A couple of weeks ago I spent an amazing 22 hours in Paris. Over the past year
I have heard news that gluten free has worked its way to Paris. Not just your bog-standard chocolate
brownie and long life loaf of bread either. I’m taking about a completely
dedicated gluten free patisserie, gluten free bakery and an entirely gluten
free restaurant! This meant gluten free cakes, pastries and desserts – what
more of an incentive did I need to book my ticket to Paris!
I went with my friend E who is also coeliac. This was
perfect as it meant two highly excited gluten free girls in search of as many
gluten free goodies as we could lay our hands on. Due to time constraints we
were only able to stay in Paris for one night,
which meant getting a 6am train from Sheffield to London
and then catching the Eurostar from London to Paris. We arrived at
2:30pm one day and left at 12:30pm the following day. 22 hours to see and eat
as much as possible – we were up for the challenge!
Not wanting to miss a second of our time, we strode off the
Eurostar in
Paris
and headed straight to our first destination, a gluten free patisserie called
Helmut Newcake. It took us a while to find as it’s a tiny place and we only had
vague directions. Plus as didn’t want to waste time going to the hotel first we
were on the hunt laden down with handbags, cameras, coats and suitcases too. We
got a few odd looks, but we took not notice. Move out the way we were girls on
a mission.
All I can say is that it was worth the hunt. We were greeted
by a display case filled with the most AMAZING looking delicate tarts, choux
buns and cakes, and all gluten free!! We were greeted by a very handsome French
man who enquired if we wanted something savoury to start, some soup or salad
maybe? “Non merci. Nous sommes ici pour les pâtisseries” He nodded and led us
to a table with a smile. We spent about 5 minutes just gazing at the range of
patisserie. We couldn’t decide what to have and ended up getting 3 to share in
order to get a good range of pastry types and bakes. A passion fruit tart, a
slice of Opera cake and a Paris-Brest.
The passion fruit tart was almost a thick shortbread case
with a layer of hazelnut frangipan and a passion fruit curd on top. The
shortbread was very crumbly and I felt it was a little too thick a crust but
the hazelnut flavour was lovely and I loved the passion fruit curd on top,
really zingy.
The Paris-Brest is a French classic. It’s a ring of piped
mini choux buns filled with a smooth nutty crème patisserie. It was divine! The
crème filling was so good! The choux pastry was a little firm – but it had been
kept chilled due to the filling, so this was expected. Ah, so so good.
Finally there was the Opera cake, which was thin layers of
moist almond sponge sandwiched with alternating chocolate and coffee ganache
and topped with a layer of crisp chocolate. WOW! This was so rich and
indulgent. You could really taste the quality. I’m glad we shared it, it was so
rich but so good. Nice dark bitter flavours. I expect too dark for some people
but I loved it.
Sugar high and pastry filled we headed to our hotel for a
rest before heading out to dinner. E wanted a nap but I decided to head out and
explore the area. I spotted a green square on the map called Square Montholon,
wrote down directions and set off. I got a bit lost (naturally) but found it
quite easily. It was a park with a few trees and a nice statue in the middle. I
then took the scenic route back to the hotel. There are so many interconnecting
streets and walkways – they all look the same!
After a quick shower and change we were ready for dinner at
Noglu, which is an entirely gluten free restaurant.The restaurant was hidden
along a very busy main road down an alleyway that was more of an arcade, all lined
with restaurants and cafes with a glass roof, which gave it an almost exciting
seceret location. It was a tiny place, with kitchen downstairs and around 5
tables upstairs – thankfully we had booked weeks ago.
The menu is small with only 3 starters, 4 mains and 3
desserts to choose from, but all meant to be fresh, seasonal good quality food.
While we looked at the menu we had complimentary gougers to start (cheesy choux
buns) in place of the usual bread or breadsticks you often get in restaurants.
These were nice. A crisp outside with a mild but flavoursome cheesy flavour.
We decided to go with just mains and desserts. I had a mixed
salad selection whicb included smoked purple potato salad, beetroot marinated
veg, mixed leaves, herb oil and some very fancy peeled purple and yellow
carrots. It was delicious and beautifully presented. Very smoky and woodsy but
not overpowering. E had lasagna which had chunks of potato instead of pasta –
clever but she was a bit underwhelmed.
For dessert E chose a strawberry & plum crumble and I
had a Sable with cream & fruit. I asked if they had any gateaux as I’d
heard they also ran a bakery, but it turned out their bakery is only open
during the day and they said they only had the dessert options on the menu. I
was a bit disappointed but throught the sable sounded nice. However it was
terrible. Dry and biscuity with a mountain of kiwi on top (the only fruit apart
from half a raspberry) I’m actually allergic to kiwi so this wasn’t a good
choice. We both had a taste but it was so dry – like eating wood shavings –
that we left it and shared the crumble which was much better.
