Puff City opened its doors on June 10th of 2009. Fran has long been intrigued with the cream puff pastry process (whew! try saying that 10 times) and decided cream puffs were a great venue for offering a wide variety of flavors and textures. A ball of dough puffs up and crisps in the oven, no two identical. How can be? And this way she could continue experimenting with different ingredients and taste combinations. Inspiration comes from walking down the candy bar aisle or the ice cream section of the grocery store, talking to friends, watching commercials on TV and reading. Fran's son Quinn is newly home and has started making hot dog buns for nitrate-free "gourmet" dawgs.
Their pate a choux is made the old fashioned way: real butter, flour and whole eggs. No chemical additives, no shortcuts. Each cream puff is individually hand-piped and all variations are due to humidity, temperature, time of day and the whim of the oven goddess. Every effort is made to have them a uniform size and shape but they wouldn't be cream puffs if they looked exactly the same. (And if you come in while someone is stirring something on the stove, thanks ahead of time for your patience and understanding. There are some things in baking that just can't be left for later once the process is started.)
Their fillings are also hand made in small batches. They've found this the best way to make sure their cream puffs have optimal flavor and are the freshest available when you eat them. Vanilla and chocolate custard creams are cooked as they need them; the cream whipped and mousses folded when they're running low on any individual flavor. Those Keebler elves ain't got nothing on them, baby!
They are using sustainable products where possible. Some of their carry-out containers are made of a compostable corn-based resin. The boxes used are standard bakery boxes and can be hand-shredded and used for mulching your garden or added to your compost heap. Plastic containers are recyclable.
Hilo has had the pleasure of Fran's company since 1975. In the last three decades, she has raised a family while perfecting the art of pleasing the palate. She is the Pavlov of chefs - everything that comes out of Fran's kitchen makes you salivate!
Fran attended classes at the French Culinary Institute in New York City, and has channeled her many talents into multi-media - finding success in pottery, recipe development and food styling, knitting, graphic design, and photography.
These days she can be found sharing her kitchen-born gifts at Puff City, attending to her fascination with the baking process of cream puff pastry and coming up with novel flavors for the fillings. On the Wish List: Creamsicle, pasilla/chocolate, blueberry/cheesecake, vanilla pear, pumpkin spice, Chambord/chocolate, strawberry, pineapple, kiwi, lemon, lime, caramel, coffee/toffee crunch...
Our first printed article was in the Big Island Weekly.
Sonia Martinez, a local food wrtier, cookbook author and blogger, recently sat down and had a Q&A session with Fran. Read her conversation at gather.com.
Arnold E., a food blogger on yelp.com came by on a recent trip to his wife's grandpa's house right up the road.
More pics from bigislandgrinds.
Alan Okami stopped in to visit.
As did Kuhao Zane.
And let's not forget our friends overseas.