5x front squats (1 second pause in the hole)
x5.
About halfway through this my hips let me know that they hate me. My right hip told me outright, my left.. we he just gave me the finger when he thought my back was turned. The good news is in spite of their protesting, they are gaining in stability and mobility. The fact that I can deadlift 485 and can only free squat 135, is really something that is past due fixing.

full clean, and jerk:
worked up to 185 (mostly for fun)

Military press:
5x5 at 135

1a Kneeling cable rows:
4x5/5 at 130

done and done.

2 comments:

Anonymous said...

i also like eclairs. my birthday is april 14. :P
but seriously, a recipe (or at least some pictures) would be great. unless it's one of those "a handful of this and sprinkle of that" types of recipes that you've got in your noggin.

J.B. said...

For the eclairs I just use Alton Brown's Pate a choux recipe. The custard is:
mix 8 yolks with 3/4 cup vanilla sugar till it gets light and ribbony.
Scald 1 c whole milk and 2 c 1/2 and 1/2 with 1 vanilla bean (split and scraped) temper the yolks and mix with the dairy. Strain. Add 6 T of cornstarch. Put back on the heat stirring until it thickens. add 2 good knobs of butter, and keep stirring. Chill.

I really need to start taking pictures.
Congrats on the new addition!