The crumble was very sweet but the fruit was chunky and full
of flavour. It was a massive portion so perfect for sharing. It wasn’t really a
crumble as it had an almondy pastry/cakey top layer. Nice though. Noglu was
quite expensive and due to a couple of disappointing dishes we weren’t sure it
was worth the money. Maybe we were just unlucky.
The following morning we headed out for breakfast at a gluten
free boulangerie called
Chambelland Boulangerie. It was quite a trek from our
hotel and again located down a winding back alleyway, but what a wonderful
place. It didn’t open until 9am which for us is quite late for breakfast but by
9:40am we were seated outside the bakery on an unusually warm sunny morning
enjoying some treats. It was a lovely little café with a few tables.
The breads and pastries are all beautifully presented and
laid out in rows, with the menu displayed on a large blackboard behind. They
has huge paving stone sized slabs of bread which they cut chunks off, then a
range of tarts and cookies. Everything looked stunning and very artisan.
We went for the breakfast special which included bread, jam,
hot drink and complimentary fresh juice of the day. There was a choice of plain
or seeded bread, which came in long thick batons, almost like giant thick
breadsticks. You couldn’t have made a sandwich or filled them in any way, but
they were great for slathering in jam. We selected one of each so we could
share. These came accompanied by strawberry and apricot jam. The bread had
quite a soft sticky bubbly inside texture, almost like a crumpet, but the crust
was very thick and crispy. It had a fantastic chew to the crust, not something
you usually see in gluten free, but so delicious. The jams were good too,
sweet, but you could really taste the fruit. We had tea (mint for me) and E had
coffee along with the complimentary fresh juice of the day which today was a
mix of orange, mango and peach. It had a great flavour and they served it in
mason jam jars which was fun.
After the bread it was pastry/dessert time again. I know it
was still only breakfast time but we didn’t want to miss the opportunity to try
some of the stunning selection. We couldn’t have taken them with us on the
train very easily. The other French patrons sitting nearby were all happily
tucking into sugared pastries and brownies so we didn’t feel out of place. We
shared a lemon tart and a chocolate ganache tart. Both fantastic quality and
again packed with flavour
The lemon tart was piled high with a mound of torched
meringue. The pastry was thin and crisp with a lovely thick tangy lemon
filling. The meringue had the merest hint of crisp outer curst and then pillowy
light meringue underneath. It just dissolved on the tongue. The chocolate ganache
tart again had a good crisp crust and then almost a set chocolate custard
filling with a layer of glossy ganache on top. It had a good intense chocolate
flavour. The French really know their chocolate.
We left feeling a little sick and sugar high but oh so worth
it. We bought a slab of focaccia bread, a peach muffin and a chestnut muffin to
share for lunch on the train.
The focaccia was nice but a bit disappointing. It was
incredibly oily and the middle bit of my half was doughy and raw. I couldn’t
stomach any more sugar at that point but when we arrived in London we split the muffins. The peach one
was quite crumbly but nice enough. The peach slices were almost semi dried as
they were very firm and sugary rather than soft and juicy as expected. The
muffin itself was studded with fresh mint which was a nice surprisingly flavour
and quite strong. The chestnut muffin was a very soft close textured sponge
made with chestnut flour. It was sweet and earthy but I loved the flavour.
I ate so much sugar and desserts in 22 hours that I returned
with a real craving for vegetables, I felt I needed to re-vitaminise. We
arrived back in Sheffield quite late. It had
been a long day and a crazy 36 hours involving 14 hours travelling and only 22
hours actually in Paris
but it was so much fun.
I would highly recommend both
Chambelland Boulangerie and
Helmut Newcake. Both so good and you wouldn’t know everything was gluten free.
The
UK
is certainly lagging behind in their artisan patisserie, especially gluten
free!
My only purchase from Paris
was a whole half a slab of bread from Chambelland Boulangerie. I spotted them
slicing some that was stuffed with fruits and nuts and really wanted to try it.
I got a half slab as I hoped I would like it and knew I couldn’t exactly go
back and buy more. I had some for tea when I got back home and it was
fantastic. A slightly sour tasting bread absolutely packed with whole
hazelnuts, juicy raisins and large chunks of dried fig. The crust was so thick
and chewy I could hardly slice it with the bread knife. It was amazing!
Was an amazing sugar overloaded, gluten free pastry filled,
long whirlwind of a trip to Paris.
I was actually in Paris
less than 24 hours but think I managed to consume 10 different
pastries/desserts in that time! I’d love to go back and see some more of the
traditional Paris
sites, (I didn’t even manage to spot the Eiffel tower) and eat more patisserie!
J'adore pâtisseries françaises!