598 replies to this topic

[Patrick S]

Patrick, since you found out the trick would you care to tell how long they should be left out to dry? In Herme's comments to the recipe there is something about letting the macroons rest in the fridge, but nothing about it is included in the recipe itself.

I waited 30 minutes after piping before I started baking. Since I usually have a few sheets worth of cookies which I bake one at a time, the first tray would rest for 30 minutes and the last tray about 50 minutes before baking. I could not tell any difference between those that rested for 30 and those that rested for 50. Next time I make them, I might set a few aside for longer lengths of time and see what effect that has. The comment about letting the macaroons rest in the fridge overnight -- I had assumed that that referred to the finished cookies rather than the piped batter, but maybe I was wrong.

The cookies look great. Flat and uniform and good toasty color on the hazelnuts.

[SethG]

Beautiful cookies, albiston.

[kthull]

Ok, I finally got my hazelnut sables done. I was pleasantly surprised by their lack of sweetness. I also noticed a distinct difference between relatively fresh out of the oven vs. an hour or two out. The "aged" cookie had more chocolate flavor. I also only baked off one "log" and threw the rest in the freezer to finish off later in the week as part of a cookie exchange.

Here they are:


I was also worried that the sweet tart dough layer was too thin, but was happy to see that it baked out to look just like the picture.

On to the nutella tart!

[Wendy DeBord]

Looks great Kevin! .............exactly like the photo in the book.

[kthull]

Here's the Nutella Tart. I definitely used less hazelnuts than called for, about half. If you like this one, you'll like the raspberry tart in the Chocolate book too, same with the chocolate banana tart in the Desserts book.



Kinda bummed my hazelnuts didn't brown more.

Edited to add: I used half Schokinag 64% and half Scharffen Berger 62%

Edited by kthull, 08 December 2004 - 09:25 AM.

[kthull]

And here are two pics I took a while back of the Tarte Grenobloise. I went through about 10 of these for various parties over the summer months. People went nuts over them (no pun intended).



For parties, I'll slice the tart into 24 thin wedges BEFORE topping with the pecan-caramel mixture. Then I'll line 'em up and go into production mode with the topping.



I can't believe I didn't take any pictures of the finished platters. It looks cool with them all in a circle, spread out with a big dollop of the caramel topping in the center (you definitely have left overs if you slice before you top...great to snack on!).

Okay, okay...I'll stop talking about this one (for awhile anyway).

Edited by kthull, 08 December 2004 - 12:43 PM.

[brngckn]

The tarts look so fabulous! I'm getting terribly behind. I'll be in Denver this weekend wishing that I could try out the new tart pan I bought at Sur La Table last night.

[SethG]

I'm definitely the beginner in this crowd. Kevin, your stuff looks amazing.

If I may say so myself, I purposely toasted the hazelnuts a few extra minutes before I used them in the Nutella tart, and I thought they came out beautifully browned. I toasted for 14-15 mins instead of 10-12. Gotta keep watch, though. Burnt nuts suck.

[M. Lucia]

Just wanted to say I am loving this thread, it reminds me of the Baking with Julia thread. I wish I had more time to bake, maybe over the holidays. KTHull- those tarts are gorgeous! And Seth, it's great to have bakers of all skill levels participating, it inspires amateurs like myself. Keep up the good work all!

[kthull]

Gee, thanks everyone. I just want to point out that I'm a home baker too. I think I mentioned on another thread that the Desserts book is what pushed me to the next level. Herme is my idol and working through his stuff, you can't help but learn more and care more and try harder to achieve results. And the payoff is usually huge and it really blows people away, even when you screw up (they don't know what it's supposed to look like). And the whole component approach was a real eye-opener.

And everyone's stuff looks great on this thread!

[Patrick S]

The great stuff just keeps coming!

I have another picture of some Nutella tartlets I made a few months ago. I hadn't posted them before because, frankly, they were really plain-jane and not done with any devotion or attention to detail. But I'll just post them anyway, just for the hell of it. I used the normal recipe, but made three 4.5" tarts instead of one 9" tart.



