"french pastries" news and stories

Meet the highly refined, French cousin of the ice cream sandwich: the profiterole.

Dainty round puffs of pâte à choux pastry are sliced in half for an ice or pastry cream filling, before being drizzled with a smooth chocolate sauce.

Choux pastry (we recommend this comprehensive recipe from "The Joy of Baking") is the same dough that brings us cream puffs, croquembouches, éclairs and the savory gougères. Multifunctional and scrumptious? That's something we can wholeheartedly endorse.

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A cannele is a small pastry with a custardy center and crisp crust that develops by caramelizing sugar and butter during a long baking time. They are relatively difficult to find at bakeries in the US, though they remain very popular in France, where they originated. Traditionally, they are made in small, specially-shaped copper molds that most people would not want to purchase for the sole purpose of attempting to make these treats. Silicone pans are inexpensive, but are tricky to maneuver in the oven and do not allow the exterior of the pastry to get dark enough. Molly, at Orangette, circumvented the need for a special mold to make these by using a mini bundt pan, which are far more versatile than the more traditional options. For a recipe that uses the traditional molds, try this one, but you may need to experiment with baking times if you try Molly's trick.

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I fell in love with eclairs when I was just a teenager, working in a deli. We'd get a shipment of pastries from a local pastry shop once a week, and I quickly learned that these delicacies of pate a choux, pastry cream and dark chocolate were best fresh. If no one else was around, I'd sometimes pay half-price for one of them and eat it for breakfast (technically, against the rules, but in the spirit of understanding my product, no?). Days later I felt badly selling them, the pastry no longer flaky and light, the cream no longer vanilla-scented but more like deli-fridge-scented.

When I saw these treats from Renaissance Culinaire, I knew they were fresh. You can just taste chocolate ganache, can't you? It would be a crime to let these go until tomorrow. Next time you make cream puffs, Amber, I'll be happy to help you save them from languishing uneaten...

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