Layers of buttery delight

I have had the most wonderful day. OK, it didn’t start out great. I couldn’t sleep last night and finally took an Ambien (my personal savior) at 5 AM so I wasn’t out of bed until 10:30. Yes, I missed mass at St. Severin. Luckily, there is another one tomorrow, and the day after, and the day after that…

I crawled out of bed and made myself a beautiful breakfast of poached eggs on a pile of prosciutto on a baguette. This is one of my favorite culinary indulgences. The velvety richness of the egg yolk streamed over the salty goodness of the prosciutto onto a fantastic piece of crusty, chewy bread. This meal is like a Renaissance depiction of heaven, rich with chubby cupids flying around it. Then, I took my first trip on the RER (public train) to Vitry Sur Seine. I know you are wondering how I have gone this long without using the metro. I’ve been walking everywhere. It gives me a chance to see the city, wondering through little known neighborhoods and working off the morning croissant.

Vitry Sur Seine is the home of Bong, a graduate of the Le Cordon Bleu pastry program, where I had my first pastry lesson. Bong is from Malaysia and sweet as all get out. She has the unbridled enthusiasm that is so stereotypical of people from Asian Pacific countries. She is shorter than me and so thin that I believe her when she says she doesn’t eat what she makes. She married a Frenchman, who she met in school, and they plan to return to Malaysia to open a French fast food restaurant as soon as they save enough money.

We spend 6 ½ hours together making puff pastry dough which morphs into croissants, palmiers (heart shaped sugary croissants), apple turnovers, and a mille-feuille (essentially a napoleon pastry cake). Puff pastry dough from scratch is not hard, but it is time consuming. We made the dough (croissants have yeast, the rest do not) and let it rest for an hour. Then, we rolled it out and lay a slab of butter in the center and wrapped the dough like a present, then back to the refrigerator for another hour. With the butter nestled in the dough, we rolled it out again, folded it, then back to the refrigerator for another hour. This step is called making turns and creates the layers 0f the puff pastry by repeating it four times. I’m so excited about it that I’m bursting. Although all the puff pastry I ate might have something to do with that feeling.

Bong, the pastry chef

Mille FeuillePalmiers and Financiers (egg whites and almond powder with cocoa)