Let Them Eat Bûche de Noël

 You can not go two steps in this town...

 Without tripping over a log...

 A chocolate log or a bûche de Noël

 Which evidently extends its welcome well past Noël into the celebration of Epiphany with a French king cake or galette des rois featuring yummy almond paste frangipane stuffed puff pastry and a surprise lurking favor inside but that's for a later post.

  
The variations on a theme are endless in Paris. Traditional bûche is made from a genoise or other sponge cake, generally baked in a large, shallow Swiss roll pan, frosted, rolled to form a cylinder, and frosted again on the outside. The most common combination is a basic yellow sponge cake, frosted and filled with chocolate buttercream; however, many variations on the traditional recipe exist, possibly including chocolate cakes, ganache and espresso or other flavored fillings.

  
This macaron-decorated bûche de Noël looks like a kid's choo choo train to me.

  
Two choo choos meetup at a crossing.
LOOK OUT!

 Most of them resemble a bed with a headboard, footboard with stuff thrown on top...

 A marron glace serves as a pillow from elegant des Gateaux et du Pain.

Inside:La châtaigne en jeux de textures, amertume d'un miel d'arbousier : biscuit moelleux à la pâte de marrons, châtaignes entières « cuisinées », caramel et fleur de sel, crème douce-amère au miel d'arbousier, mousse de châtaignes.

 You can easily buy just a slice from a boulangerie

 An Austrian bûche slice at Angelina.
Please explain Merisi?

 Complimentary colors red + green for this single slice. Pastry chefs are artistes and have a color wheel onhand I'll bet.

 There are even whole mini bûche de Noël

For mini Parisiennes.

I have yet to taste a bûche de Noël but when in RomeParis...

Have you eaten bûche de Noël?

Did you love it? Should I?

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des Gateaux et du Pain

 Chef Marthe along with knowing where to go to get whatever, kindly introduced me to excellent pastry chef Clair Damon of des GATEAUX et du PAIN and asked if I could come back and shoot the interior - a rare opp to be sure.

 des GATEAUX et du PAIN is a patisserie of the 'bijouterie' variety, designed by Yan Pennor, who designed Pierre Herme's shops. It has the look of a luxe Parisian jewelry shop with sparkling cases and perfect lighting.

 Do not be intimidated by its sober elegance.

 The pastries, viennoisseries and breads are perfection inside and out.

 And not to be missed.

Chef Claire Damon's perfect chausson aux pommes won top prize chausson in Paris in Le Figaro's tasting. This chausson has a pâte feuilletée caramélisée shown here is filled with lemon cream inside. I know. I ate it.

 Everything is golden.

 Temptation beyond.

 The breads are bio, crusty, rich in texture and flavor.

 Not to be forgotten, in the back of the patisserie another show awaits.

 Desserts sized both individual

 And for soirees.

 An unusual Mont Blanc cassis - Pâte sablée, compotée de cassis, morceaux de marrons, meringue légère, crème de marron et chantilly. I bought the individual size...

 Two of the treasures I brought for research.

 Cheese-cake au pamplemousse -Fond de pâte sucrée garni de crème pamplemousse, biscuit cuillère imbibé de jus de pamplemousse, marmelade de pamplemousse,disque de cheese cake fondant et crémeux. Glaçage blanc et écorces de pamplemousses confites. 
Sweet pastry filled with cream grapefruit spoon biscuit soaked in grapefruit juice, grapefruit marmalade, cheese cake fondant disc and creamy. White icing and candied grapefruit peel.

A thin base of cassis compote adds just a touch of tartness contrasting the creamy chestnut on top plus the surprising crunch of meringue interior makes for a delicious mouth feel.

 

 I also bought a pain aux graines au levain, and asked to have it sliced. The bread was too warm for the slicing machine. It had come straight out of the oven from the laboratoire next door. Miam.

This is a must-do in Paris.

Tout les jours sauf le mardi de 8h00 à 20h00.

des GATEAUX et du PAIN

63, blvd Pasteur, Paris 15

Metro Pasteur
Fermé le mardi

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