I think I’ve made it no secret which creation of Pierre Hermé happens to be my favorite. I think his Ispahan fetish remains to be his most popular too. He originally developed the recipe at Ladurée with just raspberries and a rose cream. I believe he added the lychees when he already had his own pastry boutique. Ispahan is the name of a rose also known as Rose d’Isfahan. Isfahan is a province in Iran although I am not sure there is any correlation except in the name alone.

Macarons are growing in popularity in the United States. I’ve seen a definite uptick in interest here in Richmond, Va. These French confections as wedding favors appear to be a hot item nowadays and who doesn’t like delicious edible parting goodies. Though still getting confused 95% of the time with the less glamourous homonymous macaroon, I think it is slowly creeping into the consciousness of the masses, okay maybe, in the trend-conscious crowd.

Not sure if that’s a good or a bad thing. I somehow want to keep its “exclusivity” but how are we going to make money at Petites Bouchées if we don’t spread the macaron love, right?

Anyway, with its surging popularity there have been several articles of how macarons are becoming the next cupcake. There’s also been several social media quips about how making macarons are easy or how macarons aren’t all that or some elitist lambasting 95% of the blogsphere for giving macarons a bad name by making them too popular.

When I first made macarons successfully, I remember them tasting a tad too sweet. I started with Stéphane Glacier recipe and then I also looked at Gerard Mulot’s. I wanted mine to taste less of a meringue, so I lessened the confectioner’s sugar and added more almonds. Most people who has had my macarons (and are not familiar with what they are made of) couldn’t believe that they have no flour in them. But because my macarons have more almonds , they get bumpy sometimes which annoys me but taste to me is more important and so I learned to live with it.

Being in business selling macarons can be very stressful. If your customer is a big fan of this petite sweet you are constantly being compared to the greatest patisseries of Paris. I’ve had great feedback of how my macarons taste better than Ladurée's or are comparable. But I’ve also had to deal with negative comments. It’s all part of the business, you can’t please everyone. Macarons are prone to being mishandled once they leave your hands. For example, leave them out in 90F weather in your car & your buttercream might morph into something else. But you never tell a customer they have not stored it right, just make sure that you give them proper information when they take their macarons home.

I'm the first to admit that my macarons can never be better or comparable to Pierre Hermé’s simply because the man is one-of-a-kind, effing brilliant. But even he has had problems with customer satisfaction. He said he was frustrated about customers complaining about the buttercream fillings because they eat them straight out of the refrigerator so he had slowly gotten away from buttercream and had been developing rich, luxurious ganaches that never crystallize too much when refrigerated. His macarons are built with a science of their own.
But the biggest reason why my macarons can never achieve the exalted stature of Herme’s is in the almonds. Valencia almonds to be exact. I have made them both with my regular blanched variety and with the Valencia almonds I brought back from France. Big difference. The shells are fuller and are so perfectly round with the latter. Valencia almonds can be ground very fine without being greasy. Phooey for me, right?

So instead of crying about it, it’s best to work with what you have and make your macaron your own. My standard chocolate macaron does not taste like a macaron at all because the shell never gets too crisp with cocoa powder. I have adjusted it so it’ll have the crisp shell but when I got a new batch of cocoa powder - same brand - it all changed again. How do I fight that? I don’t, I continue to make it and it may get a tip or get too thick but it still remains to be my second most popular flavor.

For me, it is better to get a tip from undermixing because you can flatten it with a wet finger but if you overmix it, there is no coming back from that and your batter will spread unevenly when piped and be very flat.

Macarons are finicky. Unless you work in a climate-controlled room and have control of all your ingredient sources, you can never predict how they’ll turn out. But the more you make them - the more you’ll understand them and you can make adjustments accordingly. Right now I am using the French Meringue method more than the Italian Meringue, but that may change eventually as I get busier and conservation becomes an issue.
 

