(please click on the pictures to activate the lightbox for more vivid display!)

I’ve hinted on a project that I have been working on for a few weeks now. Well, now it can be revealed. Petites Bouchees has ventured into the stylized dessert table business!
This idea has been percolating in my brain since last year, but it was only this year that I had the guts to go through with it.
Wedding professional consultant, Meghan Ely of OFDconsulting has been instrumental in connecting me with great vendors in the area, with whom I am so thrilled to be now working with on current and future projects.

Wedding Cake - Sweetest Thing Bakery

It’s so easy to get carried away with a first project, but I wanted to pay tribute to the lovely wallpaper I first laid eyes on in an adorable pastry shop in San Francisco called Miette. I couldn’t not include a candy station for which Miette is also known for and their macarons were the first ones I tried that got me hooked on these little Parisian confections.

Wallpaper Shortbread cookies

I was lucky that they made the wallpaper cookies that matched the backdrop (yes, I’m going to use the “wallpapered” structure somewhere in my house after this project) - whimsical hydrangeas and starburst floral patterns - so I mailordered them to make an appearance on my very first dessert table.

Peadee Pops by Flour and Iced

I won’t deny that this has been a learning experience - I think I’ve spent enough time at Michael’s and on the internet sourcing paper and crafting ideas to bring into the dessert table. Many times, I thought my head would burst thinking of all the little details that need to be done. Sometimes they just fall into place and sometimes you just have to accept that the tarts and buttermilk panna cottas have no room on your little (or big)scheme of things. It’s picking and choosing and always remembering that there is always that next dessert table.

A little candy station- I just adore the lollipops

Dainty cupcakes

And of course, how can we forget the macarons?

Rose Litchi Macarons

More macs

Thanks to:
Jenny West of the Sweetest Thing Bakery for the beautiful wedding cake
Krissy Salmon-White of Flour and Iced for the gorgeous peadee pops (aka cake pops)
Paper and Pigtails for the adorable labels
Roshan and Dale of Quarterman Photography for the cool pictures
 

Peadee Pop!

Now for the giveaway. I love Crate and Barrel (CB)! They always have such sensible and cool vessels that lend themselves to showcase your baked goodies perfectly. To celebrate the launch of my dessert tables, I am giving away two CB- $50.00 gift cards, just leave a comment between now and July 19, 2010 stating what you would like to see on a dessert table besides cupcakes and cake pops. I will pick 2 winners using the trusty random number generator. The winners will be announced on July 20th and email notifications will be sent to the winners and they should respond within a week or a new winner will be chosen. The winners will be required to provide a mailing address for the gift-card to be sent.This giveaway is open to U.S. residents only.

I have a couple of events coming up that will showcase my dessert tables. The first one coming up is called "An Engagement" which is a Bridal seminar and showcase to be held at the Downtown Hilton on July 25. See you future brides there!

Hubby had his camera phone, luckily they allowed him to take pictures inside the studio

A little over three weeks ago their producer sent me an email asking me if I would like to make macarons on their program, “Virginia this Morning”. There was a bit of hesitation on my part because I had this project that I’ve been focusing on and I had the New York Fancy Food show coming up.

But hey, live tv? Baking macarons? Why not? Right?

So I emailed her back and said yes. She said it was a 5-minute segment and I mentally calculated how long it would take me to whip the egg whites. Hmmn...that doesn’t leave me much time to pipe and fill macarons.

Anyway, it was the weekend before my appearance that I finally timed myself. It would take 1 and 1/2 minute to beat the egg whites to stiff peaks. I don’t think we would want to hear a mixer whirring that long for my allotted 5 minutes.

Then I had an idea. How about I whip the egg whites just before my part?
 

Looking serious as I whip the egg whites

The other pressing question that occurred to me was what to wear. I wanted to be comfortable and since television adds 5 pounds visually, I decided on an embellished grey shirt. I also wanted to put my hair up in a French twist, but you know what, that was wishful thinking anyway because the morning of the show...we (hubby and I) appeared to be running late.

So I barely had time to even dry my hair and put any make-up on. Oh well!

When we arrived at the studio, it was freezing inside (the temperature that day was predicted to hit over 100F). The facilitator asked me how long I needed to set up and I told her; including my plan of whipping the egg whites before my segment.

I also plated my macarons for what they call “the bump” which I think is like a teaser.

I am thankful to the hosts Greg McQuade And Cheryl Miller for putting me right at ease for my segment and the producer, Torri Strickland, for giving me the opportunity of making these adorable confections on live tv.
 

Piping filling

Anyway, enough of my babble. Here’s the video. Sorry, I don’t know how to embed code, my browser or blogging software doesn’t seem to allow me to.
My favorite part, was when Greg McQuade mentioned “Julia Child, going to Paris” when I told them that I took a two-day macaron stage in Paris. Julia Child was always an inspiration to me, not because she went to school in Paris but because she dared to start a new career when she was almost 40 years old and she has left a lasting legacy in our hearts and mind.

It’s funny how my macaron obsession has taken a life of its own. Little did I know that when I started my Macaron Chronicles, I would still be adding to this saga three years later.

Let me refresh your memory. Remember my flat-assed macarons - my first attempt making these little confections?

Then after a trip to San Francisco where I loved the taste of Miette’s macarons, I baked my first successful batch.

My real obsession took hold when I did different tests with Macaron Chronicles II. (This post, by the way, remains to be the most popular on this blog.)

Even when I had my bad days when the macaron Gods mocked me - like when I tried the Italian Meringue the first time and ended up with wrinkled marshmallows - I did not waver in my quest.

After I had met pastry God, Pierre Hermé, I continued to strive to understand his way of making macarons - Italian Meringue - with Macaron Chronicle V.

It wasn’t until I attended his class in Paris that I began to see the complex structure of the Italian meringue, almond and confectioner’s sugar - pretty much the same way Neo saw the Matrix and so this rematch ,which turned out really good.

Chocolate macaron with Bitter Chocolate Ganache

I immediately hailed the success of this macaron recipe by tweeting that the shell tasted like a “crunchy chocolate souffle”. YUM!

I couldn’t count how many shells I had eaten even before filling the macarons. They were that good and infinitely addictive.

