WHEW!!! Safe to say I have barely had a life outside of school these past three weeks, but upon finishing my last day of Intermediate Pastry and the intensive schedule… I reemerge from the depths of the kitchen to bestow upon you 3 weeks-worth of updates.
It’s been two and a half months since I touched down in CDG with an empty stomach and a hungry spirit (does that make sense? you get the gist) - ready to tackle the French culinary world. Which then became the French pastry world.
And it really did take me the full 2 1/2 months to feel comfortable with this new life. I know my neighborhood, the school, my classmates, but I still feel like there’s SO MUCH MORE to explore in Paris whether the food, the sights, or the people.
These updates are going to be very school-heavy since that’s essentially all I’ve been doing, but hoping to provide more 411 on the Paris ~vibes~ as I have more free time for the remainder of my stay here.
Bon appétit and enjoy! Miss you all!
xoxo,
Chloé
Mille-Feuille Mascarpone
Am I the only one that thought mascarpone was spelled marscapone? My whole life is a lie. Any who, here we made yet ANOTHER mille-feuille which divided my class into two camps: the people who get super amped about pounding and rolling out butter & flour for 3 hours and the people like me who have chicken arms and can barley lift the stand mixer.
I learned that there are three kinds of puff pastry: simple, inverted, and speedy. Basic Pastry introduced us to simple, which is a block of butter wrapped in a détrempe dough. Inverted… well inverted puff pastry… is dough wrapped in BUTTER. Radical, I know.
In all puff pastry, the amount of layers of flaky, buttery goodness is a direct result of how many times you turn or fold (?) the dough. 5 simple turns = 1,500 layers = MILLE feuille #math.
What’s in it? Crème au mascarpone, sablé breton, confiture de framboises, framboises, et pâte feuilletée inversée.
How’s it taste? ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ Simple, light, crunchy, creamy, tangy. Hard work pays off.
Bonbons!!!
You know that scene in Charlie and the Chocolate Factory? You know, the one? With the chocolate river? That is precisely what learning about chocolate felt like.
It started off as an absolute dream, especially to a food nerd. We learned about the origins of the chocolate used at school, the history of chocolate as a ~noble product~, and how to determine a good chocolate from… well… essentially every piece of chocolate I had had before coming to Paris. HINT: if it’s sugary in taste and melting in your fingers, no bueno.
Then, when it came to actually making the bonbons (the tempering, the fillings, the molding), I quickly became that boy who falls into the chocolate river to never be seen again. I’m being dramatic of course, but making chocolates is HARD.
The “eyes”: bonbon chocolat palet d’or // gold palette chocolate candies with ganache
The “nose”: bonbon caramel au beurre // butter caramel chocolate candy
The “lips”: bonbon chocolat framboise // chocolate raspberry candy
⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ I mean it’s chocolate… how can you go wrong!
Petit Fours
Felt like I was preparing a 3pm tea time for European royalty. It was awesome. Very biased towards the lil’ treats we make because (a) you don’t have to awkwardly cut a tiny slice into that pastry you wanted to give to a neighbor and (b) everything is more adorable in a mini version!!
Petits-fours moelleux au thé vert: a green tea financier topped with white chocolate ganache and a redcurrant. ⭐️⭐️⭐️⭐️ the moistness (sorry anti-moist people) of the financier and the creamy ganache YUM
Petits-fours coco << plein fruit>>: another Brittany shortbread moment with coconut mousse and a passion fruit/mango coulis decoration. ⭐️⭐️⭐️ not usually the biggest fan of tropical flavors, but just one bite took me to a warmer, sunnier place 🤠🌞🌞🌺
Petit-fours macarons passion: man, this school loves passion fruit! Hard to go wrong with a macaron in France (taste-wise of course, baking them is another story).
Doucer Chocolat // Heavenly Chocolate
Essentially a Ferrero Rocher but make it a cake (I am endlessly ridiculed for still calling things like entremets “cakes” and chiboust “frosting”… learning curve!). Not the most photogenic thing we’ve made, and the most challenging component was the chocolate mousse - which ended up sinking beneath the weight of my tempered milk chocolate decor.
FUN FACT: Chef shared with us that his favorite weekend activity is buying a literal scoop of chocolate mousse from his favorite spot in the 6th and eating it like ice cream!!! Officially made it onto my bucket list.
Saint Morit’z (the “French cheesecake”)
PINK AND GREEN!!! PISTACHIO AND ROSE!!!! 💗💚My favorite color combination (see: my childhood bedroom, wardrobe), and I’ve also been going through a major pistachio obsession since being in Paris. This was one of our first practicals assembling (AKA montaging) an entremet (French cake), and I freakin’ loved every minute of it. Piping was incredibly fear-inducing in Basic, but my confidence is growing🙌
What’s in it? Sweet pastry dough, jellied raspberry coulis, Joconde “biscuit” sponge, the Saint Morit’z Mixture (containing Philadelphia Cream Cheese ™️… sus), and a dusty rose-colored Chantilly cream (with Orgeat syrup AKA rose + almond).
⭐️⭐️⭐️ some in my class found the cream to biscuit ratio unbalanced, but I honestly didn’t mind it
Entremet praliné fruité
Okay I know what you’re thinking… fruit + praline?? And for some, what is praline?? Essentially nut butter, and going into this practical, this entremet had SO MUCH HYPE. From the locker room to my roommate, people could not help but rave about this dessert: a hazelnut crumble topped with layers of an almond praline “biscuit” sponge and creamy praline, finished with a lemon and orange blossom mousse. **skepticism**
⭐️⭐️ Maybe I’m a contrarian, but this aint it.
While the taste may not have been there, this practical I really felt like I was beginning to hit my stride. Getting to know my class, growing confidence in the kitchen, experimenting with decoration and flavors.
❤️❤️STAY TUNED❤️❤️
Newsletter ✨Inspo✨
Some incredibly talented food writers whose emails in my inbox give me LIFE (and consistently send out emails… unlike some people 😳)
Can’t wait for you to come home and we can get a tasting!!!! Great job Chole!!!
Love it 😍