Salted Butter Caramel Macarons

Well, I'm back in Paris. I expected things to be a little easier--I stocked the fridge up with vegetables to make quick stir-fries all week long. Then, I realized cutting a lemon became a 20 minute-long chore all of a sudden. Ah, the joy of broken wrists. The plan for lunch today is to eat lettuce with my hands and no dressing. Well, that or go get a falafel. I'll let you guess which alternative I prefer.

Basically, I can't cook until the beginning of February, but my mind has replaced my mouth. I'm stocking up on recipes I want to make in a few weeks, and I can finally take a step back and think about everything I've recently baked. More specifically, these salted caramel macarons I made for Christmas. If you like strong but not burnt-strong caramel, then you'll love these. Ooh-ooh. They pack a lot of taste and are extra creamy.

Like all macarons, they take a little while to make--it's all about advance planning, really. I'm amazed at how successful and fail-proof each one of Pierre Hermé's recipe has been so far. In fact, I met him at a book signing a month or two ago and awkwardly wanted to say something, so I told him that I had successfully made his lemon macarons and that they were delicious. He mumbled something along the lines of "Good, that's how the book was meant to be", and went back to looking a little sad / bored that nobody was waiting in line to have their book signed. Oh, poor Pierre.

Back to the macarons: they're good, fun to make and small. Meaning that you can eat one, or two or three, and feel just fine about it. You can even eat the leftover filling with a spoon, but don't tell anyone I suggested it. Or you can justify it by spreading it on scones or fresh bread, but honestly, go the simple route.

Caramel + butter+ spoon + mouth = go for it!

Macarons caramel beurre salé

makes approx. 72

Ingredients

for macaron tops:
300g almond powder
300g confectioner's sugar
110g "liquified" egg whites (placed in a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 72 hours before use)
15g cofee extract

15g dark yellow food coloring
+
300g granulated sugar
75g mineral water
110g "liquified" egg whites

for salted butter caramel  cream: 

300g granulated sugar

350g liquid crème fraîche
65g 'demi-sel' (salted) butter
290g unsalted butter

-Sift confectioner's sugar and almond powder together. Add food coloring to the first bowl of "liquified" egg whites and mix. Pour onto the sugar-almond mixture, without mixing them together.

- Bring water and sugar to a boil, 118°C. When the syrup reaches 115°C, start beating second batch of egg whites with a stand mixer. Pour syrup onto the whites (which should be at soft peak stage by now), continue beating and wait until mixture is down to 50°C before incorporating it into the sugar/almond mixture. Fold everything in delicately.

- Pipe mixture onto a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, making round shapes approx. 3,5cm in diameter. Space them approximately 2cm apart from one another. 

- Tap baking sheet on kitchen counter, and let macaron tops crust for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F. Bake tops for 12 minutes, opening oven door twice. After removing them from the oven, place parchment paper on counter or table.

- Make caramel filling. Bring cream to a boil. Pour 50g of granulated sugar into a large saucepan. Let it melt, and repeat 4 times. Let sugar caramelize until it reaches a dark amber color. Remove saucepan from heat, and add salted butter. Mix with a heatproof spatula and add cream. Mix and reheat until cream reaches 108°C.

- Place in a deep dish. Cover with plastic wrap, making sure that it touches the caramel. Place in refrigerator until cold. Beat unsalted butter with a mixer 8 to 10 minutes, and add caramel cream.

- Pipe resulting cream onto half of the macaron tops, covering them with the remaining tops.

- Place macarons in the fridge for 24 hours, bringing them back to room temperature for 2 hours before eating.

"Bounty bars are much better than Mounds", macaron version

It seems like ages when I was in a frenzy, baking macarons as family gifts for the 25th. That was before 2009 went away and 2010 was ushered in. Also, before I went snowboarding last Saturday...and broke both wrists.

What a great way to start off the year, right? No more cartwheels, no more handstands. Wait, I never knew how to do those anyway.

