Bouchon Bakery

My friend Kelli brought some sweet surprises up to my apartment today: a cream puff just for me, and a cookie to share. They were from Thomas Keller's Bouchon Bakery, housed on the third floor of the Time Warner Center in Manhattan. I have never made it past the 2nd floor (which houses Sephora and Borders). But I digress...back to the good stuff. I started with the cream puff. It wasn't until I sliced into the cream puff that we realized it had blueberries inside, too. Kelli's not a huge fan of blueberries, so she didn't split it with me. The cream puff was quite big.. I only ate half of it, and put the other half of it in the fridge for later. I make a pretty mean cream puff pastry, so I'm already tough to impress. Still, I thought the shell itself was just okay, but the blueberry filling was delicious: just like a slice of fresh, summery blueberry pie. The cream puff filling was light and not overly sweet, but not super flavorful, either. I would have liked maybe some stronger vanilla or almond flavoring in that part. I suspect it might have been a mild Chantilly cream.

THIS was the real winner, though. Kelli bought one of their peanut butter cookies with peanut butter filling. This was spot on. The cookie had a touch of salt, the creamy filling was perfect. It was light and fluffy, but not greasy, and oh-so-delicious. We kept picking off little pieces at a time, but in a matter of minutes, there was nothing left. YUM.

Summary: the cream puff is a looker, but if you want melt in your mouth yumminess, grab the peanut butter cookie. It's big enough to share without feeling like you're missing out on deliciousness.

PS: I just realized the OTHER half of my cream puff is still in the fridge, days later. I don't normally forget about leftover desserts! THAT'S how much better the peanut butter cookie is!!

Bouchon Bakery
Time Warner Center
10 Columbus Circle 3rd floor
New York, NY 10019