My macaron posts are the most popular on this blog and I am working on a redesign to make it easier to navigate, which will include videos and different experiments. I’m also working on a Frequently Asked Questions (FAQ) page on macarons. I have received dozens of emails with macaron questions and most of them are the same problems with a little variation mostly to deal with humidity in other countries. Though most of the answers are scattered across different posts, I think it’s time to put them all in a comprehensive format which I can add to as more queries come in. It’s hard for me to go through all those emails again, but if you would leave a question for me in the comment section, please do so and I would use this to build my FAQ page. Also what part of the video would you want me to focus on, 90% of me thinks it’s macaronage. Thanks!

Also check out MACTWEETS, a wonderful monthly event hosted by Deeba of Passionate about Baking and Jamie of Life’s a Feast, there’s a spicy roundup of lovely macaron creations from around the globe.

Ispahan Entremet

by Pierre Herme

Tant pour tant (TPT)

300 grams Almond Powder
300 grams confectioner’s sugar

Combine together with a whisk or a food processor

Pink macaron biscuit

600 grams TPT
red food coloring
110 grams egg whites (fresh)

300 grams sugar
75 grams water
110 grams egg white (aged)

Mix the TPT with egg white and food coloring. Cook the sugar and water to 245 F. Whip the egg white to soft peaks at high speed, then lower to the 2nd speed. Once sugar syrup reaches 245F, pour it on the egg whites. Keep stirring until the meringue reaches 122F. Fold the meringue into the almond mixture until the right consistency is obtained.

Pipe 7 cm circles and dry the tops for 20 minutes. Bake in a convection oven 320F for 20 minutes.

Rose Petal Cream

Italian Meringue:

125 grams egg whites
15 grams sugar
250 grams sugar
75 grams water

Boil the sugar and water to 245F, after syrup reaches 220 F start whipping the egg whites and sugar to soft peaks. At 245F pour the sugar syrup on the meringue and let it cool on 2nd speed. Once cool, reduce speed to 1st speed until use.

English cream

180 grams Milk
140 grams egg yolk
180 grams sugar

Boil the milk. Pour half of the milk into the egg yolks and sugar mixture, stir and add this mixture back into the remaining milk. Heat while continually stirring until the mixture can coat the back of the spoon. Cool the mixture in a mixer at high speed until it becomes light and airy.

To complete the rose petal cream:

900 grams butter
8 grams rose essence
56 grams rose syrup
500 grams English cream
350 grams Italian Meringue

Cream the butter. Add the English cream and the rose essence and syrup. Mix well before folding in the Italian Meringue.

To Assemble:
Litchi, raspberries, rose macaron biscuit, rose petal cream.

Cut up the litchis into small chunks and drain for 2 days otherwise your macaron biscuit will become too soggy.
 

How to Assemble the Ispahan:

Fill with the rose petal cream

* Leave 1cm from the edge when you pipe the rose petal cream. I was appalled by the amount of buttercream and admittedly scraped some off. But in the succeeding ones, I changed my mind.

Arrange the raspberries

  * Push the raspberries against the buttercream. This will keep it in place.

Top with lychee pieces

* I would have put more lychees but I did not drain them enough since I was impatient. I probably would have chopped them a bit smaller too.

Pipe another dollop of buttercream

* After piping some buttercream on top of the lychees, affix the top shell and very gently press down on the Ispahan.

Cooking Notes:

I have a more instructive post here on how to fold your Italian Meringue into your TPT. I couldn’t really say how many of these macarons the batter makes because I tried different shapes on other trays with leftover batter. You could probably make around 18 of these. The rose petal cream makes a large quantity of buttercream, I suggest halving the recipe if you could. I couldn’t seem to fold the Italian Meringue enough into the English cream buttercream so I ended up using the mixer and it yielded a nice fluffy filling. I decided to forgo the rose and raspberry trademark of the Ispahan in the picture. I think it looks fantastic the way it is!
I ate three of these in two days. Fortunately, I was able to give the rest away because I didn’t drain the lychees enough (I was impatient and only did a day) and though the buttercream provided a barrier it soaked into the shell too much by day three. The Ispahan is a heavenly combination of rose, lychee and raspberries. By themselves they have their own unique taste but combined into a creation such as the Ispahan they present an affinity with each other and a taste so sublime.

