French Friday #47: My favorite dessert

I’ve gone through most of the day thinking it was Thursday. You were this close to having another Saturday in Spain. I actually thought I was working ahead. I really need to find out where all the days are going…

You’d think I’d remember the day I first tasted my favorite dessert. But I don’t. I could probably narrow it down to a reasonable conjecture, but the very possibility that it were inaccurate would bug me too much to print it. I may have had it when I took my first trip to France with my high school French class. Or it could have been when I went back to do my study abroad in Grenoble. Either way, it was definitely before I moved to Paris for three years because I already had a burning desire to get reacquainted with the most perfect culinary creations known to man.

Not my picture. I rarely brought my camera with me to eat out.

Profiteroles. Tiny cream puffs, about the size of a golf ball, split and filled with vanilla ice cream and then drizzled with chocolate sauce. Really, they’re so simple, but they’re just so perfect. Anything else added to them would be a gastronomic example of the law of diminishing returns. You can’t improve perfection. Now, that’s not to say that all profiteroles are created equal. I did buy some frozen ones once and they definitely did not live up to expectations. Any time we went out to eat in France, I’d peruse the dessert menu, thinking it was probably time to branch out. But the siren call of profiteroles always lured me back. A serving consists of only three or four, so I did my best to make them last as long as possible. Mmm, profiteroles.

I don’t know why it didn’t occur to me to try and make some while I’ve been house-sitting and had access to an oven. Alas, I will have to wait for that magical moment because we are returning to the cabin tomorrow. In the meanwhile, check out this great recipe and maybe give it a try! And then tell me how good they are.