Parisian Patisserie- Yes, Please!
Bonjour, Stuffie friends!
We could not wait to get to Paris and be carried around to all the wonderful sidewalk bistros, bakeries, and fancy restaurants. Instead, our landlords informed us that if we wanted delectable pastries, we’d have to make them ourselves. Well, that didn’t sound like a hardship! We spent all morning learning to make croissants and pain du chocolate. There were others in the class as well (3 generations of a family from Hawai’i and 2 from Hong Kong.) Everyone was excited to meet us!
They agreed that we could watch all the steps and listen carefully. Julia (the instructor from Paris) also gave details in writing. That means we can follow when we get home and have more of these amazing snacks!
One very important part of making pastries is the dough. After hearing about the importance of the right ingredients, we got busy rolling out the dough. Turns out one of the secrets to pastry is putting butter between layers. It is really hard work. We were exhausted from all the effort.
Once the dough is the right thickness, you need to cut it into triangles if you want a croissant. It is then rolled carefully to make the correct shape. Good thing we’re so talented at precision! We were pretty happy with how these turned out.
It is very important to place the pastry far apart on parchment paper. We’re not sure why, exactly, or what parchment paper is. Must have been important because Julia said it more than once. Once it’s ready, you put the tray in a very low warm oven to rise.
We thought it would be very hard to wait… especially when the room started to smell like fresh baked bread. Luckily, as the first batch was baking, we got busy on rolling out the new dough. It looks easy, but because of some mysterious substance called “gluten”, the ball is like elastic. It takes a lot of rolling and even more flour. (We learned it is very important to put a little flour on the table so the dough doesn’t stick.)
If you’re following along at home, be sure not to turn the dough over. It will pick up extra flour and end up too dry! That’s what the brush is used for. You apply a layer of flour on the table and then brush excessive flour out of the way as you make layers. (A word of caution- don’t use the dustpan brush. Buy one specially for pastry making!) Finally, we learned how to roll the butter in the dough. Very technical. We won’t get into the details, but you can see how well our pastries turned out!
We had such a wonderful and delicious time in the class! It felt like we found a new family in Paris. And, we might become world-famous pastry chefs! More stories from Paris coming your way soon….
-Scottie. Amelia Airheart, Flambé, Ober, Gràineag