Without much further ado, I now present you, Pierre Hermé’s Macaron au chocolat Amer from his book: Macaron.
 

Chocolate Macarons

1)
300 grams ground almond
300 grams confectioner’s sugar
110 grams egg whites
120 grams unsweetened chocolate (cacao pate, cocoa mass)
4.5 grams carmine red food coloring ( I left this out)
Sugar syrup

2)
300 grams caster sugar
75 grams water
110 grams egg whites

Chop the pure cocoa mass, and melt in microwave. Combine all ingredients listed in 1). Cook the water and caster sugar to 118C-245F. When the syrup reaches 108C-226F, start whipping the egg whites to stiff peaks. Pour slowly the cooked syrup in a trickle over the meringue. Leave to cool down to 50C-122F and pour the melted pure cocoa mass in; Fold the meringue into the first mixture.

Pipe the macarons onto trays lined with parchment paper, around 1.5 inch, 3.25 cm circles. Bake in a convection oven, vent opened at 160C- 320F for about 14/15 minutes. (I baked mine at 290F for 15 minutes)

Bitter Chocolate Ganache
400 grams heavy cream
360 grams 70% chocolate
40 grams unsweetened chocolate (cacao pate, cocoa mass)
40 grams unsalted butter at room temperature

Chop the chocolate and cut the butter in cubes and leave at room temperature. Bring the cream to a boil and pour over the chocolate gradually, stirring at the center and going wider to incorporate liquid little by little. When the ganache reaches 40C-104F, incorporate the butter.

Assembly of macarons
With a piping bag, fill half of the macaron with a nice dollop of bitter chocolate ganache. Top with another macaron, making sure to assemble 2 shells of the same size.
 

Cooking Notes:

I have to say this was one of the best tasting macarons I have ever made. Do not be fooled by the mocha- colored shells, PH adds red food coloring to make it darker but I skipped this step. I may be bias because I love chocolate, but the strong but balanced chocolate flavor was undeniable. When I first tasted Pierre Hermé’s chocolate macaron from his Paris shop (which I got for free because I told the guy at the counter I was attending his class) it blew me away with how good it was. This was the same feeling I had as I tasted this one - and that it was made by my own hands - I was so elated. I will not deny that to make Italian Meringue macarons properly you need a strong arm, see my tips and pictures here. The base of my thumb was hurting from holding the bowl scraper by the time I was done.

How would you know if your Italian Meringue macaron was done properly? The shell should be thin and it should not be too sweet.Your tant-pour-tant should be spread evenly into your meringue, when you do not do this you will have a lot of meringue concentrated by itself and when it bakes you get thick shells, your almond mixture gets heavy and sinks to the bottom. It also helps that you add the meringue when it is warm so it dissolves your confectioner’s sugar. When you do proper macaronage, your tant-pour-tant and meringue blends to form a strong matrix, so when it bakes, the meringue is strong enough to hold bits of your tant-pour-tant and you get this cross-section.

Macaron "innards"

The macaron above was cold and straight out of the refrigerator  which made it look chalky, but see how full the shell is.

I made two ganaches. The bitter chocolate ganache above was made with Valrhona Chocolate, 70% Guanaja.

Valhorna Chocolate

I also have vivid memories of Pierre Hermé’s Chuao macaron which had black currant in it. I tracked down the chocolate he used - Amedei. This is a work in progress. I think I’ve almost nailed the recipe for the ganache, I just need to find some black currants to add to it.

Amedei- an Italian chocolate

I was amazed at how shiny the ganache made with this chocolate was but was not sure if this was because of the black currant syrup.

Chocolate on left made w/ Amedei chocolate

I'm also wondering if melted chocolate will work with French Meringue? You know what this means: back to the lab ...er my kitchen.

First of all, thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth: Jason aka Rvafoodie, wife Karen & son Jasper, Sketchy & Jennifer and their two little ones, Eugenio of Eating Video games, Messy chef - hope you introduce yourself next time but if anonymity is a rule that's okay , twitter friends, Brandon, Jason and the Olio folks, new friends and customers, and especially my blog readers - tickled you guys braved this scorching heat to sample my little bites. Also, thanks to Jenny of the Sweetest Thing Bakery dropping off some delicious treats for me to take home and try. 

So why lessons learned? I did not get to eat a lot. And it was all my fault by letting the heat get to me. What I should have done was printed out a list of dishes that restaurants were serving to get my appetite rolling. Because of this, I missed out on University of Richmond's crab, lobster and corn gazpacho, duck confit Bruschetta from Avenue 805...etc.

I guess you could also say that going into Broad appetit I had fixated on one dish: Thai grilled pork belly from Six Burner. And you know what, I devoured that plate - heat or no heat. How I wish I could have had six servings of that.

Regarding the macarons, they sold really well despite the hot and humid weather. In fact, much to my surprise the rose-litchi and matcha green tea sold out. I did make less of that flavor combination so I seriously underestimated the adventurous spirit of Richmonders.

Another disappointment was I was not able to join the dessert contest. I did not know I had to sign up for it and thought the judges would come by the booth. I even packaged some macarons specifically for that event. Oh well, maybe next year.

The day before the festival I had been experimenting with how to keep the products cold. I left a carrot cupcake with cream cheese frosting and a package of macarons on top of a bucket of ice out in the heat for 45 minutes. The cream cheese frosting softened, the macarons were okay. An idea started festering in my head when I felt how cold the bottom of the ice bucket was.

Cold air descends and heat rises.

So I took out the ice from the bucket and put it on top of a baking sheet and laid the baking sheet on top of the bucket. Stuck a thermometer inside the bucket. Voila!  The cream cheese frosting hardened, the temperature inside the bucket was 55F. My one mistake, I didn't try this outdoors like I did the first experiment but decided to see what happens at Broad Appetit.

It worked!

The one caveat, some people thought we were out of products or were selling ice.

But I consider this a breakthrough even though I'm sure other people have thought about this idea before.

If I find a way to keep my macarons cold even in 95F humid weather, I can certainly do Farmer's Markets again.