It’s turning to be a very busy season for me so it might take me some time to get the redesign together. I do not want to rush this because I want it to be as comprehensive and useful as it can be. I’ll try to get 1 post up a week either sweet or savory, plus I’m going to Blogher Food in Atlanta this May! Hope to see some of you there!
 

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.

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.

It was like another world away, this place we refer to as the old world. My first time in Paris was surreal, I can’t believe I was there. Twelve days of eating, twelve days of trying to fit more into my belly, I was bursting at the seams, but I soldiered on, it was for research after all.
I have sampled as much macarons as I could and I’m glad I could now say which one is undoubtedly superior. Best hot chocolate? I have that for you too.
How about the best duck confit? You’d be surprised at what I think.
The French are great people, the myth that they are rude is simply just that, a myth. The most unfriendly of French are those I met at the restaurants around the touristy areas and I simply think they were just perpetuating the myth of their rudeness - part of the "tourist" package. More about that later.

Technical Discussion room

I am also very excited to share here  the completion of my 2-day macaron stage at Pierre Herme’s pastry program. It was intense and tiring but I have learned a lot and it will take me days to decipher my notes. It had a technical track and “Hungry” Hubby thought it was a chemistry class as I had graphs of ph-balances of different ingredients and how these affect your product. Did you all know that Pierre Herme and Laduree use the exact same recipe for their macaron shells? It’s the procedure that is different. Hmmn..not sure if I was supposed to divulge that. Anyway, if you all would like to know which method - French, Italian or Swiss meringue is best for you then check back in a week or two. I will be blogging about the food of Paris first then do a recap of the class.

Me, filling the mac shells

So I had high hopes for this - Pierre Herme’s foie gras macaron. I tasted it when I took his class last year and if there was heaven in a macaron, this was it! The combination of foie gras and milk chocolate was pure genius and the balance of flavor and texture is like nothing I’ve ever tasted.
I should have tackled the recipe immediately while the experience was still fresh in my head. But you know them Frenchies, verboseness in instructions is not a trait. You’d do well to read between the lines. Just check out the recipe below and you will know what I mean.

I love a challenge anyway specially when it comes to these bite-sized pastry favorite. The biggest problem facing me was how to cook the foie gras. All the instruction I got from the class was “to cook it until you smell it.” I was even told that the temperature to use was 350 F. I did get advise from twitter (I forgot from whom, but thanks!) to cook it at 250 F if I did not want to see my foie gras dissolve into a puddle of delectable, albeit useless, oil. My foie was already cut into slices which was probably not a good idea to start with and it did shrink quite a bit and lost more than half of its original weight. It was then that I recalled another tidbit from a year ago...use a water bath!
Well, too late.
After I strained the foie gras through a sieve, I was left with 95 g of foie from 350g - yes folks, I was left with less than a third of what I began with. Pathetic, really and I had to reduce the recipe ratios accordingly. I wondered why PH did not just give it a whir in the food processor but I eventually figured he wanted to sieve out the stringy veins and come out with a very smooth puree. With the great Pierre Herme, it is not about quantity but quality.
To make matters more challenging, PH uses gellan - a gelling agent that I have had no success in using. I always ended up with graininess and the results were no different this time either. It said to boil the mixture which didn’t make any sense because wouldn’t that dissolve my foie further? Well, I went with blind faith and no, the foie didn’t disappear and my gelee set in record time ...but ... was ... GRAINY!

Times like these are when you want to cut your losses and forget about it. But I wanted to see how close (or how far) the taste was going to be so I soldiered on.

Place a dab of chocolate to attach gelee

Cover with more ganache!

Macaron Shells
See here for Italian Meringue version and here for the French Meringue which was the one I used. I used red powdered food coloring and gold shimmer dust for the shells.

