By Ava Stryker-Robbins
Stuffed to the brim with sweet cream, cream puffs are puffy pastries that come in many flavors. Barachou—a pastry shop that opened in 2019 on Amsterdam Avenue between 81st and 82nd Streets— offers 12 flavors, including vanilla, chocolate, classic whipped cream, raspberry pistachio, hazelnut, mango, lemon meringue, passion fruit, tiramisu, dulce de leche, and the flavor of the month, which currently is crème brûlée
The cream puffs are delectable, the creamy filling blending with the puffy exterior of the pastry. They are as visually appealing as they are tasty, with uniform shapes and designs on top. The lemon meringue was my personal favorite. The tart lemon filling melted into the sweet meringue on top.
The idea of Barachou originated when Rebecca Tison, who worked in banking at the time, visited her mother in France and saw a cream puff bar. She instantly decided she wanted to open her own. “I told my mom I’m going to cancel the bank contract,” Tison said in a phone interview with WSR. Back in New York, she hired a chef she had met in Paris and together they created the initial recipe, which has shifted over time, she said, as she now has many bakers who each “bring their own expertise.” Tison noted that the process for making cream puffs is “very long, taking many hours to complete.”
She doesn’t regret choosing Barachou over banking. “I love that I can create stuff and be in a field that’s really real. Food is real. Everyone understands it. Everyone loves it….it’s honest.” The fact that the Upper West Side was her first location (Barachou’s other store is in the West Village) “will always make the neighborhood special to me,” she added.
Cream puffs can be purchased individually or in boxes with one cream puff costing $3.30, a box of three cream puffs costing $9.50, a box of six cream puffs costing $18, and a box of 12 cream puffs costing $35. Party trays are also available, with 20 cream puffs costing $55, 30 cream puffs costing $75, 40 cream puffs costing $100, 50 cream puffs costing $125, and 100 cream puffs costing $250.
Barachou serves many other types of desserts as well, including pastries, tarts, and gluten-free baked goods.
The Dish: Cream Puffs
The Restaurant: Barachou (449 Amsterdam Avenue between 81st and 82nd Streets)
Read all our Here’s the Dish column here.
These cream puffs are amazingly delicious.
Interesting article – thanks. They look great!
Could you explain the origin and pronunciation of the name? If you do the gutteral hebrew “ch” it is the name/first word of one of the main prayers in the Jewish liturgy.
That is so true — if one pronounces it with the Hebrew “ch,” we’re in total liturgy-land. I figured it would be the French “ch” and thus more like our “sh” (so — “Bara-shoe” essentially), and I was right: here’s the owner in the NY store a few years back, pronouncing it. PS — look forward to sampling these treats!
https://youtu.be/lsxW7Pcnkjs
The hebrew word means “blessed” which would be a great way to describe food (some might consider it sacrilegious but I say it is OK!)
Barachou = bar à chou = (Cream) Puff bar
Barachou is from the French, “bar à choux” (cream puff bar). It is indeed a wonderful and inviting shop, offering the most delicious array of pastries. I’m delighted to see it featured here–it’s a real neighborhood treasure!
“Chou” (pronounced like ‘shoe’) is the French word for puff (& also the French word for cabbage!). “Chou à la crème” means cream puff.
They are wonderful. I ordered them frequently during the lockdown. It wasn’t gluttony or self-indulgence – I was just supporting the neighborhood. Right?
These are wonderfully delicious. Yes, you end up getting the 3 pack. Your thighs hate you but the taste is just wonderful. Fresh and satisfying.
I’ve been there twice. The tarts are also delicious, and the staff are really nice. I will definitely return.
I believe all the comments, that these are delicious cream puffs… but I’ll pass. When I was growing up my mother, who grew up in Vienna (and escaped in the nick of time), made all the great Viennese pastries from scratch. There was only one filling available in her cream puffs, and that was more than enough. Their memory has lasted over 70 years, and I’ve never been tempted to try another.
I am happy this place survived the pandemic. The Beard Papa cream puff was my favorite treat until they shut down. It was a Japan-based chain of cream puff stores that came to NYC in the aughts. There was one by NYU and another on UWS and the taste was exactly right. They baked the choux pastry and left it unfilled until you ordered. Then they pumped in the pastry cream filling fresh and dusted with powdered sugar. Heaven!
I was walking around downtown and saw an open Beard Papa’s just a month or so ago. I do miss them too. I “supported the neighborhood” by ordering from them as well.
Yes, RIP Beard Papa. Especially their green-tea puff.
I miss Beard Papa so much. They were incredibly good.
I was here just the other day — amazing! If you don’t want to over-indulge you can just order one puff, which is delicious and you can tell yourself you’re being “healthy” by just ordering the one.
It took me a bit to figure out their pricing, but I carried away six cream puffs. Duh, the pricing was already in this article, lol. We enjoyed the raspberry and look forward to the others in the next day or two: pistachio, passion fruit, chocolate, vanilla.