And to everyone who have asked, I am trying to get my macarons into local gourmet shops, I'm just trying to find the right ones. If you know of a shop that would be a great fit, send me an email at info At petitesbouchees dot com, or you're welcome to leave a comment!

Those of you following my tweets know that I have been covered in confectioner's sugar and almond flour for 2.5 days as I furiously baked macaron after macaron batch for some orders and Broad Appetit. At last count, I baked more or less 950 macarons - that's 1,900 piped shells!

I loved every minute of it. There is something so gratifying as you fill them and join the shells together and watching the filling squooshing to the edge. Yep- love.

I've been thinking about making another video, something more planned unlike the impromptu one I did on youtube last year.

The "Hungry" Hubby has also improved his video-editing skills so transitions should be better.

In the mean time, I'll try to get a macaron recipe up. I've been wanting to make a chocolate macaron version using the Italian Meringue. This is a bit advance since it uses cacao pate but it should be similar to Pierre Herme's chocoalate macarons that he sells in his shops.

Stay tuned!

So where have I been? Back to the Philippines, this time to attend a wedding! Me and my family debated around the idea about me making macarons for the event. First dilemma was where to bake them; it turned out that my sis-in-law's bakeshop was too busy and she only had humongous mixers - and I mean industrial size. My brother's home kitchen was the obvious next choice until a friend of ours, Mitos Yniguez, offered the use of her brand new restaurant kitchen which had a separate pastry area.

But my biggest unknown was my ingredients. Because of darn luggage limitations of 50 lbs. I also decided against  bringing my own ground almonds and when you change an ingredient like your almonds, all you can do is pray.

I guess I didn't pray hard enough.

And I remembered why I like grinding my own almonds and stay away from almond meal.

Anyway, meet Mitos. Proprietress of Baguio's newest "it" restaurant, "The Hill Station."

Mitos and me

And guess what, I even had two assistants.

Two spectators looking on

The all important step of weighing your ingredients carefully is what I taught first. Yes, I brought my own weighing scale.

Weighing the almond meal

And without my trusty beer pitcher to hold my piping bag, it took three of us to transfer the batter.

The blue batter!

I noticed that the batter was too thick to beat but this was further confirmed when I piped them out and the peak did not flatten. You can normally rectify this with a damp finger but these were REALLY stiff.

Sheetz! Darn peaks!

Because the oven wouldn't go below 325F, this was what happened to one batch. This phenomenon is what I call "duck beaks"

I did not have enough iteration of batches to finally eliminate the peak by reducing the almond flour, but I solved the oven problem by sticking a wooden spoon between the oven door so it wouldn't run too hot.

macaron kisses

Heck, at least they didn't crack and they had feet!

While waiting for the macarons to dry and bake, I got to sample some of Mitos' "Hill Station" offerings. Her five-spiced chicken fingers were delicious!

Chicken fingers

They make their own bread, which makes this charbroiled-burger doubly scrumptious...

Burger!

The right bread is also what's important for their version of the Vietnamese Bahn-Mi which Mitos calls Saigon Steak sandwich...

Saigon steak sandwich

Even the staff meal of Chicken curry was flavor-packed.

So remember folks, when you get the chance to visit Baguio drop by:

Going back to the macarons, I did manage to make 150 pieces despite the stars not aligning exactly. Though they didn't look ideal, they were made with love and for my beloved niece...

Isn't she a vision....?

For more wedding pics...

My extended family

I did manage to wangle a portrait shot from my brother. After all, why waste the hair and make-up?

Aren't we sweet?

While the bridal portraits were being taken, we decided to have merienda at the veranda at the club.

We're a camera-happy lot...

niece,nephew,me!

I wonder if my brother was tired or the beer knocked him out?

San Miguel Beer - Philippine national beer

Views of the grand ballroom of the Baguio Country Club.

The "stage"

I laugh so hard with the grand entrance below...

...of the soup brigade. Leave my niece and nephew to get the waiters to dance. I believe they rehearsed this the night before....

It's now customary to get wedding rituals like cake-cutting done first thing.

Wedding cake courtesy of bride's mom

So everyone can start goofing off.

And the young ones kept the party going...

For us oldies .

My two older brothers and my sis-in-laws

The dancing was so infectious even my mom joined in on the fun. And so we danced...

Next post... Bohol! When the whole family did the unforgivable and joined the bride and groom on their honeymoon!

So why am I doing this?

For the love of this delightful confection, that's why.

See you there!

I'll update this post later with flavors. Right now I need to start baking.

Flavors for tomorrow:

chocolate - espresso buttercream

hazelnut - caramel fleur de sel

Pistachio - Valrhona chocolate ganache

Almond macaron - passion fruit milk chocolate

Almond macaron - olive oil and vanilla ganache

I finally got a chance to do an entry for Macattack the monthly challenge sponsored by Deeba and Jamie over at Mactweets blog where macaron-obsessed folks gather, cheer, whine and gain tremendous support in a united quest to overcome the finickiest confection ever created on this planet. The theme for this round is to “do something or add something you’ve never done before but wanted to try.”

I’ve always wanted to try olive oil in a ganache ever since I’ve seen this interesting combination in Pierre Hermé’s (PH) “Macaron" book. Fortunately, we made it in our class too (well, another team made this) and the instructor cautioned us repeatedly that olive oil and cocoa butter do not mix easily, you need to heat the olive oil to a certain temperature so the cocoa butter in the white chocolate ganache does not seize. As long as you keep this in mind, the ganache is fairly easy to make ... and extremely delicious. The “Hungry” Hubby rates this as his second favorite flavor with passion fruit milk chocolate still ranking as number one.

The way ganaches are made at PH is more meticulous than what baking books will have you do. With PH method, you add cream or any liquid to your partly (or wholly) melted chocolate slowly just like making mayonnaise. The reason is, the emulsion is better and you end up with a smooth and creamy ganache that feels absolutely sexy in your mouth.