Check out the impromptu video I made here about making macarons via the French Meringue method.

A cross section of the Foie Gras Macaron

Chicken Broth

500 g bottled water
1 cube chicken bouillon

Boil together and refrigerate.

Gelee de Foie Gras

125 g Chicken broth
250 g Foie gras mi-cuit
25 g Sugar
2 drops Tabasco
.4 g Black Pepper from Sarawak
4 g Gellan

Method:

Pass the foie gras through a fine sifter. Mix the hot bouillon with the foie gras puree, Tabasco, pepper and the Gellan. boil together. Add the sugar and emulsify.
Use right away.

Pour foie gras gelee in a frame. Spread flat and refrigerate. Cut 1.5 cm squares and freeze.

Milk Chocolate Ganache

125 g cream
125 g Milk chocolate

Boil the cream and pour a third over the chocolate. Stir from the center out. Repeat the process adding the hot cream in two more additions.
Keep refrigerated.

 

Cooking Notes:

Surprise! Surprise! All was not lost. I was expecting to bite into the horrible texture of the gelee but amazingly enough the texture must have transformed overnight and everything was smooth and creamy. The downside was it did not have enough of the foie gras punch that I remembered from my first taste a year ago. I knew, I should have put a bigger gelee in the macarons, but when I tasted the gelee by itself I thought it was too “chickeny” - probably from the bouillon - so I used half as much.
I should have trusted the “Picasso of Pastry.” PH is all about balance, I should have trusted that the milk chocolate ganache would round out the flavor of the foie gras gelee, instead I played it safe and ended up with a muted taste.
For the milk chocolate ganache I mixed Valrhona 75% Jivara and 25% Guanaja. Another winning combination and the best chocolate ganache I have ever made! Yes, those percentages were a tip from PH himself and I encourage you all to try it.

I will definitely make this again. Besides tasting delectable, it makes a luxurious gift too!

Macarons make great gifts!

… A.k.a. the tart that almost wrecked my kitchen. I’m not mincing words here, if you do not like multi-step recipes, do not even think about making this. If you do not like reading recipes 3x before starting, do not even think about making this. But if you want a piece of vanilla heaven – especially if you love the taste of real vanilla beans –  then proceed, for this dessert is one you shall savor with every little bite.
This tart recipe is from the Pierre Herme class I attended last year. Don’t let me daunt you with my initial ramblings, but let me at least paint you a picture of the kitchen carnage that may follow should you choose to make this: a sticky mess of pots and pans including countertops, a calculator whose keys were frozen in time because some random syrup decided to drip on it, burnt spots on the stove from unknown sources – maybe syrup, maybe cream and then just a whole lot of “Oh shit! The cream!”
This recipe is lengthy in ingredients and has lots of stages (instructions are very brief) but most of them are as simple as boiling the ingredients together. The reason I made such a big mess in my kitchen was lack of foresight. First, I did not read the recipe carefully to plan the steps ahead of time and second, I did everything in one day. I fully planned on making the mascarpone layer the night before but failed miserably because I glossed over the brief instructions in the recipe. And whoever thought one could whip the crème anglaise to stiff peaks must be smoking something, or as Helen said, drinking. My only excuse was that it was late at night and I just came back from the movies and must have had some “Hangover” (hilarious flick, by the way) too.
 

What you need for creme anglaise

Cooking Notes:
I was apprehensive about two recipes, the vanilla mascarpone cream and the vanilla glaze.
For the mascarpone cream, do not, I repeat do not overwhip the mascarpone otherwise, you will not be able to form the discs – mine was too liquid the first time. As you whip your chilled crème anglaise (again, not too chilled because the gelatin will start to set), start incorporating the mascarpone a tablespoon at a time and use immediately. Have pan of hot water ready with your circular molds in them. I did not have the right molds at hand and just used 3-inch tart rings (same ones I used for the shell) for this stage which was why the discs were not as defined as I wanted them. Smoothing the cream out is essential because your glaze will follow whatever shape your discs will be. This is a case of what you do now will come back to haunt you later. Work quickly before your mascarpone cream stiffens too much. It’s delightful to see the stocky cylinders form as you lift the mold.
 

