We made these little choux pastries during a French pastry class designed by bon vivant Corinne Preteur. The trick to their perfectly adorable shape is in the piping, as is the artful cream filling. If you prefer to leave them unfilled, dust them with sugar crystals or dip them in caramel and have a cafe while they dry and harden. The recipes for choux pastry dough and pastry cream can be found on a recent post for eclairs and Paris Brest, also made in Les Grenier a Pain’s delightful kitchen beneath their neighborhood boulangerie, as famous for their fruit tarts as they are for their spiced breads and traditional loaves. Fill the little choux with the flavored cream of your choice. My personal preference is pistachio and/or praline, but I never met a pastry cream I didn’t fancy.

Patrick fixing my form as I practice piping little choux

Choux pastry dough

Little choux coming to life in the convection oven

Caramel sauce for dipping the little choux

Dipping the choux in the caramel

Pistachio pastry cream

Poke a hole in the bottom of the choux and insert the tip of the pastry bag to fill the choux up with pastry, like a little balloon.

Patrick filling his pastry bag with pistachio cream

Little choux topped with sugar crystals

Bread baker at Le Grenier a Pain