Custard Curlicues

When venting frustration over recent disappointments, what better way than to bake bread? After all, the process involves throwing the dough at the work surface...hard.

Using half a dozen eggs, I made my own custard cream last night using a recipe from Corner Café. It sat in my fridge to chill, and after getting home today, I set about making bread dough for the first time in four years. I have to tell you — working butter into the dough is one big, greasy nightmare!

Now the blogger at Corner Café gave various descriptions of pliability, but I ended up kneading until it felt right. Literally. It's difficult to explain, but the texture of the dough changes over time, and at some point, you can tell that you're done.

While the dough rested, I went ahead and wrote another book review. After that, I cut the dough into eighths, rolled the pieces into discs, piped in the custard, and closed them up and formed them into buns. The recipe actually called for kneading the dough between cutting it up and rolling out circles, but I skipped that step to avoid losing air or making the bread too chewy. They rested for a while and puffed up a bit more, and after an egg wash and some custard decorations, into the oven they went!