One thing's for sure, no more cooking for the next couple of weeks, much to my dismay. I'll be rediscovering the joys of soup, soup, and...soup with bread! Well, who knows, I might be able to cut a tomato or two without chopping my fingers off. But, on the fun side, I look like a penguin flapping my cast-covered arms around. Nice!

In France, there's a popular saying made famous in an advertisement that says "Pas de bras, pas de chocolat": No arms, no chocolate. Fortunately, I've still got my arms, but my poignets, or wrists, are hors service. So here's my version: "Pas de poignets, pas de praliné". Not like I'm planning on applying it to myself--this is the one time in my adult life I can chomp away on chocolate and still garner pitiful stares from everyone. I'm not letting that opportunity slide by!

To stay on the topic of sweet things, I had Pierre Hermé's recipe for chocolate-coconut macarons bookmarked ever since I got the book for Christmas 2008. My maman has always loved Bounty bars--now unavailable in the United States--and Hermé's goal was to recreate that same taste in a macaron.

A Bounty bar has everything the chocolate-coconut-combo lover wants: sweet but not overly so, and with a slight crunch from the dessicated coconut. And Mounds, apparently, aren't nearly as tasty as a Bounty. With all that in mind, I set out to recreate the Bounty in macaron form.

What I ended up with was surprising: the macaron shells tasted like coconut macaroons, actually. And the filling was a nice mix of chocolate and coconut, making the overall treat pretty successful and satisfying. But truthfully, the Bounty taste wasn't there.

What was there, however, was a delicious and chewy combination of chocolate and coconut. Coconut is a tropical fruit, so this wasn't just a Christmas macaron--it's a dessert that can be enjoyed year-round.

Wrists or no wrists.

Chocolate-Coconut Macarons on the left...on the right, you'll see in a few days (when I can actually type without tiring myself out!)

Chocolate-Coconut Macarons

makes approx. 72

Ingredients

for macaron tops:
300g almond powder
300g confectioner's sugar
90g "liquified" egg whites (placed in a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 72 hours before use)
75g peanut oil

150g dessicated coconut
+
375g granulated sugar
75g mineral water
180g "liquified" egg whites

for milk chocolate and coconut ganache:
300g liquid crème fraîche
115g coconut milk
1 and a half vanilla beans
190g Valhrona Jivara chocolate or another milk chocolate with 40% cocoa
150g dessicated coconut

topping

70g powdered coconut (I used dessicated)


-Sift confectioner's sugar and almond powder together. Pour egg whites onto the sugar-almond mixture, and add peanut oil and dessicated coconut, without mixing them together.

- Bring water and sugar to a boil, 118°C. When the syrup reaches 115°C, start beating second batch of egg whites with a stand mixer. Pour syrup onto the whites (which should be at soft peak stage by now), continue beating and wait until mixture is down to 50°C before incorporating it into the sugar/almond mixture. Fold everything in delicately.

- Pipe mixture onto a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, making round shapes approx. 3,5cm in diameter. Space them approximately 2cm apart from one another. Sprinkle with powdered coconut.

- Tap baking sheet on kitchen counter, and let macaron tops crust for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F. Bake tops for 12 minutes, opening oven door twice. After removing them from the oven, place parchment paper on counter or table.

- Make ganache. Preheat oven to 160°C, and spread coconut on a baking sheet. Toast coconut for approx. 10 minutes or until golden. Bring cream to a boil with vanilla beans split in half and previously scraped down. Remove from heat, cover, and let sit for 10 min.

- Place chopped chocolate in a medium bowl. Filter cream, reheat, and pour onto chocolate in three batches. Add toasted coconut, mix, and place in a deep dish. Cover with plastic wrap, making sure that it touches the ganache. Place in refrigerator until creamy.

- When ready, pipe ganache onto half of the macaron tops, covering them with the remaining tops.

- Place macarons in the fridge for 24 hours, bringing them back to room temperature for 2 hours before eating.

