Our assignment for this week’s French Fridays with Dorie celebration post was to
Choose the recipe from Around my French Table for French Fridays with Dorie that you have made the most often. Or, that you have made a variation of the most. It may not be your favorite or your “AHA recipe” but it’s “The Repeater”.
Writing this post was actually a bit of an “Aha moment” actually. Perhaps not for those of you reading but for me, it was surprising to figure out that the recipe I have made the most from Around my French Table is actually choux pastry!
From the moment we made gougères for Week 1 of French Fridays with Dorie, I was hooked…
(I had made profiteroles before with some success but Dorie’s recipe and her easy, casual way of explaining what is, for some, a very complex process just seemed to click for me)..
Since then, for French Fridays, I’ve made a few iterations of choux pastry – both sweet and savoury…
A savoury, goat cheese-filled puff version…
There was that time where I taught three kids how to make the goat cheese puffs…
We made the fancy Paris-Brest…
And I made my choux version of a lamington…
But beyond the versions I’ve made for my blog and for French Fridays with Dorie, I’ve been inspired to bring choux to the people in the classes I teach here in Toronto.
Just last week I taught a (pretty much all Dorie-inspired) Parisian cocktail class with wine pairings (by Mr Neil!) where we made gougères and every time I teach a class with choux pastry, people are so impressed with the “wow factor” that such an easy pastry produces.
I mean it’s so simple that you can make éclairs with 11 and 12 year old boys on the second last day of school…
(wonky shapes aside, I think they did a wonderful job!)
… and decorate them beautifully on the last day of school and serve them for afternoon tea to their parents…
The “wow factor” these inspired are the reason I make this pastry again and again. It’s easy, it’s versatile, it tastes great and it looks like you spent way longer in the kitchen than you did. I’d say that’s a win for everyone.
Thank you, Dorie xo
Get Dorie’s recipe for choux pastry here and for crème pâtissière (for filling it) here.
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I love your selection, Mardi! My mom taught me and my sisters how to make “cream puffs” as children. I think that was the catalyst for my love of baking. Thanks for continuing that tradition!
How amusing, as if you asked Mardi at the beginning (as she’s said), ANY pastry would likely not have been her thought of being the “repeater”. 😉
Funny, now in our house fresh-baked pastries (like macarons and cannele) are just an everyday occurrence.
Oh, the decadence…. 😉
It is SO remarkable! Mardi is so good with pastry, it’s hard to imagine a time that she wasn’t. Talk about WOW – xoDorie
I am not surprised that your students love this so much. I think it’s my daughter’s favorite too. It must be the stickiness of the dough and the wonderful flavor and possibilities that it makes.
The eclairs look great. My husband would love it if I would make those more often, but I really don’t need all that deliciousness hanging around the house.
I think that learning to make choux pastry is important, there is so much you can do with it. I
never thought that I could ever make anything like the Paris Brest, but I did it.
LOL – you are the choux expert! It beats spinach in my books, but I am too lazy to make choux often.
I have made choux pastry for as long as I can remember … it really is so versatile, isn’t it?
Love the pics… can almost taste it all.
Like Liz, my mom taught me to make cream puffs when I was a kid (it must be a midwestern thing), though I never had a sweet one until I was an adult, since she made them for cocktail parties with savory fillings (still love them!), but I agree, Dorie has opened up a whole world to choux pastries!
I love that you taught your boys to make them. I think it’s so fun when kids try something that they don’t think they can do – and then are so successful! They look great, and I’m sure they (and you) were so proud!
Oh, and I must say, I’m a bit jealous over your cocktail party with Mr. Neil’s wine pairing. Sounds like it was lovely!
I once had to make nearly a hundred of these sucker for a giant croquembouch and decided to retire from choux for good. FFwD got me back into choux-loving mode again. Yummy goat cheese! I’ll have to remember that!
I’m startled every time you say you weren’t a pastry queen at the start of FFWD. When I think of you, I think of you as a consummate baker. I’m glad you live up to my image, even if it might not always have been true. I LOVE that your Petits Chefs are already so comfortable with choux and other pastry. What a gift you’ve given them!
Wow. Double wow! These are wonderful.
I love that you are passing your talent for pastry on to your students, especially since you can tell them a great story about how you came to be such a whiz at it. I leave bags of frozen choux puffs at my parents’ house for them to bake (or more likely, my niece to come over and bake). It’s a great trick to have up my sleeve for gatherings, too. So many variations, so impressive, so easy.
I have not had a chance to make these wonderful recipes yet. More to add to my list. I look forward to seeing you on TWD. I miss my Friday crew already. For my vacation we flew into Vancouver. I only spent a few hours there before we sailed to Alaska. Such a nice city and I look forward to going back. Enjoy your summer. Going to Paris?
Great choice! It really is wonderful how something so relatively easy can be so impressive (not to mention either sweet or savory).