Mrs Pettersen’s Cream Puffs

Mrs Pettersen is one of the oldest family friends I can remember. She was my preschool teacher, and I have vivid memories in her classroom, including roller skating indoors, making shadow side profiles. I also remember her bringing in a computer to our house. She had a program where you could build a face using shapes. Even though she is in her 90s, she still drives herself and an avid Facebook user. Definitely a woman ahead of her time-Stanford grad who biked around Europe solo as a young woman. She was a city girl who fell in love with a country boy. My mom was part of a club that hosted monthly dinners. When it was Mrs Petterson’s turn to bring dessert, she made these incredible giant cream puffs filled with custard. After more than 30 years, I still remember how much my mom and I loved them I remember trying to make them as a kid and they were a royal disaster, but I think I could handle them now. Thankfully, my mom saved the photocopied page from an old cookbook, although I think I would sub out the flour for cornstarch for a more foolproof approach:

Mrs Pettersen’s recipe was the single dish that got me hooked on all desserts custard. For a seemingly more fool-proof recipe, I turned to the modern technique of using cornstarch for thickening:

• 2 cups whole milk, warmed
• 1 vanilla bean (or maybe 1 tsp extract)
• 6 egg yolks
• 2/3 cups sugar
• 1/4 cup cornstarch
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 1 TBSP butter (optional really)
• 2/3 cup freshly whipped cream

Whisk sugar, cornstarch, salt together. Add yolks and whisk till color lightens to lemon yellow. Add 1/2 cup of the warmed milk and whisk, then add the mixture to the rest of the milk. Whisk constantly over medium heat until the mixture thickens. Turn off heat and add vanilla and butter. Allow to chill, then fold in whipped cream. Pipe filling into cream puffs, or spoon into halved puff.

For the cream puff shells:

Banana Pineapple Cake and Brown Butter Frosting for out little monkey

Made a banana cake to celebrate V’s 2nd birthday as she is so into monkeys! The bananas weren’t very ripe, so I made it into a sort of hummingbird cake. The frosting was delicious and you can get away with less sugar since it has savory notes any ways. I filled the cake with vanilla pudding/Cool Whip, sliced banana and crushed pineapple, but coconut cream would also be good, especially if toasted coconut is added to the batter. 1 1/2 cups chopped nuts could be added as well.

CAKE:

3 cups flour

1 tsp baking soda

1 1/2 tsp cinnamon

1/2 tsp allspice

1/2 tsp salt

4 bananas (2 cups)

16 oz crushed pineapple, drained. you can also use the juice by boiling it down to a few tablespoons. If pineapple not available, you can sub with 1 1/2 cup buttermilk and add 1 tsp baking powder.

3 eggs

2/3 cup oil

1 cup brown sugar

1/2 cup granulated sugar

2 tsp vanilla

Bake at 350 degrees

FROSTING

1 stick salted browned butter heated on medium for about 5 minutes and cooled

1 stick softened salted butter

block cream cheese

powdered sugar to taste

vanilla to taste