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Photos: These Stacked French Puff Pastries Look Adorable And Delicious
A new French pastry shop is opening in L.A. that specializes in adorable, stacked puff pastries.
The new Mid-City bakery, Sweet Nuns, takes its name from its signature stacked cream puffs, a traditional French dessert known as a "religieuse" or "nun" in English. The "nuns" consist of two light, puff pastry shells— known as "choux"—that are stacked on top of each other (a small one on top of the larger one), and then filled with a delicious crème pâtissière. They're then topped with a wide variety of colorful and creative glazes and decorations, from Halloween characters to Dodgers uniforms and beyond.
The mastermind behind Sweet Nuns is Rébecca Donze, who was drawn to opening the shop on Pico Boulevard near Hauser Boulevard after spending a year of her master's studies in philosophy at UC Irvine and growing to love Southern California. Donze also attended pastry school in her native France, where she honed her skills working for a year and a half at Paris' renowned L'Eclair de Génie. She's been filling private orders for a good part of the year, but she is now putting the finishing touches on her shop, which will allow customers to come in and see the behind-the-scenes magic of her "nunnery" as they order and pick up the nuns.
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Donze tells LAist that she sees cream puffs as the perfect dessert: portable, unfussy, cute and, most importantly, tasty. She wanted to bring an American sensibility to the design of a very traditional French pastry. "My 'nuns' are really simple pastries that find their originality in their shape," she says. "The intercultural twist makes something unique I think, a mix of punk and classic."
While Sweet Nuns keeps a hyper-focus on one particular style of pastry, available in mini and standard sizes—with the occasional larger show piece—her designs are by no means rigid. She offers several classic designs like a vanilla or dark chocolate nuns, as well as less traditional salted caramel or pineapple lime. There are also seasonal designs like pumpkin spiced latte nuns and the Halloween nuns, as well as other limited edition themes. She also will develop custom designs for special occasions big and small. One of her recent high-profile orders came from Gwen Stefani who wanted kawaii strawberry and panda nuns for her new fragrance launch.
Donze aims to open her shop to the public in the coming weeks, but in the meantime private orders can be made online. You can also find some of her matcha and dark chocolate nuns at Matcha Box on W. 3rd Street, and soon at other restaurants and shops.
The Sweet Nunsis located at 5450 W. Pico Blvd., Unit 204, Mid-City, (323) 447-2200
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