Paris-Brest : The Trip Not Taken

Remember my adventures with making chocolate éclairs? No? Well, I sure do. I had to go about making the pâte à choux twice because they just wouldn't rise in the oven. My aunt Mimi had whipped out her recipe and they were perfect in a flash.

That's why I thought a Paris-Brest would be extra easy. I was wrong.

This time around, I had the perfect pâte à choux recipe from last time and a nice-looking recipe for the filling. Simply put, a Paris-Brest is a classic French dessert. You start by making a ring with the dough, which you then bake until puffy and golden. Believe me, puffy may be a cute word, but it becomes terribly mean and sly at times. Anyway, you slice the ring in half and fill it with a mix of crème patissière and buttercream, flavored with pralin, a blend of sugar, ground hazelnuts and ground almonds. Sounds good, right? Trust me, it is. Or it should be, anyway.

I was totally excited about baking a Paris-Brest. I couldn't walk by a pastry shop without peeking in to take a look at theirs. It goes without saying that I won't be playing "Show me yours, I'll show you mine" with a Paris-Brest and pastry shops anytime soon. Oh, those golden, slivered-almond-topped cakes, sprinkled with confectioner's sugar... I knew mine would be just like them. I just know it. How couldn't it, given my great pâte à choux recipe?

I went ahead and got started on my Paris-Brest. Everything was going well, and my ring looked great even before baking, even though I couldn't find slivered almonds anywhere and sprinkled almond powder on top. I should have taken it as a sign to stop right there and come up with something else, but I kept going. In the oven, it looked wonderful. "Make sure you don't open the oven door", my aunt said. So I didn't open the door, and when my ring was nice and golden, I turned the oven off. I opened the door just slightly...and down it went. Pfiou, as the French say.

Pfiou, plop, wiz, whatever you want to call it, I was mad. Good thing I had a lot of pâte à choux left, and proceeded to start over again, using the leftovers to pipe tiny chouquettes onto a baking sheet alongside my new and, hoperfully, improved Paris-Brest ring. This time around, I settled on leaving the oven door closed and letting them cool little by little. Golden and puffy, everything looked amazing. I switched the oven off and waited. Ten minutes later...

Pfiou.

On the plus side, the filling I prepared while I watched the oven was great. Sweet, a little crunchy, and definitely tasty. Also, my Paris-Brest ring was a mess, but the chouquettes were a success. So I piped the cream into my floppy ring, just to say I actually did make that Paris-Brest, and piped the leftovers into a few chouquettes.

The Paris-Brest was alright--crème au praliné on five-day-old bread would probably taste good too--but I had just discovered something even better. Chouquettes au praliné. Who needs a Paris-Brest when you can have bite-sized tastes of heaven?

Yes, my Paris-Brest looked terrible. But isn't the best part of messing up discovering the little surprises hidden behind each failure?

Mimi's Pâte à Choux

Note: This makes a completely neutral dough--add some sugar or vanilla extract if you want it to be sweet

25cl water (I did half water, half milk)

60g butter

125g flour

4 eggs

Pinch salt

Bring water (or water + milk) to a boil in a saucepan.

Add butter and salt.

Sprinkle flour into saucepan, beating vigorously. On low heat, "dry" the dough out by beating it until it stops sticking to the pan. Remove from heat and add eggs one by one, mixing until well incorporated before adding the next one.

Paris-Brest

serves 2

Pâte à choux (approx. 1/4 of the recipe above, though I've never tried cutting it down)

8cl milk

1 egg yolk

40g softened butter

10g cornstarch

20g granulated sugar

40g powdered pralin

Bring milk to a boil. In a small bowl, beat yolk and sugar until light in color.

Add cornstarch, mix, and pour milk while beating everything together. Place in a saucepan over medium heat, beating until it starts to boil. Remove from heat and let cool.

Beat butter until fluffy. Add crème pâtissière (which you just made above), pralin, and beat on high if using a mixer.

Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F.

