Monday, August 27, 2012

August Daring Bakers: Swans!



So, every month you see the "Mandatory blog checking lines" somewhere in my Daring Bakers posts.  The lines that follow the statement are used by the Daring Bakers coinstabualry to make sure we've completed teh challlenge each month.  The lines are composed by Lis of the Daring Bakers.  She's our chief baker and wonderwoman extraoridinaire.

Check out this month's Mandatory blog checking lines:

Kat of The Bobwhites was our August 2012 Daring Baker hostess who inspired us to have fun in creating pate a choux shapes, filled with crème patisserie or Chantilly cream. We were encouraged to create swans or any shape we wanted and to go crazy with filling flavors allowing our creativity to go wild!

Gulp.

Deep. Breath.

Gulp.

 
Yep.  I was this month's host.  How crazy is that?  Hosts are usually the elitest of the elite of the Daring Bakers.  It's not something I ever wanted to do, but I was called to do it so I jumped right in.  Luckily, there are a lot of safety nets!  Thanks, Lis, Audax, Scooney, and all the other bloggers who helped me out this month.

On top of the challenge, Mr Boom and I actually boarded a plane and flew to Hawaii to our niece's wedding.  In the seventeen years we've been married, Mr Boom and I have been on a plane exactly twice.  This was his first time flying over water.  Lis had to post the challenge for me since we were gone on August first, the day the post goes up. Oh, and and top of that?  BIG fires all around us this month.  Several friends lost homes, pets, and livestock.  We had foster animals at our house, and then were a few hours away from having to evacuate ourselves.

Interesting month.  Needed friends.  Had friends.  Was a friend.  It's all good.

Anyway, swans!



I've wanted to make pate a choux swans since I was in third grade.  Thirty two years later, I'm finally getting around to it.  What I found to be even more exciting than my own sense of accomplishment, was the thrill of seeing other bakers' amazing creations.  We had ladybugs, crabs, sharks...we had chocolate, vanilla, berry....we had it all and we had a lot of fun.

Here's the challenge as presented.  I hope you'll try it out!

17 comments:

  1. Kat, I would like to thank you immensely for hosting such a fun challenge! These swans have been in the most famous and finest restaurants and I honestly never thought I would ever make one myself! Now I know that it isn't so complicated and next time I want to impress I will offer them to friends and family.
    Congratulations for being such a great hostess and for being so brave with all the fire situation. Wishing you a quick recovery from all the stress.

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  2. Thank you Kat for a MOST BEAUTIFUL challenge. I loved that it has a 1980's childhood connect. Really really nice!

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  3. Thank you for bringing to us such a wonderful DB Challenge Kat!

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  4. What a fun challenge! Thanks for hosting this month, Kat. :)

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  5. Thank you so much for hosting such an amazing challenge! :)

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  6. My stars, what a month! Thank you for such a great challenge. It was one of my favorites!

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  7. Kat, Thank you so much for such an amazing challenge, in light of all your own challenges this month. I was so impressed with not only everyone else's attempts but mine as well. I have family now expecting these at the holidays. Again thank you. You challenged me to do something that I too had wanted to do for some time!

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  8. Thanks kat for this wonderful challenge.

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  9. We did all have a great time, thanks to you. I loved this challenge. Thanks for the great recipes and inspiration. Well Done! I hope you host again soon.

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  10. Thank you so much for hosting such an enjoyable challenge !! loved working on it

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  11. Sorry it's taken me so long to visit your blog and say THANK YOU for such a fun challenge! This kind of thing is exactly what I was hoping for when I joined the Daring Bakers :) Here's to a less "interesting" month for you in September :)

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  12. Kat, thank you so much for this challenge and for being such a great host! You helped me get over my fear of choux pastry and we had the most delicious dessert :) Choux will definitely feature more heavily in my kitchen from now on!

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  13. thanks so much for the challenge--i had so much fun and this week involved my 14 year old granddaughter in making gougeres and then ladybugs. she did most of the gougeres--all the cooking parts for both, and all of the ladybugs except cutting them and filling them. how cool is that?!!! have made little cream puffs to fill with savory shrimp/crab fillings, but never anything else. glad you're doing ok--we live in central washington and were on the list to evacuate at a minutes notice--didn't have to, but can totally relate to it all. i'm always totally relieved when summer is over and things cool off and moisture returns. thanks again and have a great day

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  14. Those are amazing shots of your swans set against the atmospheric sky!

    Kat, you were such a wonderful host this month, and I'm only sorry I didn't manage to complete the challenge. Well, not yet anyway! It's too good a challenge to miss out completely, so I'm planning to have a go in a week or so. Thank you for all your hard work, having to host AND deal with the fallout from the fires. Hope everyone affected gets back on their feet soon. x

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  15. Thanks a ton for the challenge! Here's mine
    http://renuka-pinchofsalt.blogspot.in/2012/09/choux-ing-off.html

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  16. Kat, you would have to be the most challenged host of all and I bet you will never forget this one! Thanks for doing this despite all the fire trauma.

    I love that the swans were a childhood fixation of yours and that you got to make them after all these years. I really enjoyed the challenge of shaping the pastry and am insired to have another go.

    Thanks again, Kat.

    http://alittlebakingblog.blogspot.co.uk

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