Pastries
Blogging about pastry will probably
initiate vicious rumors that all we do over here is eat sweets! Not true at all. We have actually been quite well-behaved in
terms of the consumption of desserts and candies. Sure, we have had a few caramels from Jacques Genin
and have tried out a few Parisian desserts…all in the name of research, mind
you. What we have discovered so far is that
just down the next street, rue Brézin, we can get some lovely confections to
fill the occasional need for something sweet after dinner. Here are some of our favorites so far from
the Pâtisserie Guerin.
One tasty treat which I first
remember trying in Montreal is the religieuse. Invented by the
Frascati pastry shop on Montmartre in the mid-nineteenth century, they are
supposed to look like miniature nuns, hence the name. Like éclairs,
they are made from pâte à choux dough,
filled with a type of custard, and then drizzled with chocolate or coffee icing. But religieuses
are finished off by placing one small round puff of pastry on top of a larger one
with a white piping around “the neck” to imitate a nun’s habit. Apparently neither éclairs nor religieuses
would have been possible to make before the invention of pastry bag. Anyway, they are delightfully sinful little nuns! 
Another favorite which our family
first tried in Paris on our younger son’s ninth birthday is the Paris-Brest. A baker, not a pastry chef, named Durand is
said to have invented the dessert in 1891 after he saw the bicycle race of the
same name going past. The contest later
inspired the creation of the Tour de
France, but the pastry’s name remained the same. The ring-shaped dessert is supposed to
resemble a bike tire, though thankfully that's where the resemblance ends. We had searched many pâtisserie windows before finally purchasing a Paris-Brest at our neighborhood store. And it was a good one: flaky dough, praline
filling, with crunchy sliced almonds on top. Delicious!
A new dessert for us is the royal au chocolat, sometimes called a trianon.
An essential ingredient in this pastry is a crispy cookie called a gavotte which was accidentally created
in 1893 when someone overcooked a crêpe.
I’m sure there are several recipes, but the one I found calls for layering
gavottes over a chocolate cake base
twice, topping it with some chocolate mousse, and covering the entire thing
with a chocolate glaze. Should be good
for a chocolate fix, right?
Just doing our research. At your service!
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