Assorted Choux and Fun Sneakers

Today we finished our assorted choux pastry. Pate a choux (pronounced pot-a-shoo) is a french pastry dough that is usually called "Eclair Paste" or "Eclair dough" here in the US. The literal translation in French is "Cabbage Paste," probably because the little puffs look like cabbage heads. One of the major things the French use Pate a Choux for is to make the French wedding cake - the croquembouche. It's basically a huge tower of mini cream puffs glued together with caramel and decorated either with spun caramel decorations or sometimes marzipan roses or candied violets. We made "mini" versions today - the Petit Croquembouche. We also made a wide variety of other choux pastries, including eclairs, choux a la creme (cream puffs) and the Paris Brest (not breast, BREST - I know you are thinking I am making boobie things daily, but I'm really NOT), which is a round ring that signifies an old bike race between Paris and Brest. The circular shape either represents the out-and-back race, or possibly a bike wheel. It's filled with pastry cream, whipped cream, berries and sprinkled with almonds and powdered sugar. After class, Gabriela and I took all of our pastries, including both of our croquembouche, on the subway to her boyfriend's office. Everyone in his company appreciated our goodies and we enjoyed bringing some happiness into the workplace. (I MISS DOING THAT!) Sorry to my work peeps - this stuff won't keep through the mail. I promise I will eventually send something that will keep long enough to get to NC. I stumbled upon some fun new sneakers today too. A girl's gotta shop sometime, right?