Cover a baking sheet with parchment paper. Pipe pâte à choux, making 1 ring, then another right around it. Finally, pipe a ring on top of the last two. Decorate with slivered almonds. Bake 30 minutes until golden, and let cool with the oven turned off, door left slightly open. (Well, that's supposed to work...)

Once the ring has cooled, slice it in half and pipe praline cream onto the bottom half. Cover with top half, and sprinkle powdered sugar on top.

Alternative: Make as many chouquettes as you want by piping small (about 2cm in diameter) balls of dough onto a baking sheet. Decorate with pearl sugar or slivered almonds. Bake 20 minutes at 180°C, or until golden. Cool using the same method as above.

Using a serrated knife, slice the chouquettes open halfway and pipe as much cream as you want inside.

Eat and enjoy!

Macarons au Citron

Baking a dessert or pastry is often time consuming. There's never one step, one bowl, or one ingredient. So why do some people eat dessert in haste, as if you could just swallow the whole thing down without giving a second thought to all the ingredients you're tasting at once?

Obviously, when you're hungry and a yummy looking donut / muffin / cookie--I'll stop there, though I could pretty much include anything--is at arm's length, it's pretty easy to just go ahead and eat without thinking about anything other than the buttery goodness.

A true macaron, however, should never ever be eaten with haste. When you dig your teeth into a macaron, the top should be crunchy, with the underside of the top (that sure isn't clear) conveying a smooth almond taste. The inside of the macaron, depending on the flavor, is creamy or fruity, but always complementing the tops.

The macaron au citron, or lemon macaron (but you had that figured out), is no exception. In fact, it's always been my favorite. When you bite into it, you get the subtle tang of delicious lemons paired with the intense and smooth creaminess of the crème au citron, or lemon curd. It's an explosion of flavor in a dessert so éphémère you wish you could have hundreds more so the taste lasts longer.

Now, eating macarons is one thing. But making them yourself? You watch the oven while the tops are baking, hoping the "collerette" (the little frilly thing around them) suddenly appears. The collerette is a sure sign of good things to come, and seeing them definitely put a smile on my first-timer face. Making good macarons takes time, motivation, and an empty stomach when they're finally ready. You won't eat one or two. No way, you spent all day making them, so at least have five or six as a sort of payback.



Also, make sure everyone who has a taste goes on and on about how good they are. After all that work in the kitchen, basking in some kind of praise is like taking a long bath. Or having as many macarons as you could possibly want.

Macaron Citron by Pierre Hermé
makes approx. 72 macarons

Ingredients (sorry about the ingredients in grams, but there are some great Internet converters out there!)

for macaron tops:
300g almond powder
300g confectioner's sugar
110g "liquified" egg whites (placed in a bowl and put in the fridge for at least 72 hours before use)
0,5g golden yellow food coloring
10g lemon yellow food coloring
+
300g granulated sugar
75g mineral water
110g "liquified" egg whites

for lemon curd:
225g eggs
240g granulated sugar
8g Menton lemon zest (Menton lemons are impossible to find in the US, use organic lemons instead)
160g fresh lemon juice
350g high-quality butter
100g almond powder

- A day prior to making the macarons, prepare lemon curd. Rince and dry lemons before grating them. Rub zest and granulated sugar together with both hands.

- Mix lemon juice, zest/sugar, and eggs together in a bowl. Place bowl over a pan of simmering water. Beat until mixture is up to 83-84°C. Let it come back down to 60°C, and add butter cut into pieces. Beat until curd is smooth, and beat with a stand mixer for another 10 minutes.

- Pour curd in a large, shallow dish. Cover with plastic wrap, pressing it onto the curd. Store in fridge.

-The next day, sift confectioner's sugar and almond powder together. Add food coloring to the first bowl of "liquified" egg whites and mix. Pour onto the sugar-almond mixture, without mixing them together.

- Bring water and sugar to a boil, 118°C. When the syrup reaches 115°C, start beating second batch of egg whites with a stand mixer. Pour syrup onto the whites (which should be at soft peak stage by now), continue beating and wait until mixture is down to 50°C before incorporating it into the sugar/almonds mixture.