Though French Meringue macarons are still the best in flavor, I do enjoy the challenge of Italian Meringue - PH way - and believe me I have sampled plenty of Italian meringue macarons made by many shops that are just so, so wrong and this is sad because this gives macarons a bad reputation. PH does not add any sugar to the whipped egg whites, all his sugar is in the syrup. What this does is lessen the meringue-like texture that most Italian Meringue macarons tend to have. After adding the sugar syrup to the whipped egg whites you use it almost immediately so the heat of your meringue will melt the confectioner’s sugar in your tant pour tant. I believe this reduces the sweetness problem in macaron shells. And you need to work fast otherwise your meringue will get too cool to melt the confectioner’s sugar.
And luckily, HH came home in time to take pictures just as I was mixing the whole macaron batter. This differs from the way I do my French meringue, so for now this applies only to the Italian Meringue.
 

It is best to use a bowl scraper. Have enough leverage. I had to stand on a 4-inch stool (I'm 5'4") to be able to beat this stiff meringue down without wearing out my shoulders.

Start at 3 'clock, sweeping the scraper under

continue sweeping clockwise

when you reach 9 o'clock bring up the scraper to form a small wave

At this point, immediately give the bowl a quarter turn counter-clockwise with your free hand and resume at 3 o'clock. Continue to do these motions until you feel you are reaching the desired consistency. The point when your batter reaches this is called "macaronage" although I heard my instructor say "the macaron". To do this you want to dig your scraper further below and do a big wave like this:

Testing "macaronage" with the big wave

The height of the wave should slowly flatten back into the batter and it might even leave a peak, but that should disappear once you tap the bowl on the countertop.

Macaron a l’Huile d’ Olive et Vanille

an original recipe by Pierre Hermé

Olive Oil Ganache

60 grams whipping cream
1/4 vanilla pod
90 grams olive oil Disisa
135 grams Ivoire couverture

Melt the couverture and bring the cream to a boil with the split and scraped vanilla pod. Remove the pod and pour the cream gradually into the chocolate. Emulsify with a rubber spatula and pour the olive oil at 35/40C - 95/104F. Leave to crystallise at room temperature. Set aside at 12 C- 54F.

Almond Sugar Mix for Macaron

200 grams whole white almonds
200 grams confectioner’s sugar

Process the whole white almond in a food processor, add the icing sugar and process once more. Sieve.

Green Macaron Mix

1)
400 grams almond-sugar mix
75 grams fresh egg whites
1 gram green food coloring
2)
200 grams caster sugar
50 grams water
75 grams old egg whites
1.5 grams egg white powder

Combine all ingredients together from list 1) ( do this only right before you begin your sugar syrup, otherwise you will end up with an unblendable mass). cook the water and caster sugar to 118 C- 245F. When the syrup reaches 108 C- 226F start whipping on medium speed the eggwhites with the egg white powder to stiff peaks. Pour slowly the cooked syrup in a trickle over the meringue. Leave to cool down to 50C-122F, take the bowl out and fold the meringue progressively into the first mixture. Add a third of the meringue to lighten the mixture and then beat in the rest of the meringue. Be aware of required flow of the batter.

Piping and baking the macarons

With a piping bag fitted with a no. 11 plain round nozzle, pipe macarons on tray lined with parchment paper. Bake in a convection oven, vent opened, at 160C- 320F for about 14/15 minutes. Once aked, slide the macarons on cooling rack to cool.

When the shells have cooled and when the ganache has reached pipable consistency, fill one shell with a nice dollop of ganache, top with another macaron, making sure to assemble 2 shells of the same size.

Store in refrigerator for at least 24 hours before consuming. Take out of refrigerator, 2 hours before consumption.

A perfectly creamy olive oil ganache

Cooking Notes
  The shells are almost the right thinness I wanted them to be and they were not sweet at all. It's amazing how mixing the batter makes all the difference. To mature the macarons, they need to be on a wire grate and be stored in a refrigerator with a 70% to 80% humidity for 24 to 36 hours.This might be difficult to achieve in a home refrigerator but this can be done by leaving a bowl of hot water inside for 10 minutes (I do not recommend this if you have other stuff in the fridge that might be sensitive to humidity).

Macaron "innards" after maturation

I was very pleased how the macaron shell allowed the flavor of the olive oil ganache to take center stage. This is why maturing the macarons is very important. Newly filled shells taste horrible because the filling has not had time to moisten the interior with its own essence. Ganaches take 24 to 36 hours and buttercream takes about 48 hours for the transformation to take place.
In choosing olive oil for this recipe make sure that it is first-press olive oil that is floral in scent, not the heavier variety with grassier notes.
The original recipe included three strips of green olives to put on top of the ganache but I had none available. Enjoy these macarons with Ceylon tea or coffee!

Hope you all had a great Christmas! It took me several tries to finally finish this post, what with holiday orders, shopping and celebrations. So here it is , my experience as a stagiere at Atelier Pierre Hermé. Should I tell you all how nervous I was? I had a dream a couple of nights before my class that I burned the caramel and got booted out of the program. I really should not be afraid of caramel because I make this all the time at Petites Bouchées. Caramel fleur de sel is my best selling macaron but sometimes old fears remain in our subconscious always waiting to bite us in the ass.
To compound my anxiety for the class, I did not seem to be over my jet lag as I had hardly slept the previous night, and if my boot camp class at the CIA was any yardstick, this hardly bodes well in my favor.
Anyway, when I got to the classroom, there were a few students already there. I counted 12 seats. When everyone arrived, our instructor immediately launched into the philosophy of Pierre Hermé about his products. I started to zone out because I’ve already heard this before. After this short introduction, we headed out to the kitchen where we weren’t allowed to bring our personal belongings like handbags, which is why I did not take pictures of our first day.
Our instructor, Olivier (I know, I forgot his last name), proceeded to delve into the discussion of ganaches and different fillings. He would first explain in French and then he would translate in English. For some reason, the English version was always shorter. Maybe it does take more words to say things in French.

