L'Academie and Cream Puffs

Gimme a woot woot! I started my first-ever actual baking class a couple weeks ago at L'Academie de Cuisine and I am in love! I've been a butter-smelling, batter-tasting, brainstorming-recipe-combos-in-my-free-time crazy person for the last couple of years and I thought it would be fun. Right again, Molly. Thank you.

Each week Chef Mark, who worked at the White House and trained with Chef Mesnier (he's famous)---how cool is that?!---teaches us about all kinds of beautiful pastries and I take pages of tiny scribbled, yet ridiculously organized, notes on every detail that comes out of his mouth. It's fascinating!

These are some beautiful cream puffs, made out of choux pastry and filled with fresh whipped cream. Way better than the frozen store kind, fyi. The rich buttery pastry shell is just barely crisp and browned in the oven while wonderfully soft and flavorful on the inside. Then, when you bite into the little guy, it bursts open with chilled, silky cream and you have to close your eyes to let your mouth enjoy every bit of flavor!

I'm going to apologize right now for only sharing mouthwatering imagery of class projects and miscellaneous baking attempts. These projects are best explained with detailed step-by-step images and my camera/laptop can only handle so much flour/butter/eggs mixed in between the buttons.

So basically what I'm saying is you should probably invite me over to have a baking party. Oh yeah!