Earlier tonight I made the chocolate-lemon caramels (I've been working with caramel a lot lately). Its cooling right now. I was skeptical of using lemon, but I tried a little bit of the caramel cooled on a spoon and the taste was very good. The lemon taste is quite subtle, and works well. So this may be another example of me going into a recipe skeptical and being converted to a true believer in the end. I'll post pics of the caramels tomorrow, or as soon as I can.

Edited by Patrick S, 08 December 2004 - 06:02 PM.

[SethG]

Patrick, I'll be very interested to see your photo of the caramels. It's one of my favorite photos in the book, and I'm obviously not much of a photographer, but it looks like a challenging subject to me.

Should a bunch of us make those caramels this weekend? I'm very tempted by that Tart Grenobloise, but it'd be nice to jump around the book and not do two tarts or cakes in a row. So I'd propose that one for next week, or in a couple weeks (given the approaching holidays).

What do you think? Anyone is welcome to propose anything, by the way. I'll just be jumping in to propose something if no one does. And of course, people keep making whatever they want from the book and posting pictures, which I think is great too.

[kthull]

I had planned on making some caramels for the holiday, so I'll semi-commit. Funny you mention the pic Seth...I think that's one of the coolest too. That and the caramelized chocolate napoleon!

On a separate note: OMG!!! If any of you still have some nutella tart lying around, you have to, have to, have to eat it with some vanilla ice cream. It'll BLOW YOUR MIND!

Ok, can you see I'm on a sugar high right now?

[kthull]

Patrick, great point about making mini versions of the desserts. Since they're all component based, that approach works really well and others might not have considered it. I went through a stint where I made mini chocolate domes from the desserts book for people on their birthdays. Way cool.

[Wendy DeBord]

You guys ROCK!

Although I'm swamped at work and can't participate with this right now, I'm REALLY enjoying seeing your photos and thoughts! Excellent work everyone!

[kthull]

Hey, another note on the Nutella Tart recipe. There's a typo in the butter quantity if you're going by the gram weights (as I was at the time). It calls for 7 tablespoons of butter (3-1/2 oz, 200 g). It should be 100 grams.

I was still half asleep as I went through nearly two sticks of butter to get the 200 g and was thinking as I melted it that it was an awful lot of butter. Can't recall why I double checked it, but I cut off a 7 tablespoon chunk of butter and weighed it and thanked the kitchen gods that I wasn't too late.

[Patrick S]

As promised, here are some pictures of the chocolate-lemon caramels. They are very soft and very chocolatey. The lemon is nearly impossible to discern.

Edited by Patrick S, 09 December 2004 - 08:32 PM.

[CanadianBakin']

I'm not participating in this thread due to time constraints but I wanted to let you all know how much I enjoy following it and seeing all your pictures. You guys amaze me!!

Edited by CanadianBakin', 09 December 2004 - 08:44 PM.

[kthull]

Way to go Patrick. I think you've convince me to make them.

What size pan did you use? I noticed the comment in the book about 8" square vs. 9" square. I'm pretty sure I have an 8" but haven't broken out the ruler yet. Yours look goodly sized.

Edit: keep it clean folks...I just got back from another forum where seriously off-topic comments would start from my post above.

Edited by kthull, 09 December 2004 - 09:22 PM.

[SethG]

Nice caramels-- and nice photos, once again!

[Behemoth]

Oh man. So now y'all are making me want to take up baking?!

These pics are amazing.

[albiston]

Hey, another note on the Nutella Tart recipe. There's a typo in the butter quantity if you're going by the gram weights (as I was at the time). It calls for 7 tablespoons of butter (3-1/2 oz, 200 g). It should be 100 grams.

I noted the same thing a few posts back. What is it with not reading other people's post? Just kidding kthull. (insert favourite emoticon here)

I actually made the tart with the 200g butter months ago and, before finding out about the typo -I'm not too familiar with ounces and tablespoons-, and it actually was a success. A bit too buttery maybe but good .

