Special Pastries

This section presents a collection of pastries of many types. The first three recipes are for famous classics based on puff pastry, pâte à choux, and short dough. These are items that all pastry chefs should know how to make well. The Gâteau St-Honoré is a spectacular assembly of choux pastry, short dough, caramel, and cream fillings. It is often decorated with a nest of spun sugar on top. The rich Pithiviers and the special napoleon or millefeuille test your ability to work with puff pastry.

The remaining recipes are mostly of the type sometimes known in North America as French pastries. They are individual portions made up of any of a number of creams, icings, Bavarian creams, and layers of meringue, pastry, and even sponge cake. The first of these recipes, Passionata, is illustrated in detail to introduce you to the basic techniques for making this type of pastry. You can then apply the same techniques to other pastries in this section.