- Pipe mixture onto a parchment paper-covered baking sheet, making round shapes approx. 3,5cm in diameter. Space them approximately 2cm apart from one another.

- Tap baking sheet on kitchen counter, and let macaron tops crust for at least 30 minutes. Preheat oven to 180°C / 350°F. Bake tops for 12 minutes, opening oven door twice. After removing them from the oven, place parchment paper on counter or table.

- Mix lemon curd with the remaining almond powder. Pipe onto half of the macaron tops, covering them with the remaining tops.

- Place macarons in the fridge for 24 hours, bringing them back to room temperature for 2 hours before eating.


I seriously recommend getting Pierre Hermé's book on macarons: it has a great step-by-step of how to make them perfect, and following all the instructions apparently pays off! You can get it here, but I couldn't find it in English--maybe it hasn't been translated yet?

Eclairs au Chocolat

I guess I'm not really good at remembering dates--I forgot to post this Daring Bakers Challenge on the 31st, and it was only my first challenge! I guess this marks the end of my "DB Days", because I just know this kind of thing will happen again...

Anyway, the challenge was to make chocolate éclairs using a recipe from Pierre Hermé. Now I am quite a Pierre Hermé fan: he just opened a chocolate & macarons shop on rue Cambon, right next to where I work. 

Now his eclair recipe is another story... 

Making eclairs consists of 1) making the pâte à choux, 2) forming the eclairs and cooking them, 3) filling them with crème patissière, and 4) icing them.

Part 3 went fine, but I definitely can't say as much for the rest... It all started out with the pâte à choux recipe. My eclair mission took place in my aunt's house in the Vosges, where my maman was staying until mid-August. She eyed my recipe and, as mothers watching their daughters cook usually do, had many many comments. Once the dough was prepared and the eclairs were piped onto a baking sheet, I was pretty convinced the recipe had proved Maman wrong: they were going to be perfect.

Well, having to open the oven for 5 minutes--or more precisely, stick a wooden spoon in the door--made them deflate even worse than when you pop a balloon. Not only that, when I removed them from the oven, they were almost sticky and you could roll them up into a ball. Not a good base for an eclair, right?

With my sad-looking eclair shells sitting on the kitchen table, I started the crème patissière, and it turned out a lot better. Once again, I wasn't able to avoid criticism for having bought Meunier chocolate instead of Nestlé Dessert at the supermarket, but we had been debating that since the previous day.

When my aunt got back from work, I literally pounced on her and asked for her pâte à choux recipe which was apparently really good. When my aunt Mimi discovered the Pierre Hermé pâte à choux recipe, she was surprised and immediately embarked on a "True Pâte à Choux" mission, no oven-door-opening involved. For the recipe, see my post on Chouquettes.

As planned, her eclair shells turned out well, and the cutting them open to add the crème patissière could start. That's when--you guessed it--my knife-cutting was welcomed by a "Oh, that's how your recipe says to do it? Because that's not really how you make eclairs, you're supposed to fill them." Too late.

By that time, I was honestly a little tired of my eclairs, and didn't even want to spend the time making the chocolate glaçage the recipe called for. I melted some chocolate and mixed it with some heavy cream until it made some sort of ganache. The end result is, well, interesting:

I'm happy I made eclairs because it had been on my to-make list for a while. I'm really disappointed by the recipe though--I don't know if the other daring bakers ran into the same problems. All I know is I'll be going back to my more simple and hassle-free choux recipe next time I'm in the mood for some pastries!

If you want to take a look at the Pierre Hermé version:

Pierre Hermé’s Chocolate Éclairs (makes 20-24 éclairs )

Recipe from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Hermé

Pâte à Choux

• ½ cup (125g) whole milk

• ½ cup (125g) water

• 1 stick (4 ounces; 115g) unsalted butter, cut into 8 pieces

• ¼ teaspoon sugar

• ¼ teaspoon salt

• 1 cup (140g) all-purpose flour

• 5 large eggs, at room temperature

Notes:

• Once the dough is made you need to shape it immediately.

