A Cute Litte Cabbage.

This week's unit - a quick little unit! Only five days of class - is Pate a Choux. Choux, in French, means cabbage, and is used as a term of endearment. And after you see these little things, you're going to want to call them your little cabbage too. We made eclairs on Friday, but, I refrained from taking any pictures because we made so. many. eclairs. Turns out, they're the the favorite of the building! Everybody loves eclairs. Men, women, pastry students, culinary students, instructors, administrative staff, janitorial staff - everybody wanted an eclair. But I did manage to take some pictures of what we did today. The Choux is fun because we just make a huge batch in the morning, and then pipe it all day long into various shapes, filling these shapes with various cream bases.

First, we made little swans. Everybody got such a kick out of turning them into heart shapes, with the heads of each craning towards each other. As soon as our chef plated the dessert, everybody in the room let out an "Awwweee". Tis the season I suppose. These were piped choux, filled with vanilla pastry cream and fresh raspberries, then topped with whipped cream, and assembled.

Then we made profiteroles. A very classic dessert, these are little balls of Choux, filled with homemade vanilla ice cream, and finished with chocolate sauce. So yummy. 

 And finally, the Paris-Brest. Named for a bicycle race in France, this is a ring of three layers of Choux, piped and baked, then egg washed, sprinkled with almonds, then sliced in half. Next, we made a Hazelnut cream, made from Vanilla Pastry Cream, mixed with butter, and praline paste (a sweetened hazelnut and almond paste), and whipped until light and fluffy. Then, it is piped in shell shapes around the inside of the really lovely dessert. So classically French, and so delicious.

I just think the inside is so pretty...even prettier than the outside. Because that inner circle is so tight, the shells get really close together, and make a lovely design. 

Cheers.