Sweet French Things

Cooking class concluded last Friday with a dessert session. I was pleased that our meal didn’t consist of entirely dessert (there were a couple of quiches) but I was even more pleased that my dinner consisted of champagne, sauternes, Grand Marnier Souffle, gougeres (the delicious French version of cheesy poofs, I had about 15) crème brulee, éclairs, chocolate mousse, tarte au citron, and tarte de fruits. I left class with a sugar rush, a smile on my face, and with a slew of French desserts added to my repertoire.

Since my parents took me to The Little Owl for dinner on Sunday night, and my dad took me to Sushi Yasuda on Monday, I had to think of some way to give back a little. During the weekend I took some time to work on one of the everyday French foods, that until recently, I had no idea how to make—crepes.

(Crepes with Blackberries, Wild Strawberries, Nutella, Chocolate Mint, and Plum Syrup)

One of the things I enjoyed most about the class was learning how to prepare some simple French foods that I ordinarily thought were a lot more complicated. Making crepe batter is no more than a 10-15 minute process and making a tarte de fruits (my Monday project) required no more than half an hour of active time, most of which was spent carefully placing berries onto the finished tart.



I guess if you take anything from this post it’s that you too can make delicious French sweets and it probably requires a lot less time than you think.