 He divided us into 4 groups. I was assigned to the English-speaking group “so we could understand each other,” Chef Olivier says (duh, makes sense). He began to assign the fillings to each group. Our group, group #2 gets compote orange passion, caramel buerre sel (oh shit, "I am going to burn in hell" was my initial reaction), banana - avocado ganache (yum!), ganache chocolate lait passion (hey, I make this already). He then explained each of the recipes. For example, custards should not be overwhipped because the foam will prevent it from cooking properly, whip after custard had gelled. When working with yuzu juice, you need to respect the temperature, add the butter at 40 C/ 104 F or your ganache will be grainy. When making the olive oil ganache (this was one of my favorites), it is important to know at what temperature cocoa butter melts and solidifies -> 31 C/ 88 F, warm the oil to 35 C/ 95 F so as not to seize the cacao butter. He also discussed storage of the fillings. Some were stored at 4 C/ 39 F and some were stored at 12 C/ 54 F (hmmn...might need to sequester one of hubby’s wine coolers).

Wall of ingredients, alphabetically arranged

Chef said we needed to finish our fillings before lunch. I was getting hungry and I glanced at the clock it was 10:30 am, don’t we get a little break - what? all the fillings? what, no break? Everybody started to get busy (or look busy), I guess no break. My team was an interesting bunch, not using their real names, Stephan was from Slovenia and Diego was from Spain. We started with the passion-fruit ganache which I was very familiar with and then the avocat-banane ganache, which I was not. This was also my first encounter with a semi-dried banana. The fruit does not resemble a wrinkled piece of dehydrated fruit however all the moisture has been sucked out of it. It was kinda rubbery feeling and wasn’t oxidized at all. Chef was very adamant about adding the cream slowly. "like mayonnaise!" he would repeat over and over like a mantra. I was nervous at first about melting expensive chocolate in a microwave that I was not familiar with, but it looked like their microwave had very low wattage since after 2 minutes, the white chocolate hardly melted. Chef came by and told us to start the caramel. I ignored him hoping one of my team mates would be up to playing with sugar. No one budged. Hmmn, looks like I’m not the only one NOT looking forward to this. Chef came by again...so I sighed and went looking for a saucepan to make the caramel. Turned out, Chef was going to do it because he was going to take the caramel pass the normal caramel high point. He used a white bond paper to test the color of the caramel and it was a real dark amber before he deglazed it with the demi-sel butter (yes, half-salted where the heck can I find this in the U.S.?), then the cream. He then left us to cook the whole lot back up to 110 C/ 230 F. Whew that wasn’t too hard. After all the fillings were made, we headed back to the classroom for the technical part of the class. It was 12:30 and I was really starving. These French are hard core.

In class, we talked about the macaron components from the egg whites and almonds, to confectioner’s sugar etc. Did you know when chicken eats grass in the spring there is more water in their albumen? Egg whites are left out to evaporate the water and concentrate the albumen. Absolutely make sure that there is no flour in your almond flour (if bought ground) and your confectioner’s sugar as this will make your macaron shell crack. It is also important to have a hygrometer to measure humidity. You can use powdered sugar with no cornstarch if humidity is less than 50%.

So, are you ready for this?

The best tasting macarons are made with the French Meringue method.

So why do most pastry shops use Italian Meringue (IM)? Because it lasts longer, conservation-wise. Swiss meringue makes the worst tasting macarons and is used only for decorations because they last the longest.

It’s interesting that two years ago when I was wondering what the big deal was about macarons, I sampled so many from different pastry shops as well as mail-order and was grossed out at the confections that had hard shells, chewy cookies and extremely sweet fillings. I gave up on them for a while until Miette in San Francisco surprised me with their take on the macaron. That’s when I had a resurgence of interest and the rest they say is history.

Pierre Hermé and Ladurée use the same recipe for macarons, but PH adds his IM warm to the TPT because ganache has more moisture and Ladurée cools its IM because its fillings are mostly buttercream. Wish I could draw all the charts and diagrams, it’s really hard to put into words. Buttercream generally takes longer to mature the macaron shell because it has less water content than ganache. Our instructor said when their fillings were mostly buttercream they used to spray the bottom of the shells with water (or was it syrup?) to hasten its maturation. We also talked about ph balance of the ingredients but I’m not sure if I should go into this otherwise this would soon look like a thesis paper on macarons.

So moisture must be controlled. For those who prefer to just buy almond flour, here is one way to test if it is good. Make a ball of the almond flour, if it remains a ball there is too much water and you need to air-dry it a little or find one that falls apart. You can tell if whole blanched almonds are stale if they are greyish in color.

Did you know that when it rains outside this is also a problem. The atmospheric pressure drops and pushes the steam down. You will notice that the shells at the edge of trays start to crack. I have always wondered why this happens and just blamed it on humidity, but now I know! It is important, more than ever, to let your shells dry properly before you bake them.

It was interesting how my hunger subsided in the background as I absorbed all this macaron information. Nonetheless when we did break for lunch I polished off my roast chicken meal.

Piping fillings for Passion Fruit Macaron

We headed back to the pastry kitchen afterwards to tackle the macaron shells. Each group was to make three macaron shells. The breakdown of tasks were: one prepares the tant pour tant (TPT meaning equal parts ground almonds and confectioner’s sugar), then another does the Italian Meringue and the third person prepares the baking sheets with the stencil and parchment paper. Then on the next macaron shell, the tasks shifts and so forth so each person gets to do everything.
One item of great interest to me was how fine the almond was ground in their huge food processor. Our instructor let us feel the coarseness of the powdered almonds. I was surprised on how far the almonds were ground for they felt warm to the touch by the time Chef told us to add the confectioner’s sugar. Chef said that they used Valencia almonds from Spain because these have less oil content unlike the almonds from California (hrmph!).
Our first IM was too runny but Chef did manage to whip it up to good “macaronage”. He did a drawing in class about what stage the sugar syrup must be added - you shouldn’t be able to see the bottom of the whisk. You mix one-third of your IM to the TPT to lighten it with a top to bottom motion. When you add the rest of your IM, you move from 3 o’ clock to 9 o’clock, all the while turning your bowl. A bowl scraper is best as you need to move quickly and with force. You do a final big “wave” to test “macaronage” where you move the scraper from bottom to top to form the wave. The mixture must be shiny and sinks back slow but when you tap the bowl it levels out. I know, I know we need pictures of this, maybe when I attempt the IM again.

So we piped and baked the shells, this was straightforward for me. I learned a new technique for removing the shells though, really neat! It’s by flipping the shells over and using the cooling rack to guide the paper off instead of picking each shell out one by one. When I explained this to the hubby, he didn’t understand so I think this should go to another post about macarons.