The glorious vanilla glaze is my favorite part of the recipe

The vanilla glaze is a patissier’s dream glaze. It is gorgeous and damn tasty! Who knew white chocolate could enrobe a dessert in such silky luxury. It uses an ingredient called NH pectin which is available at L'Epecerie . The neutral glaze recipe is one I just deduced from PH’s exotic glaze, leaving out some flavoring ingredients – after all it is supposed to be neutral. It was not hard to put together at all but used a lot of dishes because I had to make a white chocolate ganache, a neutral glaze, white colored paste etc. and this easily threw off my game (especially when a steak dinner fast approaching.) You can very well make the glaze beforehand and microwave in 30 second increments to restore fluidity. This is also the case with the neutral glaze because the NH pectin is reversible and you can just reheat before using.

Components in assembling the tart

To coat your disc, insert a knife into the bottom center of the frozen mascarpone cream and dip into the glaze, let the excess drip off and lay on a wire rack to set. Use a spatula, dipped in warm water, to transfer the mascarpone layer to the tart.
A note about the recipe amounts. Most of the recipes ingredients are half of the original measurement. For the lady finger (biscuit cuillere), you could halve the recipe further as it made a half-sheet and 1/3 sheet. I think I underbaked mine but I’ve never made lady fingers before and was not sure what to expect. You must pay attention to how much of one recipe to use in another recipe. For example, in the mascarpone cream, you only use 375 g of the crème anglaise but the recipe for it makes more than that. I used pastry flour for flour type(55) and  sucrose is just sugar. Trimoline is also available at L’epicerie.
I did spend a fortune on vanilla beans but it was worth every penny. The only recipe that I used vanilla extract and paste was in the soaking syrup for the lady finger. I did not have Tahitian vanilla bean so I used 2 Madagascar bourbon and 1 Mexican for recipes that called for all three beans. The reason PH uses three different types of vanilla pods are because of their different properties. Madagascar bourbon has the best flavor, in my opinion, and has the distinctive taste of vanilla that I look for. The Mexican beans add a spicy undertone. Tahitian vanilla beans’ contribution are their floral fragrance but because of fewer beans, their flavor is more muted – they are also the most expensive. If you are having problems working with vanilla pods because of their irregular shape, a technique I learned from PH was to flatten the beans very well with the back of a paring knife and then use the tip of the knife to cut through the center. Because the pod is now flat, it’s easier to scrape the seeds out.
 

Vanilla glaze, mascarpone layer, lady finger, ganache, tart shell

The question is: will I make this again? YES!!! Besides being an elegant dessert, it is just as delectable on the inside - velvety glaze, creamy mascarpone, crunchy tart shell and lady fingers soaked in rum-vanilla…need I say more? Now, that I have made it once, I can see where I can break up the steps to preserve my sanity in the future.

Pierre Herme's Vanilla Tart

Sugar dough

150 g Butter
30 g Almond Powder
95 g Confectionary Sugar
0.5 g Vanilla Powder
60 g Eggs
1 g Sea salt
250 g Flour type (55)

Method:
Soften butter and add the ingredients one by one. Keep the dough in the cooler wrapped in plastic wrap.

Sugar dough Tart Shells
Roll out the dough 2mm thin and cut with round cutter to the desired size. Line tarts on a tray covered with a silpat and poke the bottom with a fork. Let the shells set in the freezer.
Place some beans into the bottom of the shell and bake at 335F for 25 minutes, remove the beans and bake for another 5-8 minutes until golden brown.

Biscuit cuillere

360 g Egg white
5 g Egg white powder
225 g Sugar
200 g Egg yolk
20 g invert sugar
125 g Flour type (55)
125 g Potato starch

Make meringue with the egg white, egg white powder and sugar to stiff peaks. Add in the egg yolks and trimoline slowly. Fold in the flour. Layer on a pan and bake at 445F for 10 minutes and let cool on a cooling rack. Store wrapped in plastic.

