My love for french pastry began when I was 18 years old and wandering the streets of Paris with my high school culinary class. I remember walking along the streets and peering into the gorgeous pátisseries that we passed by; baskets filled with freshly baked bread, window displays dressed up by the sweet delicate pastries, vibrant fruit tarts, and chocolates. Lets not forget the macarons that have swept Instagram feeds in mass amounts and appear to have become the newest symbol of France. I even have two macaron Christmas ornaments. I'm kinda serious about my desserts. I'm also kind of an avid researcher (googler) and learned that macarons are even sold in McCafés in France and Australia. Hmm, I wonder how the french feel about this.
Well, it seems I have been sidetracked by talks of macarons but what I'm trying to say is that for me, no desserts will ever be as beautifully crafted or as delicious as french pastry. The french have perfected some of the most widely recreated and recognized desserts in the world. Many french desserts are delicate, refined, and specific in the techniques used to make them. For this reason, I never tried to make them myself. Rather then baking cupcakes, which I'm so bored of seeing and eating, I thought I would challenge myself.
I decided my introduction to pastry would start with a simple pate à choux, or choux pastry. This is the pastry used to create profiteroles, eclairs, and croquembouch. So on a Sunday when I had nothing else to do I decided to get out the ingredients and pretend that my kitchen was that of a lovely french bakery and transport myself back to Paris. Clearly I get dreamy when it comes to France. I also made pastry cream which I can probably eat bowls of.
These definitely were the most time consuming things that I have ever baked. It took all day. They didn't end in disaster though so I'd say it was well worth it. I do realize that it takes endless hours, more like years of practice to perfect, and mine would not stand a chance in France, but I was so happy with the results and had fun during the process.
I think I'll need to go to France again to compare, purely for research purposes of course.
Recipe for pâte à choux from Raiza Costa of Dulce Delight
Pastry Cream recipe here
I agree, I love how delicate French pastry can be and the absolute attention to detail, these look great by the way!
ReplyDeletethanks! :) I just saw your most recent post, seems like we've both had french pastry on our minds lol! Laduree is for sure on my list of places to go.
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