Chef told us to do the other shells the next day, so all we had to do was fill the ones we already made. A pair of macaron shells were weighed. If the weight was 11 grams then 11 grams of filling was needed. If there are garnishes, estimate and subtract the weight of the garnish.

Storing macarons to mature its flavor

I was excited to do my macarons the next day as the IM task was my turn.

So I thought I’d show up for class early the next morning, except I was one of the last ones to arrive. Geez, does this mean everyone else was more excited than I was?
We immediately went to the pastry kitchen where the Chef assigned us the two macaron shells: a Chocolate macaron shell where you mix melted pure cocoa mass into the TPT of the shell and a Red-colored, regular macaron shell. Our group also got a non-macaron recipe to do. A fruit cake.

I hate fruit cakes.
And I hated them more after this. You know why? Because in all the confusion with doubling the recipe (and because I already hated fruit cakes) I got yelled at (okay yell was an exaggeration but it certain felt like it) for throwing out the rum marinade. Let me ask you. What would you do when the recipe says:
“Drain the golden raisins...”
I know, I should have asked Chef for clarification. But when a class is taught in two languages and your head is already buzzing with hearing this foreign language in the background and you are tasked with a recipe you didn’t want to do, sometimes you just want to get it over with. Besides who cares about a damn fruit cake.
Apparently Chef does, and he told me you never throw rum away as it will make your product very expensive. (Hah! Isn’t Pierre Hermé upscale anyway)
I was so, so tempted to point out that the recipe should have said:
“Drain the golden raisins and reserve the rum...”
I held my tongue, because I did not get to do the IM yet and I did not want to get kicked out of class for smart-assing the teacher. Hee.
  But I did learn some good techniques from making fruitcakes. If you want to control where the crack would be, pipe a line of softened butter. The piping needs to be half in the batter. Also, to prevent the dried fruit from sinking to the bottom it is important to chill all your ingredients well before mixing the batter. Oh yeah, never throw out the rum, right Jack Sparrow?

Piping the fruitcake batter into the pan

I admit they are the prettiest fruitcakes I've ever seen

Anyway, when it was time to make more macaron shells, Chef showed us how to do the IM properly at our station, carefully pointing out the “cave” and the “peak” in the whipped egg whites which was a whole lot better than the explanation in the diagram. He also showed us how to mix the IM with the TPT. Beating the IM is an issue, you really need a good strong arm. The chocolate shell had a caveat too. You needed to add the melted cocoa mass only after you’ve made your IM. If you incorporate it into your TPT too early it is going to seize when you add your IM.

Chef showing how to beat IM into TPT

My team piping the macaron shells

And yours truly piping the filling

I’m beginning to realize how, in Pierre Hermé’s world, that extra attention to detail such as proper temperature enables them to develop flavors and textures that are far from ordinary and nothing short of sublime.

Every conceivable % of Valrhona chocolate was on 2nd level

After the shells were done, all that was left was to fill them and let them chill.

We headed back to the classroom for the technical phase of the class. Chef reiterated the importance of having a hygrometer in your kitchen. You need to know the humidity before you start. I think this is more important if you are using the Italian Meringue method. If humidity is high, you need to raise the temperature of your sugar syrup or dry your almond powder in the oven 60-70 C / 140-158 F or air your egg whites or you can add more egg white powder or all of the above.
He also talked about how to mature the macarons. White chocolate ganaches take 24 hours, dark chocolate 36 hours while buttercream fillings need 48 hours to be ready.
Chef is fond of diagrams and he drew another one detailing the sizes of the nozzle vs. size of the macarons and how many macarons per sheet maximum should be on the tray. When macarons cook they produce moisture so you might want to limit how many macarons should bake in the oven at the time especially when the weather is humid.

Macarons laid out for us to pick from and take home

At the end of the class we sampled all the macarons and we got to pick out two boxes of macarons for ourselves! We were sent home with a sample of everything we made in class - yes including the fruitcake which, surprisingly enough, was quite delicious!

Another view of the macaron spread

A souvenir photo

My goody bag, the hazelnut crunchies were delicious!

The macaron template, thermoform packaging and course notes

I was surprised how generous the school was with the materials provided. We were given the macaron template and samples of the thermoform packaging they use for storing macarons. We were also given an exhaustive list of suppliers that Pierre Hermé uses. 

I went into the class thinking : "how much more is there to learn about macarons?" I emerged thinking I've only scraped the tip of the iceberg. Macarons cannot be thought of as the shell alone,  equal importance must be given to the fillings that go in between them. And that in itself is an endless quest.

About this post

There are some details that I had to leave out because this post has gotten so long. If you have any questions just email me, kitchenmusings AT gmail dot com or send me a DM in twitter or leave your question in the comment section. Do continue to check back as I continue to refine this post. I realized that if I wait till this post has everything I wanted to say it will never get done.

A view of the Eiffel Tower from the Trocadero

So we ate...a lot, but we walked a lot too. In fact, I've never walked so much in my life. I shall spare you most of my sightseeing pictures as I'm sure that there are more than enough travel blogs that cover this, but I think it is my duty to tell you about my adventures in Paris in relation to food.

I didn't prepare too much. In fact I did not make an itinerary or reservations at any popular restaurants at all. Since sightseeing, getting together with "Hungry" Hubby's aunt and his friend are priorities, we needed to play it by ear. From past experience, after spending the entire day walking everywhere, the last thing you want to do is to dress up and sit down to a 10-course meal.  What I did do was to make sure that I knew how to buy macarons and tarts in a pastry shop and my good friend Helen helped me brush up on my French (I took French language lessons from her over a year ago). She also recommended the restaurant where I had one of the best meals of my life...but I'm getting ahead of myself.

My first day in Paris was marred by an embarrassing incident at the Paris metro. Taking Helen's advice to take the RER B and skip the 50 € cab fare from Charles de Gaulle to the 6th Arrondisment, I think she did not realize  we had 3 huge suitcases, which was fine for the RER but the Paris metro was a different matter. I went ahead through the composter (the machine that accepts your ticket and the portals or turnstile let you through) but I was not quick enough and  was horrified that the jaws of the machine clamped down on my suitcase! HH, who was struggling with the 2 bigger suitcases saw my predicament and heaved from the other side to pry my suitcase free but not after an earnest struggle and a lot of stares from les Parisiennes.

