Brioche class at Le Nôtre Paris
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Heading over to Le Nôtre's Pavillon Elysée from our 20th arrondissement apartment rental took a bit of metro planning but it worked out quite nicely. A brisk 10 minute walk to the Alexander Dumas stop on line 2, change over to line 1 at Nation and take it to the Champs Elysée Clemenceau stop.
and is invited inside by pleasant staff ready to serve you coffee, water or whatever.
Pretty tasty too!
I love getting off there - you see the great Charles DeGaulle statue as you exit, then turn around to see the Grand Palais rising above you. And then you see the Arc De Triumphe as you're crossing the Champs Elysée! Not bad.
The Pavillon Elysée is easy to spot, and I learned that the angel sculpture on top is one of Gustave Eiffel's creations.
One enters through an unassuming door . . . . .
and is invited inside by pleasant staff ready to serve you coffee, water or whatever.
The kitchen space is fairly small but well laid out for classes of 3-8 people.
My first class was Kouglofs et Brioches which was also attended by a young Japanese couple. Chef Pierre Prevost was the instructor for the 3 of us. There was a mix of English and French going around, but it all seemed to work out. Interesting how that happens.
We made two different brioche doughs, each with slight variations in the quantities of butter, sugar, yeast and water - one earmarked for kouglof with rum soaked raisins and one for brioche Parisienne and whatever other shape we might want to do.
This is what we ended up with: kouglofs individuel, brioche Parisienne and a pretty standard ring of brioche buns.
Pretty tasty too!
The new thing I took away from this one is the recipe for an almond syrup made by cooking a mixture of equal parts almond flour and powdered sugar (the French call this tant pour tant) in a simple syrup. We dipped the warm kouglofs in this stuff and put them back in the oven for a minute or two to dry the syrup. Deelish!
All in all a good day.