• You can pipe the dough and the freeze it. Simply pipe the dough onto parchment-lined baking

sheets and slide the sheets into the freezer. Once the dough is completely frozen, transfer the piped shapes into freezer bags. They can be kept in the freezer for up to a month.

1) In a heavy bottomed medium saucepan, bring the milk, water, butter, sugar and salt to the

boil.

2) Once the mixture is at a rolling boil, add all of the flour at once, reduce the heat to medium

and start to stir the mixture vigorously with a wooden spoon. The dough comes together very

quickly. Do not worry if a slight crust forms at the bottom of the pan, it’s supposed to. You need to carry on stirring for a further 2-3 minutes to dry the dough. After this time the dough will be very soft and smooth.

3) Transfer the dough into a bowl of a mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, or using your

handmixer or if you still have the energy, continue by hand. Add the eggs one at a time, beating after each egg has been added to incorporate it into the dough. You will notice that after you have added the first egg, the dough will separate, once again do not worry. As you keep working the dough, it will come back all together again by the time you have added the third egg. In the end the dough should be thick and shiny and when lifted it should fall back into the bowl in a ribbon. 

4) The dough should be still warm. It is now ready to be used for the éclairs.

5) Preheat your oven to 375 degrees F (190 degrees C). Divide the oven into thirds by positioning the racks in the upper and lower half of the oven. Line two baking sheets with waxed or parchment paper.

6) Fill a large pastry bag fitted with a 2/3 (2cm) plain tip nozzle with the warm cream puff dough. Pipe the dough onto the baking sheets in long, 4 to 4-1/2 inches (about 11 cm) chubby fingers. Leave about 2 inches (5 cm) space in between each dough strip to allow them room to puff. The dough should give you enough to pipe 20-24 éclairs.

7) Slide both the baking sheets into the oven and bake for 7 minutes. After the 7 minutes, slip the handle of a wooden spoon into the door to keep in ajar. When the éclairs have been in the oven for a total of 12 minutes, rotate the sheets top to bottom and front to back. Continue baking for a further 8 minutes or until the éclairs are puffed, golden and firm. The total baking time should be approximately 20 minutes. The éclairs should be kept in a cool, dry place for several hours before filling.

Chocolate Crème Patissière

• 2 cups (500g) whole milk

• 4 large egg yolks

• 6 tbsp (75g) sugar

• 3 tablespoons cornstarch, sifted

• 7 oz (200g) bittersweet chocolate, preferably Velrhona Guanaja, melted

• 2½ tbsp (1¼ oz: 40g) unsalted butter, at room temperature

1) In a small saucepan, bring the milk to a boil. In the meantime, combine the yolks, sugar and cornstarch together and whisk in a heavy‐bottomed saucepan.

2) Once the milk has reached a boil, temper the yolks by whisking a couple spoonfuls of the hot milk into the yolk mixture.Continue whisking and slowly pour the rest of the milk into the tempered yolk mixture.

3) Strain the mixture back into the saucepan to remove any egg that may have scrambled. Place the pan over medium heat and whisk vigorously (without stop) until the mixture returns to a boil. Keep whisking vigorously for 1 to 2 more minutes (still over medium heat).Stir in the melted chocolate and then remove the pan from the heat.

4) Scrape the pastry cream into a small bowl and set it in an ice‐water bath to stop the cooking process. Make sure to continue stirring the mixture at this point so that it remains smooth.

5) Once the cream has reached a temperature of 140 F remove from the ice‐water bath and stir in the butter in three or four installments. Return the cream to the ice‐water bath to continue cooling, stirring occasionally, until it has completely cooled. The cream is now ready to use or store in the fridge.

Notes:

•The pastry cream can be made 2‐3 days in advance and stored in the refrigerator.

•In order to avoid a skin forming on the pastry cream, cover with plastic wrap pressed onto the cream.