[Patrick S]

Way to go Patrick. I think you've convince me to make them.

What size pan did you use?

I believe it was 8" but I'm not sure that it wasn't 9".

[kthull]

I noted the same thing a few posts back. What is it with not reading other people's post? Just kidding kthull. (insert favourite emoticon here)

Oops...Sorry!

[Richard Kilgore]

Everything looks fabulous on this thread. Thanks for starting it, Seth, and thanks everyone for posting the photos. I have been locating local chocolate sources, so I should be able to do something next week. The Vahlrona Guanaja that Herme calls for in so many of the recipes has been particularly hard to find here, but I finally found a source and will be picking some up soon.

[SethG]

I made the caramels tonight, and I'm afraid something may have gone wrong.

Mine are much darker than Patrick's-- they're basically the color of Valrhona Manjari, the chocolate I used. Patrick, did you use a milk chocolate? Yours don't look much like the ones in the book, but I'm not sure mine do either.

And it seemed like a long time before the mixture reached 243 degrees.

I'll let you guys know how they come out tomorrow. When I tasted from the pot, I got a good hit of caramel and even more of chocolate.

Edit: Here's an aritcle about some of Paris' best chocolate shops, including Pierre Herme's place near St. Sulpice. The article notes that Pierre Herme is "widely considered the greatest pastry chef in the world."

Edited by SethG, 11 December 2004 - 10:52 PM.

[lemon curd]

I borrowed the Chocolate Dessert book from a coworker for the weekend and just finished a batch of the caramels.

Similar to Seth G, my caramels appear darker than Patrick S's. I let the sugar/corn syrup/lemon zest mixture get to what I thought matched the 'rusty mahogany' colour described in the recipe (but I guess that's pretty subjective...). I also found it took a while after adding the butter, w/cream and chocolate to get back up to 243 deg F.

I didn't use Valrohona Guanaja as I had Cocao Barry Guayaquil (64%) on hand. I can't remember if Guanaja is a lighter colour or not - I will check at work on Monday. If it is that could be another reason for my colour differences.

I'm looking forward to cutting and tasting them tomorrow. My first test off the spatula is good but as with Patrick S, I didn't discern much lemon flavour.

[SethG]

Oops, I'm sorry, Guanaja (70%) is what I used, not Manjari.

Here are my caramels:



They are really great. They are soft, but again, from appearances I think mine may not be quite as soft as Patrick's. I can't say I taste any lemon. The balance of caramel and chocolate is delicious.

These are really an easy candy to make. The whole process takes around half an hour or so. And it doesn't require any fussy caramel stuff (such as washing down the sides of the pot as the sugar cooks to avoid the formation of crystals).

[Patrick S]

Actually, the photos I posted the other night, using incandescent light, make the caramels look lighter in color than they appear to the eye. I took a few more shots this morning under natural light, at least as much as is available on this overcast day, and the color is darker. Also, I did not use Valrhona chocolate (I rarely do). I used what I had around the kitchen, which was my last 3ozs of Scharffen Berger 70%, and 1oz of Guittard L'Harmonie 64%, so my caramel would indeed have a slightly lower concentration of cocoa solids than if I'd used all 70% chocolate.



I think next time it may be better to add the zest right at the end. As you cook the caramel, you get a wonderful smell of lemon in the kitchen, but that means the lemon oils are aerosolizing or whatever and leaving the caramel. Maybe if you add it right at the end the loss of lemon oil would be much less.

Edited by Patrick S, 12 December 2004 - 10:11 AM.

[Sobaicecream]

Patrick S, your caramels look so beautiful *and* scrumptious. I wish I could join in this very fun thread! Am thoroughly enjoying the pictures as well as everyone's enthusiasm.

My question to all of you is: what do you do with all this stuff you're baking?! Do you have nightly dinner parties or something, during which you unload all these baked goodies on your lucky friends?