Titanium dioxide paste
25 g Titanium dioxide powder
15 g Water

Mix well and set aside

Syrup 30B
50 g Sucrose
45 g Water
Boil Together.

Neutral Glaze

500 g water
2 already used vanilla beans
200 g sucrose
20 g NH pectin
10 g lemon juice

Mix the sucrose with the NH pectin, add the water and vanilla beans and bring to a boil for 2 to 3 minutes. Turn off heat, add the lemon juice. Let steep for 30 minutes before straining into a container. Keep refrigerated, reheat before use.

Vanilla Glaze

480 g White chocolate couverture
180 g Cream
10 g Glucose
25 g Syrup 30b
360 g Neutral glaze
0.5 g Vanilla bean Madagascar
12.5 g Titanium dioxide paste

Melt the chocolate. Boil the cream with the grated vanilla bean and pour into the chocolate in three additions. Boil the neutral glaze with the sugar syrup and glucose. Pour this sugar mixture into the ganache and add the titanium dioxide paste. Blend the mixture to obtain a smooth and homogeneous texture; avoid incorporating air. Keep in cooler until ready to use.

English Vanilla cream

500 g Cream
1 Vanilla bean, Mexican
1 Vanilla bean, Madagascar
1 Vanilla bean, Tahitian
100 g Egg yolks
125 g Sucrose
7 g Gelatin leaves gold quality

Soak the gelatin leaves in cold water. Mix the egg yolk and sucrose together. Bring the cream to a boil and pour half of it on the egg yolk/sucrose mixture. Pour this mixture back into to the remaining cream and cook until the it coats the back of a spoon. Strain this mixture onto the squeezed gelatin leaves and blend. Keep in the cooler

Vanilla Mascarpone Cream
375 g English vanilla cream
250 g Mascarpone

Vanilla ganache
225 g Cream
1 Vanilla bean, Mexican
1 Vanilla bean, Madagascar
1 Vanilla bean, Tahitian
4 g Vanilla extract - none alcoholic
2 g Vanilla powder
250 g White chocolate couverture

Split open and scrap out the vanilla beans and place in the cream. Bring to boil and infuse for about 20 minutes. Melt the chocolate.. Take the vanilla beans out of the cream and add in the vanilla extract and vanilla powder. Bring to boil, pour the cream in 3 additions over the chocolate, mix well Blend the ganache to a smooth consistency. Store in cool place before using.

Vanilla Syrup

500 g bottled water
0.5 g vanilla bean, Mexican
0.5 g vanilla bean, Madagascar
0.5 g vanilla bean, Tahitian
10 g Vanilla extract
250 g Sucrose
25 g Brown rum

Boil the water with the sugar and vanilla beans and let infuse for 30 minutes. Add the vanilla extract and the rum. Keep in the cooler.

Assembly:
Fill the baked sugar dough shell with a little melted vanilla ganache. Then place a piece of biscuit cuillere soaked in the vanilla syrup on it. Fill the rest of the tart with vanilla ganache. Let cool in the refrigerator for 1 hour.
Coat the vanilla mascarpone cream disc with vanilla glaze and place it on the tart.
Dust the left side of the tart with some vanilla powder.
 

For printable version of recipe.

Steps in assembling the Vanilla Tart

Vanilla heaven!

I’m slowly getting back into the groove of the business again. I did not realize how hard it was to get back into the swing of things after a long break. I was afraid I would lose my macaron mojo as I have not made these cuties in three weeks – quite unheard of in the Test Kitchen.

The “Hungry” Hubby reminded me that I was supposed to be creating new flavors for the fall. It’s not that I was lazy…well there was the umm…Olympics. Also, a little reality hit me along the way. Even if I could stand in the kitchen for eight hours straight, I was quite out of breath walking a mile. Truth is, I needed to get into shape – so I put time into my health first before the business. This is still my priority – quite hard but I’ve been hitting the treadmill or the exercise video before I even begin to whisk any eggs. And you know what, it feels good!