We did get to our hotel without further incidents but became embarrassingly aware of our awkward burden as we passed more experienced, well-traveled Parisians pulling their dainty suitcases behind them. Our concierge conversed well in  English, and to our pleasure we were upgraded to a junior suite for the whole of our 12-day stay. Yipee!

When we got to our room, it was gorgeously appointed with luxurious silk drapes but our awe was short-lived once our American-sized suitcases filled the room and every inch of available space diminished. It had a gorgeous bathroom and an Elchim blow dryer - wow no cheesy Sunbeam blow dryer here. Bathtub was also lovely but not very friendly to take showers in. Ahh...the Parisians... they want nothing "pas jolie". Extra hooks to hang towels and toiletry bags would have been useful, but I guess they were "pas jolie" too.

Anyway, you are all here for the food, right?

I think the biggest misconception I had about Paris was regarding its coffee. The only French-press I saw was an antique and was not in use.  When we were in San Francisco at La Boulange, they served our coffee in a bowl and HH exclaimed that his Uncle in Paris prepared it that way every morning. So imagine my disappointment when I was served coffee in an espresso-sized cup - their café . I attempted their watered down version called café allongé but my face below says it all.

not a drinkable cup

No wonder, there is an abundance of Nespresso boutiques in Paris. Even Parisians can't drink their own coffee! Through sheer tenacity, we finally did find a great cup of coffee at Malongo Cafe (and I do mean great).

Okay let's start with the best Macarons and overall Pastry.

Pierre Hermé on rue Bonaparté

Sorry Ladurée fans, but Pierre Hermé simply blows everyone out of the water. I visited Ladurée's tea room and had one of the most ordinary chocolate eclairs of my life.

Tea at Ladurée

I also visited Ladurée's boutique and was met by a pouty salesperson who treated me like I was scum as though if I touched anything on display I would contaminate it. So, uhm I was wearing a hoodie and did not look like I was dressed for high tea but I visited Pierre Hermé in the same outfit and they were cordial, helpful and extremely professional.

I did not let this prevent me from trying Ladurée macarons on another day. Sorry, but I can't understand the hype. They were not good. And that's all I'm going to say about it.

Laduree Macarons

In fact, I liked the macarons of Sadaharu Aoki and Gerard Mulot better than the Ladurée. Aoki's matcha millefueille and Mulot's canelé were also very good.

So why does Pierre Hermé rule (rock!)? Vivid taste, balance of flavor, luxurious ganaches. His white truffle macaron was sublime but I really loved his macaron Chuao - a macaron with single origin chuao chocolate infused with cassis (black currant), that also had pieces of the fruit in it.

At this point I realized that several of you are already up in arms for my remarks about Ladurée. The concept of how a macaron should taste is wide and varied and it's all a matter of preference. I do not like shells that taste obviously crunchy. I like my macarons to have a shell that my teeth would not have a problem with. I like a macaron where I do not have to guess what its flavor is from the rest of the group. That said, the macarons made by the hands of Pierre Hermé and his assistant were still the best, so there is an obvious loss of vision in the end product when it gets pushed to production. The difference seems to be the outer layer. The egg-shell thin outer layer gives an audible snap that does not reduce to crumbles in your mouth. More about this in another post.

We took a selection of pastries back to a friend's house for dinner.

Clockwise from top: Vanille tart, hazelnut ?, Coffee tart, Chuao tart ->my favorite

Hubby cannot shut up about the coffee tart and wants me to reproduce it.

Ispahan gateau - I had a smaller version of this back at the hotel

More macarons at Pierre Hermé boutique

Best Duck Confit?

Chez Dumonet it is.

Unbelievable Crisp Skin!

Yes, that's a thick slab of foie.

I've had good confit at a chain restaurant called Chez Clements too, in fact the taste of the meat was a bit better, but did not match the skin crispness of the Chez Dumonet one. I had a bad duck confit at another establishment, but I won't say where since it is a historic restaurant. But I must say my own duck confit would give them serious competition, actually HH said in terms of flavor mine was still the best.

I wonder if Chez Dumonet deep-fried their confit leg?

So let's insert something else I hate about Paris and would be a reason why I might not survive there. The wine, I just cannot take the wine. I know there are a lot of French wine lovers but I truly love Napa Valley wines. All I can say is, watch the movie "Bottle Shock".

So who had the best Hot Chocolate?

This is tough - the best le chocolate chaud. But I gotta hand it to La Maison du Chocolat. Its hot chocolate was thick and bitter yet glides smoothly  down the throat. A close contender was Angelina and Patisserie Vennoise - both these places get very packed so be prepared to wait.

Angelina hot chocolate

Watch out for the buses when you step out of this cafe

A chain called Le Deux Maggot also serves a decent hot chocolate. Stay away from the shops that have their hot chocolate in a swirling machine or you'll get something akin to Swiss Miss.

My favorite place involves the kitchen shops. HH's friend had us take bus #85 with him so we can see Paris from above ground. We got off at the Etienne Marcel stop.

The historic cookware store, E. Dehillerin

Can I say, hold on to that credit card?

More Stuff

It can be real confusing when you get into this store. Most of the prices are listed in a book and you have to look it up with the item number stuck to the product. Someone actually followed me around and told me the prices of each, I felt a bit hurried but the salesperson was nice enough. I managed to get out of that store without having to take out a 2nd mortgage but I did leave with a very nice copper jam pot which HH later hauled all over Paris.

Mostly haute pastry stuff here

Another kitchen store is Mora. It looked like it was manned by a couple hoity-toity pastry students. One of them yelled at HH for taking a silicone mat off an induction burner. Good thing HH's friend was with us and he told off that dude in French which translated to " If you do not like working here, go home". Score one for the tourists. Yeh!

Great ingredients here!

When we got to G. Detou, I had to mentally compute how much luggage room we still had. Shelled Iranian pistachios, plump vanilla beans, foie gras paté, canned duck confit, Valrhona chocolate packed to the ceiling what more can this girl ask for?

