Le Parfait Paris (Part Deux) – Chocolate Almond Croisssant!

I told you I’d be back soon!  I couldn’t resist picking up another pain au chocolat, so I brought Jorgina and my daughter to try it.  Again, it was consistently delicious, but we also found two new things I had to share with you immediately. Once we arrived, we chatted with Katherine and Guillaume for a few minutes before settling on a a L’Alsacien sandwich, pain au chocolat (not pictured since I talked about it last time), and a pain au chocolat aux amandes (Chocolate Almond Croissant).  To make things even more interesting, they had us take home 3 Chouquettes as well.  So, we ended up with one savory, and 3 sweet items.  

We ate the L’Alsacien sandwich on the way home, which was warm.  It was a very nice combination of swiss cheese, egg whites, baby spinach, and Canadian bacon.  I loved the buttery croissant.  

Jorgina and I have made a couple trips to Santa Barbara in the past, specifically to visit Renaud’s for their famous almond croissant.  So, we have been on a mission ever since (7 years now) for an almond croissant to rival this perfect pastry.  As fate would have it, Le Parfait Paris, delivered an almond croissant as good (if not better – it has chocolate too!) than our holy grail of croissants.  OMG!  The almond filling is sinfully delightful with a rich chocolate ribbon in between.  AWESOME.  Sadly we didn’t have pictures of the inside because we devoured it so quickly!

As if we weren’t happy enough with our new find, we decided to take a quick taste of the Chouquettes.  Wow.  These little guys are the perfect bite.  I hate to call this a creme puff, but that’s roughly the size to give you a idea.  The outside has a sprinkling of sugar crystals baked into the outer layer of pastry and the inside holds a velvety chocolate mousse that is heavenly.  You need to try these too!! We have some friends coming into town this weekend.  Guess where we’re taking them??  🙂  To read my original post for Le Parfait Paris,  you can find it here.