Whipped

So, this morning I went grocery shopping for essentials at Monoprix, which is a bit like a French Target. The first thing said to me by anyone today happened to be at Monoprix and was, "Do you work here?" I thought to myself, why would that random man think I work here. I don't have a name tag and I'm certainly not wearing some sort of uniform. Well, everyone, that is where I was wrong. Apparently, I dressed myself today in an outfit ridiculously similar to that worn by employees of Monoprix. Greatness. Needless to say, from there on out, I decided not to make eye contact with anyone in the store for fear they would ask my where the toilet paper was. However, thinking back on that now, doing that probably only made me seem even more like a typical French employee.

It's Monday, which means another exciting day of Patisserie. Patisserie class is like an oasis in a desert. The room is cool and calm; there is no rushing or hustling. It also helps that it isn't the program's main focus, so I feel totally relaxed when I'm there as opposed to the hot, bustling kitchen that always seems to be in overdrive. In fact, I had a friend ask the other night, why was it that we all decided to move to France to work in the only profession that doesn't adhere to the 35 hour work week?

This week we made pate a choux, which is a pastry dough that can be made into profiteroles or gougeres. I made mine stuffed with vanilla pastry cream and then dipped in chocolate icing. I also made a few stuffed with chantilly cream, dusted with sugar and decorated with mint and raspberries. Too bad I ate so much as we went along that I didn't even want to taste everything once it was finished. That's what my landlady is for, I guess (at least until B returns from the U.S. of A.).

P.S. We whipped the cream by hand today using HUGE whisks. FYI - It's not quite as easy to whip cream when you don't have a KitchenAid mixer, but again, my fastball will be rockin' when I have finished this program so at least I can look forward to that.

Pate a choux baking in the oven.

Browned and hollow. Ready to be stuffed with...

Vanilla Pastry Cream.

We pipe the cream in through the bottom.

Finished product. Yum!