Why can't we have a store like G. Detou in Richmond, Va? Shall I open one? .

Butcher shop

My most favorite street in Paris is rue Montorgueil not too far from all the kitchen stores above. Now this is the kind of neighborhood I would love to live in. A neighborhood butcher shop, hubby refused to take a picture of the dead bunny on the display window (what happened to investigative reporting?)

A fish shop

And home to the historic Stohrer Patisserie.

A breakfast at Tiffany's moment, instead of jewelry - food!

HH's friend is a fan of Paul a boulangerie/patisserie that was further up the road.

Which reminds me, one thing I love about Paris is that everyone had great baguette. Even the shittiest tourist joint serves great bread! Unlike croissants which HH and I swore off after having them for a few days for breakfast, the smell and taste of bread is a constant welcome encounter.

One of the things I hate about Paris that could give any tourist heartburn is their constant strikes. When we were there, some museums were on strike. But the worst of all was the transportation strikes. Two days before our flight home, the taxis went on strike. I felt sorry for a guest at the hotel who had two kids (thankfully one was a teenager) who had to drag her suitcases around Paris looking for a cab to take her to the airport because the concierge couldn't find her a taxi. Then on the day we left, the RER went on strike and that cost a bit of traffic too.

But you gotta love the Paris Metro (when they are not on strike). It can get confusing at first, but after a few tries that's all you need to get around Paris. In fact, because of the taxi strike we decided to just take the metro to L'Ami Jean and it was easy-peasy...

.... and where I had one of the best meals of my life!

That's Chef Stéphane Jégo the genius of Basque cuisine

The interior was unassuming, I love the homey feel with ham hanging from the ceiling and football (rugby?) paraphernalia on the wall. Amusingly enough the cuisine is Basque not French. The menu was, despite my passable restaurant French, totally alien and all I understood was langue de veu (veal tongue) and lapin (bugs bunny). Our waiter spoke English (thank goodness) and he rattled down the menu in the language we understood.

Pumpkin soup

I am not a fan of foamy dishes (visual yuck!) that seem to be popular nowadays with haute cuisine but this soup absolutely transported me to heaven with every creamy spoonful.

Veal tongue

If there was a dish I wish I could savor forever, it was the braised veal tongue. I loved the texture but the flavor was just an assault on my gastronomical senses. It was hard to describe, heck I didn't even know what was in it.

For dessert I had riz au lait. The waiter proclaimed it the best in the world. I took his word for it and it came in a big bowl enough to feed four people. It was pretty good but nothing as sublime as the hubby's apple tart!

Apple tart with granny smith ice cream

I was beginning to doubt that Paris could make an edible apple tart, I've had quite a few in several places and all of them were so tasteless I could only think of Helen's remark about how most pastries in Paris are bland.

But this, this was perfect! I had a bite (okay 2) and this was second to the best apple tart of all time.

BTW, you get a better deal when you order entrée+plat+dessert. For our three course meal plus 2 glasses of wine, this fantastic dinner only cost 91 €, a bargain in Paris. The food here is haute comfort food!

Other notable eats were at Le Comptoir du Relais, Chez Christine and other brasseries and bistros but this post is already so long, maybe HH can cover them at his Hungry Hubby website (if he starts updating it again...slacker!) including the time when we asked for ketchup for our moule frites. Also, lest I forget the touristy Fouquet's, where I had the most expensive bottle of coca-cola ever, 8 €, you can be sure I savored every drop of that soda from the bar till the end of our late lunch.

We're at the home stretch, how can I not mention ice cream at Berthillon?

Tarte Tatin with Vanilla ice cream at Berthillon

The ice cream was incredible, the Tarte tatin was not and was an example of a bland dessert. Do not be fooled by the beautiful caramelization. Here's a view of the elegant interior of this famous ice cream shop.

Berthillon

Along this stretch of road on Ile st. Louis is an amazing foie gras shop!

foie gras galore!

I so wanted to bring home a couple of jars but HH was feeling icky of stuffing it in our suitcases. The guy did say he had U.S. customs clearance forms and I should have listened to my stomach this time instead of my Mr. Pasteurized Hubby.

This is in no way an expert's guide to Paris. On the contrary, HH and I were a couple of wide-eyed tourists as any tourist can be on their first time in Paris. We were lucky that HH's aunt (did I mention she lived a couple of doors up from Mariage Freres near Hotel de Ville) and his friend showed us a couple of places we probably wouldn't have gotten off the internet without specifically looking for it. We love the architecture, we love the food and the bread! We just loved the walking and the metro! The only time we used a taxi was when we left for the airport to come home - with four suitcases.

If you are planning a trip to Paris, I suggest you read David Lebovitz  book "The Sweet Life in Paris" and website for great recommendations on places and how not to piss off the Parisians. And luckily, David had a book signing while I was there.

The photographer should have told me my book was facing the wrong side!

And I found this map indispensible, Streetwise Paris. I also had the book "Hungry for Paris" by Alexander Lobrano. I did not use it much but it was no fault of the book, simply my unfamiliarity of Paris. Now that I have an idea of how Paris is oriented and have done most of my sightseeing, the next trip will be planned around eating.

Until then,

Au Revoir!

Some notable addresses:

Pierre Hermé - 72, rue Bonaparte

Ladurée - 16, rue Royale

Sadaharu Aoki - 35, rue de Vaugirard

Gerard Mulot - 76, rue de Siene

La Maison du Chocolat - 52, rue Francois 1er

Angelina - 226, rue de Rivoli

Chez Dumonet - 117 rue de Cherche-Midi

L'Ami Jean -  27, rue Malar

Berthillon - 29-31 rue Saint Louis

G. Detou - 58, rue Tiquetonne

Mora - 13, rue Montmartre

E. Dehillerin - 18, rue Coquilliére

My prized copper jam pot that the hubby hauled for a day in Paris

* All the pictures were shot with the Panasonic Lumix, LX-3, a great camera to take on a trip! The picture of the Tarte Tatin and most of the outside pics were unretouched. Pictures are best viewed in the lightbox just click on the picture to open the lightbox.