Bouchons "Chocolate Corks"

Thomas Keller is a "world renowned" French pastry chef who has made these all the rage in the upper foodie circles here in the US with his bakeries in Napa and NYC.  Evidently, his are just to die for.  The photo above are his Bouchons. 

I went ahead and shelled out the $29.95 to buy a silicone bouchon mold from Williams & Sonoma (pictured below). It was ever so cute and promised to make amazing chocolate treats.  

I followed the recipe on the back of the mold box and my bouchons turned out super fluffy and not at all dense, which is one of their primary characteristics. They were quite delicious, but nearly impossible to release from the silicone pan. Now, I will go ahead and admit guilt where it is due here: I may have over mixed it a bit and I have no previous experience with silicone baking pans.  

And thus. my search for delicious amazing and totally reproducible French pastries and baked goods continues. If I endeavor to make Bouchons again, I will purchase different molds (often referred to as Baba molds or Timbale molds) as I plan to return this one tomorrow.

Thanks for following me in this wacky journey. 

Pains au chocolat

If you have ever been to France you know that pains au chocolat (sometimes referred to as chocolate croissants here in the US) are amazing.  They may just be my favorite French snack of all time. That having been said, there are some pretty decent ones available to your local grocery store here in the U.S. since it's pretty much just melted chocolate pieces in croissant dough. The key is the quality of the croissant and of the chocolate as well as the use of plenty of butter! 

I had originally intended to whip up a batch the authentic French way...until I read all about the process required to make croissants.  It would seem that there are several (8 or so) rounds of rolling out dough, spreading with butter, folding over and then allowing it to sit and rise for an hour. YIKES.  The more I read about the processes of French food, the more convinced I am that even the steepest of prices is worth paying. But then I look at my modest party budget and reconsider.

  

So what do I do when pains au chocolat are a must at a French bakery party and yet they are such a pain in the rear to make?  I could do the total short cut and just through some chocolate chips in ready made croissants from Sam's Club. Or I could use the recipe that I found here which uses ready made puff pastry dough, chocolate pieces and an egg wash.  

Since I am trying to think of activities for kids that are theme-related, I think I may do the latter and have the kids help make them. I could cover the kids tables with wax paper and give each kid a small piece of rolled puff pastry dough and some chocolate pieces.  I could show the kids how to fold the dough over to enclose the chocolate and then give them each a little Dixie cup full of egg wash and a pastry brush (?) to coat the outside before they cut them into smaller pieces and put them on a baking tray.  It's fairly simple so I think with a little parental guidance, most kids could do it. How cute would it be to have personalized disposable chef hats and/or aprons for each kid? 

Clafoutis

This photo is from Joy of Baking.

Cherry clafouti is a classic.  It's a light and airy baked custard with dark cherries inside. Like most French desserts, it is not super sweet but definitely not bitter. Every time I needed an afternoon snack between grad classes (while studying in Paris) I'd stroll to the corner boulangerie (bakery) and study the Clafoutis assortment with curiosity and excitement. There was the plain kind which they called Flan (perhaps a distant cousin to the Spanish dessert bearing the same name), cherry, blueberry, pear, etc. 

Unlike most French desserts, this recipe doesn't require any butter or egg separation or beating the eggs and sugar "until a ribbon forms." It's simple. Through the-ingredients-in-a-blender-and-then-pour-into-a-dish-and-bake-it kind of simple.  It does, however, have to bake for a good hour or so. A word to the wise: if you are using canned cherries as I did, be sure to thoroughly drain and dry off the cherries before putting them in.  Otherwise, your consistency may be a little too runny and your custard won't set as well.

Here's my final product. Not bad, eh?

The Menu

I want the focal point to be the petite boulangerie (little French bakery) so the majority of my decorating and cooking energy is going into the bakery area. Here's what the menu is looking like for the bakery buffet table:

• Petits éclairs
• Petites religieuses (cream puffs)
• Petits pains au chocolat
• Madeleines
• Petites tartes aux fruits
• Macarons
• Clafoutis
• Babas au rhum (Rum soaked sweet rolls)

As for the "café" area, I am thinking that I will do café beverages (individual bottles of Coke, Orangina, mineral water and French limonade) and coffee with cream.  I'll also do some mini "hot-dogs" (French style with baguette bread, dijon mustard and sausage links), a cheese and fruit tray and ham & butter baguette sandwiches (it's a French thing).

   

In the beginning...

I am not too sure as to how it all began, but I do know that I was inspired to cook more authentic French food after having watched the film Julie & Julia late last fall. I got Julia Child's cookbook and set out to try one new recipe a week, which was both fun and challenging.

Meanwhile, I've developed a bit of an obsession over party planning.  I subscribe to several party planning blogs in my Google Reader so I read the feeds daily.  One day, while perusing the latest party ideas, I came across a French bakery birthday party for a one year old little girl.
Check out this amazing party on pen n' paper flowers blog. My heart skipped a beat as my daughter Claire's first birthday was fast approaching. I decided right then and there that I wanted to copy that party and personalize the concept to call it my own. 

So the vision for the party is this: Vintage Paris with feminine flair. Black & white photos of Paris interspersed with black & white photos of Claire throughout her first year.  White vintage-looking serving dishes and hot pink splashes here and there. As for patterns, I plan to use damask or toile to help create the classic look.