IT"S THE 365 DAY GIVEAWAY CELEBRATION with Cream Puffs!!

I have enjoyed meeting new people both fellow bloggers and my wonderful readers. I have made many wonderful friendships along the way and I so look forward to meeting many of you in person one day. I know that will happen. I don’t know when, but it WILL.

The final weigh-in I am posting here and will add it to the weigh-in page, but thought it would be appropriate to list it here first. I began this 365 weighing 124 lbs. When I stepped on the scale two days ago for the final read, the scale said 121. I think it’s pretty remarkable considering everything I’ve eaten over the past year. I didn’t gorge, but there were definitely time when I ate more than I should have. Knowing that my weight really could have increased I did make a conscious effort to not overindulge. That certainly wasn’t easy when some of the goodies turned out to be 4’s or even 3’s and 3 1/2’s in the rolling pin department.
I’ll take the weight loss. It’s certainly better than ending it with a weight gain!

I was hoping that the 365th recipe would be a good one and turn out ok. I don’t think there would be anything worse than to complete such a milestone and end it on a recipe that only earned a rolling pin rating of 1 or 2.
Well, let me tell you, that WASN’T the case. Don’t worry, as always, the review will be at the end of the page.

Recipe taken from my New Doubleday Cookbook, pp.769, 790, 823, and 824; authors, Jean Anderson and Elaine Hanna; publisher, Bantam Doubleday Dell Publishing Group, Inc., an imprint of Random House, Inc.; ISBN 0-385-19577-X.

Cream Puffs – makes approximately 50 (I doubled the recipe in the book and that is what follows.)

Pastry Cream – I made this first and put it in the fridge to chill
1 cup sifted flour
1 cup sugar
1/4 teaspoon salt
4 cups milk
4 eggs + 4 egg yolks, lightly beaten
2 teaspoons vanilla

Mix flour, sugar and salt in the top of a double broiler.
Slowly add milk, whisking until smooth.

Heat and continue stirring over direct moderate heat until thickened and smooth.
Mix about 1 cup of the hot mixture into the eggs and then return to pan.
Set the pan over simmering water, cooking and stirring 2-3 minutes until thick.

Remove from heat and thoroughly mix in the vanilla.
Place a piece of wax paper flat on top of the cream to prevent a skin from forming.
Place in the refrigerator to cool until ready to use as filling.

Choux Pastry
2 cups water
1 cup (2 sticks) butter
1/2 teaspoon salt
2 cups sifted flour
8 eggs, room temperature

Preheat oven to 400 degrees F.
Quickly bring the water, butter and salt to boiling.
Pull pan almost off burner and turn heat to moderate.
Add flour all at once and stir quickly with a wooden spoon until mixture forms a ball.
Set pan on a damp cloth.

Break an egg into a cup and slide it into the flour mixture.
Beat hard with a wooden spoon to blend.
Add remaining eggs, one at a time, beating well. Each egg MUST be blended in fully before the next is added. The mixture will look odd at first, almost curdled, but as you beat it, it will become smooth.
You’re really going to get a GREAT arm workout here, too. I would suggest cutting this recipe in half. It was totally tiring vigorously mixing 8 eggs into the flour.
After 4 eggs…

After all 8 eggs…

Pastry is now ready to be made into cream puffs.

Cream Puffs
Choux Pastry above
2 egg yolks with 2 tablespoons cold water (glaze)
Pastry Cream recipe to follow
1/2 cup sifted confectioners’ sugar

Oven has been preheated to 400 degrees F.
Drop pastry batter by rounded tablespoonfuls 2 inches apart on an ungreased baking sheet.
Brush the tops with the glaze.

Bake 45-50 minutes until puffed, golden brown, and hollow sounding when tapped.
Do NOT open the oven door during the first 1/4 hour of baking.

Cool puffs on wire racks away from any drafts.
To fill, cut a 3/4 slice off the top of each puff and pull out any soft dough which may be inside.
Fill with about 2 tablespoons pastry cream, replace tops, cover and chill until serving.
Dust with confectioners’ sugar.

I rate everything I bake (haha – I’m going to have to change that word to MAKE from now on!!) on a scale of 1-4 with 4 being the best and these cream puffs earned 3 1/2 rolling pins.
I LOVED them and I CANNOT tell you how excited I was that this recipe turned out so well!!!
Lynne is dancing, and dancing, and DANCING, throwing flour around the kitchen because she’s SSOOO very happy!!!
I was extremely excited to see the pastries puffing up in the oven when I turned the light on.
They were SO pretty, I actually clapped my hands in excitement like a little girl!!
The pastry was the perfect texture, hard enough on the outside and tender inside making it the perfect vessel for that DELICIOUS pastry cream.
And yes, it was delicious.
Everyone in the 365 family really enjoyed these and voted unanimously to give them a 3 1/2.
And we all agreed that a chocolate glaze would boost it to a 4.
I didn’t have time to make the glaze, but maybe tomorrow because I’m really wanting that now.
If I make it, I’ll post the recipe in the next few days.
Ha ha, because I CAN NOW. I don’t HAVE TO BAKE!!!!
WOO HOO!!!

People have been concerned that after today I was going to stop blogging altogether.
No such luck, people.
I’m here to stay. This creating recipes, rating them, and blogging, not to mention meeting all of these wonderful people is just too darn addicting!
I AM NOT GOING ANYWHERE!!!
No, I will not be baking every day, and I may not even be posting a recipe every day, but I don’t plan on going more than three days without doing so, and if I do, I’ll let you know.
There will be more recipes, such as salads, no-bake recipes (what a NOVEL idea!), candy, and skillet dinners. I also plan on doing “Smoothie Saturdays” where I will give you a different smoothie recipe every Saturday and we’ll start that next week. And I WILL be baking, don’t worry. I’ll be continuing the Tuesdays with Dorie which will be twice a month and will possibly be baking at least twice a week.
We’ll see, but the possibilities are ENDLESS.
I cannot tell you how EXCITED I am!!

The giveaway is now closed. Thank you to all who entered!!
We will announce our winner shortly!


Ok, now for the part you’ve ALL been waiting for…
You have all been so very wonderful reading each day, commenting, e-mailing, sending virtual hugs, Pinning, and spreading the word amongst your friends that I would absolutely LOVE to give each and everyone of you something to say thank you, but alas, I wasn’t the Powerball winner in Rhode Island and I can’t even claim that I’m related to her (although we say that we’re all related because the state is so small (yeah, listen to me, I don’t even live there anymore, but still think like I do.).
But for one lucky reader, I have TWO things I would like to present to you.
AND I am opening this up to EVERYONE, nationally AND internationally!!! I have so many wonderful readers around the world that it just wouldn’t be fair to exclude you.

To be eligible for the giveaway, please leave me a comment telling me what your favorite recipe was during the course of 365 and what recipes you’d like to see me add in the future.


You can also earn up to 6 additional entries by doing the following, just make sure you leave a separate comment for each thing that you do. And if you already do any of these things, leave me a comment telling me so:

• Subscribe to 365 Days of Baking by signing up to receive posts through e-mail.
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• Follow 365 Days of Baking on Twitter.
• Tweet the following, “I’m celebrating 365 Days of Baking’s final Bake by entering the giveaway here:  http://bit.ly/y9gaDU #365DaysofBaking”
• Pin one of the pictures from the post to Pinterest.