Profiteroles Recipe on a plate with warm chocolate sauce

Profiteroles Recipe

One of my good friends sent me an article recommending this classic French bistro right before one of my trips to Paris. It was a picturesque restaurant right near Place des Victoires in the 1st arr., and was conveniently named Bistrot des Victoires. The restaurant’s menu featured a lot of my favorite bistro items like steak frites and soupe à l’oignon, so I knew that I definitely wanted to pop in. The restaurant served a tasty steak, but what’s always stood out in my memory from that night were the profiteroles I ordered for dessert. They were so wildly decadent that I just couldn’t help but clap my hands in glee over the dessert presented before me. 

croquembouche tower of cream puffs with spun sugar - featured image

Croquembouche Recipe (Profiterole Tower)

I was watching the fashion documentary Dior and I on Netflix, and I was reminded of my own time spent in the fashion industry. When I tell people that I used to work in fashion but now work with food, they’re often surprised. For me, however, the transition felt very natural and homogeneous. In my old job, I used to work with a design team to create various marketing visuals, including look books and digital content that could be shared via social media. Art and creativity were always the basis for my work.

puff pastry turnovers

Puff Pastry Turnovers

When they say context is everything, it’s really true. The word chaussons means slippers in French, but it’s also the name given to puff pastry turnovers. Strange, right? That’s why you’ll usually hear the dessert version of the word followed by whatever fruit it’s been made with. Usually, that’s chaussons aux pommes (apple turnovers), or in this case aux fraises (strawberries). With the abundance of farm-fresh, aromatic, sweet strawberries, I can think of nothing better than using them in delectable puff pastry turnovers like this.

french beignets

French Beignets (boules de Berlin)

It may seem like the title of this post is a bit redundant considering beignets are French by origin, but I felt the need to clarify because of the variety of beignets that now exist throughout the world. Particularly, I felt the need to distinguish these beignets from the ones you’d find in New Orleans or many American bakeries. When I first when to Paris, I spotted beignets on a street vendor cart, not knowing they were beignets. They were round rather than square, like the beignets we often eat here in the States. When I actually bit into one, I found them much more cake-like than the beignets I was accustomed to. The beignets I’ve eaten in the States have often been somewhat hollow-like, much lighter and crisper than the French beignets I ate abroad. Since enjoying the soft, pillowy rounds that I enjoyed in Paris, I haven’t been able to eat any other kind of beignet; French beignets are simply divine. 

Mille-Feuille Café: coffee-flavored napoleons made with pastry cream and puff pastry. A French dessert recipe via MonPetitFour.com

Mille-Feuille Café

A thousand layers of buttery goodness, that’s what this mille-feuille is, and it’s also quite literally what mille-feuille means in French. Mille-feuille, or a thousand leaves in French, refers to the pastry dough that the dessert is made with, which is called pâte feuilletée. Pâte feuilletée is the equivalent of puff pastry, producing numerous golden, flaky layers that are as crisp and airy as they are buttery and indulgent. Classic mille-feuille can be made with any number of fillings, including pastry cream and jam. For this mille-feuille café, I’ve flavored the pastry cream with a bit of instant espresso powder, in addition to adding a splash of brewed coffee to the glaze. 

chocolate puff pastry

Chocolate Puff Pastry with Strawberry Cream

When I was younger, I thought a Hostess cupcake represented the best of chocolate. I had no idea that something like this chocolate puff pastry with strawberry cream existed, so I carried on eating “faux chocolate” in the form of store-bought cookies and cakes. I’d cringe at the dark chocolate candy bars I’d sometimes get in my Halloween bag, thinking that the less chocolate was tampered with, the more bitter and unenjoyable it was. And then I traveled to Paris and stumbled upon immaculate chocolate shops that displayed pure chocolate in the ethereal manner it deserved.