Mille Feuille

Mille Feuille is a layered pastry. It can be translated to "Thousand Layers" and is composed of sheets of puff pastry, pastry cream and anything else you feel like adding into the mix. It is so yummy! This is my favorite thing that we have made in class yet! I just kept finding a reason to cut another piece and devour it.

We made two different varieties: chocolate, hazelnut, praline and pistachio, strawberry. Both were beautiful and delicious but (big surprise) my knife kept hovering over the chocolate one for more.

You can find a version of this pastry in most shops and I would recommend it as a choice if you are debating on what to get. There are a few places you can find it in the states but not many.

The layers are: 

powdered sugar and decoration

chocolate puff pastry

hazelnut and praline pastry cream

chocolate puff pastry

chocolate pastry cream

chocolate praline crisp

chocolate puff pastry

the end.

Here is the pistachio version. Also delicious.

Would anybody like any of the recipes you have seen from my schooling? I would be happy to share one! Let me know your favorites so far!

Happy weekend! :)

Pastry School Homework

It's really a hard job.
But someone's got to do it.

4 month long homework assignment: find a patisserie that you want to intern at.
aka: go eat as many pastries as possible and justify it by calling it "research"

The amount of patisserie's in Paris make the amount of Starbuck's back home look small. They are on every corner, basically every other shop. Like I said before, this culture is centered around food and desserts. Be jealous. :)

One of the best pastry shops in the world is Dalloyau. My chef (pastry school teacher), the other class chef and my art teacher (who is an MOF...remember what that is???) have all worked at this shop. My crazy teacher worked there for 12 years before coming to teach at my school. I am lucky enough to walk by this shop every single day on my way to and from school and I can't help but linger in the window sometimes because it is so beautiful. This is an option (of many!) for an internship...decisions, decisions.

My mom and I both picked a chocolate cake (surprise, surprise) and they were both incredible. I chose the Opera Cake and my mom the Faubourg. Yum. I'm sure we will be going back when she visits this summer, right mom?

You sound like you're from London!

One of the weekends when my mom was here with me we took the train over to London. It is an easy two hour train ride so why not?

London is completely different than Paris. It has a slightly less European feel, a little bit closer to home for me. It is also impeccably clean! No dog poops around these parts! I'm not going to lie and say that the break from having to slang my terrible French skills wasn't nice. It was a great little relief :)

We had less then 48 hours in the city and considering, we saw a ton of stuff! We started the morning bright and early on Saturday and boarded our 7 am train to London. We got in and found our hotel (thanks to Melissa!) and headed out to explore.

We went uber tourist on this one and did the "hop on hop off" bus tour. I'm not a fan of being a stand out tourist but it is the best way to see everything in such a short amount of time. We saw the Tower of London, London Eye, Big Ben, Westminster Abbey, SoHo, Oxford St, and so much more! It was a really good time. My favorite thing was definitely the Westminster Abbey. Not only because I secretly (or maybe not so secretly) want to be a princess and it is where William and Kate tied the royal knot, but it is breathtaking. We wandered the halls and learned about all the famous and inspiring people who are buried and honored there. We also had the privilege of hearing the Abbey choir singing. Incredible.

The Tower of London was just as astonishing. First things first, the Crown Jewels...sparklyyyyy. Every girl's dream! The history of this place is unbelievable. If you ever make it to London make sure to but the Tower on your list of must-sees! Also, please don't forget to window shop (or if you are loaded, actually shop). The clothes are beautiful!!

We ended the trip with some traditional fish and chips and beer. Despite the fact that we got poured on (sans umbrella) and I may have gotten frost bite, it was a weekend to remember!

Week 4: Puff Pastry

This week we entered the world of puff pastry. I have always loved this dough, not only because it is tasty and full of butter (more than you want to know about) but because it is so versatile and can take on a lot of different flavors. It is great with sugar, fruits, cheese, chocolate, cream...anything!

This dough takes brute strength though. You have to roll it out, fold it up, roll it out, fold it up..again and again. That is what creates all those flakey delicious little layers. It is a great way to get out some aggression. If your dough has been refrigerating it can get very firm. So, naturally you just take your rolling pin and beat the shit out of your dough. It is a crack up watching everybody just bringing rolling pin down on the dough. Great therapy! You should try it!

We made these the last week that my mom was here in Paris. She really loved the Chaussons aux Pommes. So much so that she packed them on the plane back to the states with her! Right now, she is either missing all the treats I bring home or she is thankful to be away from the potential 50 pounds I might be gaining here...

Chaussons aux pommes (filled with apple sauce), Brown Sugar & Apple in Chocolate puff, Chaussons Italienne (filled with pastry cream with rum raisins)

Dartois (puff pastry filled with almond cream), Bande Pommes (puff pastry topped with pastry cream and fruits)

Thank Goodness for Apple

If you are just joining this blog, Welcome! I'm so glad you are here! Let me get you up to speed and introduce some of the key players around here.

