Gougeres

We went savory this week to finish off our chapter on Pate a choux. These gougeres or savory puffs are seasoned with salt, pepper and gruyere. Chef Keller recommends piping them in molds like for the sweet cream puffs but our bakers made them freehand. Have a look!

Paris-New York

The story behind this week's recipe is quite unique and interesting. This is a traditional French pastry, but is usually with an almond praline filling. However, to "Americanize" it, this version uses peanuts and peanut butter, which is so specifically and uniquely American. The filling is made up of buttercream, peanut butter, and diplomat cream, which uses both pastry cream and whipped cream. So rich!

Swans

Little miniature swans made out of pate a choux. These artistic puffs are relatively simple to do, requiring just a bit of piping work and assembly. Similar to the eclairs and cream puffs, they have pastry cream filling, but then for a more textured, feathered look, a bit of whipped cream is piped on top.

Eclairs - Chocolate, Lime Coconut, or Dulce de Leche

Continuing in the pate a choux chapter, we come to éclairs. They use a similar dough as the cream puffs, with slightly different proportions, to make a stiffer dough. Since the éclairs are piped freehand, the dough must be stiffer than the cream puffs, which are molded. At Bouchon, the éclairs are piped using a French star tip to form grooves in the dough, which let them expand evenly while baking. 

Our bakers could choose to make any of three different varieties: chocolate, lime coconut, or dulce de leche. While the chocolate éclairs are the most traditional, the other two variations are more modern and certainly more complex and delicious.

Chocolate Eclairs

Miss Daisy

This week we made stacked cream puffs traditionally known as religeuses but with a twist, they were dressed up with fondant. To make Miss Daisy, a small cream puff is used for the head and larger cream puff for the body. Then you're free to use your creativity with the fondant to create her ensemble. Here are our Miss Daisies.

Cream Puffs and Cookies for Cream Puffs

We have left the land of tarts, and entered a new chapter: pate a choux! In French, pate means pastry, and choux means cabbages, which is what some say the first buns made using this method looked like. Although nowadays, it can be used to make any number of sweet or savory pastries, including this week's recipe, cream puffs.

Thomas Keller's cream puffs follow most traditional recipes, with a few variations. The pastry is piped into molds to ensure uniformity, and is then frozen before baking. Also, a special cookie is placed on top before baking, which then melts to the top of the puff and creates a crisp texture. Check out this video from the Today Show where the chef demonstrates his technique: http://www.today.com/id/49505524/ns/today-today_food/t/bake-thomas-kellers-dulce-de-leche-clairs-more/#.Uf7udVOLf8z