•Tempering the eggs raises the temperature of the eggs slowly so that they do not scramble.

Chocolate Glaze (makes 1 cup)

• 1/3 cup (80g) heavy cream

• 3½ oz (100g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

• 4 tsp (20 g) unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces, at room temperature

• 7 tbsp (110 g) Chocolate Sauce (recipe below), warm or at room temperature

1)In a small saucepan, bring the heavy cream to a boil. Remove from the heat and slowly begin to add the chocolate, stirring with a wooden spoon or spatula.

2) Stirring gently, stir in the butter, piece by piece followed by the chocolate sauce.

Notes:

• If the chocolate glaze is too cool (i.e. not liquid enough) you may heat it briefly in the microwave or over a double boiler. A double boiler is basically a bowl sitting over (not touching) simmering water.

• It is best to glaze the eclairs after the glaze is made, but if you are pressed for time, you can make the glaze a couple days ahead of time, store it in the fridge and bring it up to the proper temperature (95 to 104 F) when ready to glaze.

Chocolate Sauce (makes 1½ cups or 525 g) 

• 4½ oz (130 g) bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped

• 1 cup (250 g) water

• ½ cup (125 g) crème fraîche, or heavy cream

• 1/3 cup (70 g) sugar

1) Place all the ingredients into a heavy‐bottomed saucepan and bring to a boil, making sure to stir constantly. Then reduce the heat to low and continue stirring with a wooden spoon until the sauce thickens.

2) It may take 10‐15 minutes for the sauce to thicken, but you will know when it is done when it coats the back of your spoon.

Notes:

• You can make this sauce ahead of time and store it in the refrigerator for two weeks. Reheat the sauce in a microwave oven or a double boiler before using.

• This sauce is also great for cakes, ice-cream and tarts.

Chouquettes

What do monkeys and pâte à choux have in common?

Not so much, I'll admit, besides the fact that they were both part of my week-long no-blogging stay back in Saint Dié. There's a mountain filled with monkeys and you can feed them and watch them jump around in the woods--really entertaining even though I'm no longer 10.

Back to my dough.

I was having a bit of a dough dilemma last week, when Maman reminded me that Mimi, my aunt, is pretty much a pâte à choux expert. When she got home from work, I asked her for a helping hand and watched the magic unfold.

The recipe is truly very simple, and the prospect of making chouquettes was pretty much all I needed to get all excited.

Chouquettes are a snack that you like when you're a child but love just as much when you get older. They're light, tiny puffs sprinkled with coarse sugar. You can eat one if you want, but you'll probably end up eating ten--at least.

Anyway, I can't say that I really did anything apart from piping the dough onto a baking sheet, putting sugar on the puffs, and eating handfulls of coarse sugar while doing all this. But I did acquire a recipe that will stay in my book for a long time, because I really don't know anyone who doesn't appreciate a few cute chouquettes when they're handed to you in a bowl.

I used to buy some once in a while from the boulangerie across the street from my school before my 5 o'clock class; now I think I should start selling them in the courtyard and making multicolored chouquettes. It's a really cheap snack to make and people get giddy when they see a chouquette.

I think they're sort of an excuse to eat all the coarse sugar that has dropped off the chouquettes and into the bottom of the paper bag you buy them in, but that doesn't keep them from being really delicious.

Chouquettes

1 cup water

1/3 cup (80g) butter

1 1/4 cup (125g) flour

4 eggs

salt

1 tbsp. sugar

coarse sugar

Preheat oven to 200°C / 400°F.

Bring water to a boil, add salt and sugar, then add butter.

Once the butter has melted, add all the flour at once and stir until you get a dry dough.

Remove the saucepan from heat, and add eggs one at a time, stirring (your arms might hurt a little) until you end up with a nice dough that's not too liquid.

Pipe dough onto a baking sheet, making little pyramids/cones for each. Sprinkle with coarse sugar.

Bake until golden--now they're all yours.