Me...oh hi! You can pop over a read that fun little "about me" section but if that just takes too much effort I will tell you myself. I'm a 24 year old California girl who picked up and moved to Paris to study French pastry. Yep, its awesome.

This is Mike. He is the coolest person I know (besides myself, obviously) and he is the love of my life. We were living in the beachy town of Pacific Beach in San Diego before Paris came into the picture. Now he is living in Colorado and holding down the fort until I get home. I miss him like crazy. Want to know more? Read the "us" section. Visiting Paris April 19.

This is Taylor. The world's cutest dog. No, I'm not lying, she is cuter than them all. We picked her up at a little rescue and no we don't know what type of dog she is. She is the fastest on the beach and a great cuddle buddy. I miss my little muffin!

Meet the Campbell Clan. A bunch of crazies, I tell you. Also the best family in the known universe. Ryan, Jenna, Mom, Dad, Me, Brandon and of course, Boomer! Visiting Paris June 10.

There are a lot of other important friends and family (you know who you are!!). You will just have to come back and meet them later, as they come into play. For now, I'll introduce you to those wonderful ones who are coming all the way to Paris this year. I can't wait!!

Okay, back to regular scheduled rambling...


If it wasn't for my iPhone, iPad and Macbook (yes, I am Appled out) I don't know what I would do. If I had decided to do this whole "move to Paris" thing a few years back, I don't think I would have made it!

Thanks to the pure genius of Steve Jobs I am able to communicate and "see" my friends and family back home and they are able to actually "see" where I am, my apartment, the city. If I only had e-mail or snail mail....ugh! I can't imagine! haha, spoiled tech generation.

Mike and I (and Tay!) get to facetime everyday. Taylor just seems extremely confused by it all. She can hear my voice but has NO clue where it's coming from and just looks around like "umm...wtf?!" I love our virtual hang time and waking up to e-mails from him since he is going to sleep when I am waking up for school. It's the little things that make my freezing cold morning soo much better.

Of course, the internet is not the same. I miss them, my family, his family and my friends so much! Okay, let me clarify that this does not mean that I don't like being in Paris or anything of the sort! I've said a million times how much I love this city and am I so lucky to be here! But that doesn't mean I don't miss the people most important to me! I think now is a good time to start the countdown.. 39 days until Miguel arrives in Paris!! AH! :)

I am thinking you are all missing the true star of this blog. It has been a while since she has made an appearance...

little muffin! As cute as ever keeping warm in Colorado.

EuroPain 2012

EuroPain is a massive exposition for baking and pastry. It brings together professionals from all around the globe to share, promote and compete with each other. Our class went on the first day to see what it is all about. The expo took place at the convention center right outside of the city. They had everything from ice cream to bread, industrial machinery to live competitions. It is also the home of the Bakery World Cup.

While we were there we were able to watch some of the petit four competition between about 10 countries. It was so intriguing to sit and watch them create these beautiful little bites of food. After they presented them to the judges (also from around the world) and our art teacher was one of the judges. Note his collar.  The red, white and blue collar denotes that he is an Meilleur Ouvrier de France (MOF). 

Our favorite part of the whole thing was, you guessed it. Free samples! It was like a really awesome and gourmet version of Costco. They had everything! Bread, bread, and more bread. A ton of ice cream and gelato, pasta, pastries, even a bar serving drinks! I loved seeing all the wonderful pastries and all the crazy gelato flavors. It shocks me how perfect chef's can make their pastry look. Too perfect to eat....almost ;)

Foie gras, Beer or Salmon flavored gelato, anyone?

Take it from Owen Wilson

Paris is the most beautiful in the rain.

Have you seen Midnight in Paris? It is my favorite movie and was something that really inspired me to come to Paris when I was making the decision to come here or stay in the states. It shows beautiful scenes from the city and the story line is so heart warming. Owen Wilson plays a romantic and hopeful character that I think a lot of people can identify with. I know I definitely see myself in his character. If you haven't seen it, please tell me you will rent it. Pretty pleassseee? :) 

This clip shows Paris perfectly in 2 minutes. Also, a little fun fact - the Shakespeare bookstore that Owen walks out of in this scene is around the corner from my apartment and the restaurant next to it is Le Petit Chalet that I wrote about a few weeks back. I feel pretty cool, I'm not gonna lie.

Today was a rainy day in the city and I tried to capture some photos on my walk home from school this afternoon. Picture me trying to take pictures on my iPhone, avoiding running face first into someone and controlling an umbrella that so desperately wants to turn inside out. I looked completely normal.