Anyway, I’ve already determined which flavors I wanted to add to my macaron line-up right after I took Pierre Herme’s class in Chicago. All I had to do was to put the recipes to work – with a bit of tweaking.

My first experiment with passion fruit and milk chocolate ganache was not too successful. The ganache remained hard even after the macaron sat at room temperature. There was also a slight catch in the throat after you ate it. This was not my memory of PH’s version. His was melt in your mouth delicious. So, I poured over the recipe again and tried to remember what his technique was when making ganache. He partly melts his chocolate and does not dump the heated liquid on it (most recipes have you boil the liquid and pour it over the chocolate) - he slowly emulsifies the liquid into the partly melted chocolate. Prevents graininess he said and makes for a smoother ganache. The softened butter also needed to be incorporated at 104F. My second attempt this past weekend was a success! Melt in your mouth ganache with a smooth marriage of passion fruit and milk chocolate.

One of my favorite fillings from all my experiments was cream cheese buttercream. Yep you read it right: cream cheese and buttercream. And boy is it the lightest filling ever! I’m still looking to streamline the process because it is very involved to produce. You have to make an English cream and beat it into the softened butter. And then you make Italian Meringue and then mix it into your English cream-butter mixture. Then you beat your cream cheese and then incorporate your Italian Meringue-English cream butter cream. See what I mean…whew! But what you get is an extremely silky filling that could hold up pretty well in hot and humid conditions.

Lastly, I had to include the rose-litchi and raspberry creation known as the Ispahan fetish of Monsieur Herme. I think I’m going to make my own litchi puree because the ones I got online were a bit watery making for a runnier ganache.

I’ve also ventured into the world of gelee-filled macarons. For example, the cream cheese buttercream definitely needs the tartness lent by the passion fruit gelee to throw the flavor over the top. And although the rose litchi ganache could stand alone, its flavor gets elevated to a higher level when you include the raspberry gelee.

So let me present my new macaron flavors for the fall:

• Milk Chocolate and Passion Fruit Macaron
• Cream Cheese Buttercream Macaron with passion fruit gelee
• Rose-Litchi Ganache Macaron with raspberry gelee

As a tribute to the Picasso of Pastry for giving me so much inspiration with Petites Bouchees, I am giving away two full sets of the Pierre Herme miniature collection (these do not come assembled.) All you have to do is to leave a comment between now and August 31^st stating what is your favorite Pierre Herme recipe or creation .

My good friend Helen has assembled this beautifully, check it out here. And the best part is, they are calorie free

I just received the above picture from the French Pastry School in Chicago. A picture of Pierre Herme handing me my certificate - swoon! I am so thrilled, I couldn't wait for a relevant post to put it up!

It was with mixed emotions that I received the news that I did not get into the exclusive class of Pierre Hermé at the The French Pastry school  in Chicago – seats were handed out to 20 lucky participants via a lottery. Why mixed feelings? The first was sadness because my excitement was squashed knowing that I would not be meeting the Picasso of Pastry and tasting the numerous creations he was going to make. I heard he was going to demo new creations for his signature Ispahan – the supposed glorious combination of rose, raspberries and lychee. I say “supposed”, because I’m not too fond of rose flavor in desserts but I am looking forward to try it. The second emotion was relief. Why? Because now I don’t have to barter my first-born to pay for the class, hotel, airfare etc. – oh wait a minute I don’t have kids.

Anyway, I hope someone, who is a blogger, will get the scoop on the class. I would be thrilled if not envious to catch a glimpse of Pierre Herme’s genius in any shape or form.

Christophe Michalak ( Helen's other boyfriend and who helped developed Paulette's macarons ) also has a class at the school this March - it was only last week that I found out so it was such a short notice, besides I don’t fancy going to Chicago in the winter – wish they would have it later in the year.