In the Breton family, we asked for the son. However, we're not seeking out Thierry Breton – the prolific former restaurateur who worked with restaurants such as Chez Michel and Chez Casimir and later became a baker – but his son Timothy, who has made flour his livelihood. Last September, after several years baking for the wealthy clientele that frequent Paris' top hotels, including Plaza Athénée and Le Bristol, the thirty-something baker launched his own pocket bakery and patisserie (just 30 square meters), which has replaced the former Bara bakery that he ran with his father. At dawn, Gonflé's aromas fill the Rue de Belzunce, a charming pedestrian thoroughfare in Paris's 10th arrondissement.
And with good reason: From 7 am to 7 pm, the bakery serves a wide variety of breads, viennoiseries and pastries of all kinds. But in our opinion, Gonflé's greatest strength is its extensive range of gâteaux de voyage: travel cakes. You are spoiled for choice among the marbled and zebra cakes, the brownies and the glazed madeleines.
We spent a moment (an eternity, the shop assistant might object) ogling the window before settling on two out of the three cookies on offer, and a wicked pain au chocolat that was devoured as soon as we left the store. Miraculously, the much-vaunted cookies – the dark chocolate chip cookie and its Breton, hailing from the Brittany region, counterpart made from buckwheat and white chocolate – were spared until teatime.
When removed from their packaging, they gave off an intoxicating buttery fragrance. If Breton hadn't told us that he would describe them as being "halfway between a cookie and Breton sablé (shortbread)," we'd probably have been disappointed by their very crisp texture. They were quite a long way from the deliciously under-baked cookies that we are accustomed to from Gonflé's most serious competitors. That being said, we were ready to get to the tasting without any bias.
The first bite of the dark chocolate chip cookie immediately overcame our preconceptions. It was much softer than we expected; there was a generous amount of chocolate, and it also struck exactly the right balance between sugar and fat. It easily ranks among our five favorite classic cookies in Paris.
However, we particularly fell for the Armorican cookie made from a dough of roasted buckwheat flour, brown sugar and fleur de sel, to which Breton added large white chocolate chips. You'll savor every last crumb of this cookie, more complex than the first, enhanced by the grainy flavors of toasted buckwheat, caramelized white chocolate and brown sugar. Riding on the success of these delights and his other offerings, Breton has just opened another bakery on the opposite side of the Canal Saint-Martin.
Gonflé, 6, Rue de Belzunce, Paris's 10th arrondissement. Open Monday to Saturday, 7 am to 7 pm. And 191, Rue Saint-Maur, Paris 10th. Open Tuesday to Sunday, 7 am to 8 pm. €2,90 per cookie.
Translation of an original article published in French on lemonde.fr; the publisher may only be liable for the French version.