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Pierre Hermé's book and other news

lamington

By lamington
in France: Cooking & Baking

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lamington

lamington

Posted
Posted

You might have seen the news... Pierre Hermé has a new book (softcover) devoted entirely to macarons and their insides.

Released a few days ago, I'm wondering if anyone has seen it, read it, played with it. Opinions?

Fellow eGulleteer jumanggy pointed me to this article in L'Express (in French) which includes an interview and some of the recipes.

The basic batter in this book will be familiar to readers of some of his other books and to that in Christophe Felder's book on macarons. PH's technique seems to have changed, however, now advising cooking at 180C in convection oven, opening the oven twice quickly during cooking (no special dancing required though:P).

Although I was excited at the news, i'm not completely convinced I need it in my library...

Macaron (Amazon.fr link)

Pierre Hermé

Agnès Viénot Editions (11 septembre 2008)

ISBN-13: 978-2353260355

-- lamington a.k.a. Duncan Markham

The Gastronomer's Bookshelf - collaborative book reviews about all things food and wine

Syrup & Tang - candid commentary and flavourful fancies

"It's healthy. It's cake. It's chocolate cake."

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tan319

tan319

Posted
Posted (edited)

what do you think he is using the titanium oxide powder ( diluted) for?

In the "Envie" ( cassis and violet) recipe in L'Express

300 g de poudre d'amandes -300 g de sucre glace -15 g de poudre d'oxyde de titane diluée dans 10 g d'eau minérale tiède -110 g de blancs d'oeufs "liquéfiés" (voir recette Macaron framboise) + 300 g de sucre en poudre -75 g d'eau minérale -110 g de blancs d'oeufs "liquéfiés"'>excerpt of "Envie " recipe

Is a humidity control or a colour ( whiteness) control?

Also, an interesting French written manifesto on Macarons (?)Macaron "Manifesto"

Any enlightenment appreciated :biggrin:

Edited by tan319 (log)

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lamington

lamington

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Hi tan319. I look forward to your impressions of the book, as I'm sure many others will too!

Titanium oxide is a food colouring (E171). I would hazard a guess that by whitening the basic batter, it provides a better palette for the other colourings.

Alas, the manifesto you mention is for masonry (maçonnerie) rather than macarons :)

-- lamington a.k.a. Duncan Markham

The Gastronomer's Bookshelf - collaborative book reviews about all things food and wine

Syrup & Tang - candid commentary and flavourful fancies

"It's healthy. It's cake. It's chocolate cake."

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tan319

tan319

Posted
Posted
Just ordered the book. I think it will be good for my (almost non existant) french...

Eyeball those recipes from L'Express and invest in some kind of Berlitz phrasebook/dictionary, dude! :laugh:

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tan319

tan319

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I forgot to thank choux for the preview!

So cool to hear about the photo section.

There are some You Tube videos available, one from a French Food TV show called "recette macarons" that's probably the most detailed and Christophe Michalaks book also has some good detail but can't wait to see what's in store with PH.

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TheSwede

TheSwede

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Eyeball those recipes from L'Express and invest in some kind of Berlitz phrasebook/dictionary, dude! :laugh:

I actually tried reading the recipes in L'Express before ordering the book, and it wasn't that hard even without a dictionary. While my conversational french is really non existant, my written kitchen french is not too bad.

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tan319

tan319

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Eyeball those recipes from L'Express and invest in some kind of Berlitz phrasebook/dictionary, dude! :laugh:

I actually tried reading the recipes in L'Express before ordering the book, and it wasn't that hard even without a dictionary. While my conversational french is really non existant, my written kitchen french is not too bad.

I agree with you, my French kitchen wise isn't too bad, that Titanium thing scared me though!!! :laugh:

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tan319

tan319

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I applied Hermes method of "mounting " his sugar for a dry caramel ( in the recipe for the salted butter caramel mac), like adding butter to a sauce, etc.,for an ice cream I made the other night and it worked so well I actually felt kind of stupid that I hadn't tried it before.

Wonderful and revealing methodology there!

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tan319

tan319

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Like emulsifying the butter into a Beurre Blanc.

From what my limited but OK culinary French told me, I started off with say, 100 grams of sugar in my pot, brought that to a light just starting to color caramel, added another 100, bringing it to the same color gently with limited handling ( wooden spoon) then adding my last 100g of sugar.

Bring that to the right color, a nice amber, cool slightly off the fire.

Then slowly start whisking a 50/50 mix of sweet and salted butter on and off the fire to your caramel, making sure it doesn't start to seize, break or or "curdle" on you.

That's what I kind of took from the filling portion of the PH macaron beurre de sel caramel recipe.

I usually make wet caramels , a water moistened sugar one but this was superior, to me.

Nice one on the PH10!!!

I need me one of those! :laugh:

But with USD I probably just would hit amazon.fr again.

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John Talbott

John Talbott

Posted
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Alexandra Michot used the Herme book as a peg to write an article on the "Generation macaron" in Le Figaro, in which she argues that it's become a worldwide phenomenon in 15 years, from Paris to LA to Tokyo. She points out:

- It's the "chameleon" of pastries

- 3,000 macarons a day are made by Laduree

- Their origin is hazy

- Lenotre, Dalloyau + Hevin are also contenders

- The Justine at the Medidien Montmarnasse, 15 Oct-15 Dec has a 45 E all macaron menu.

Right now its just on the pdf version page 32.

John Talbott

blog John Talbott's Paris

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adey73

adey73

Posted
Posted

Help!

Have run the recipe through a couple of online translators.

I can't decipher what happens with the Titanium Dioxide is it added to only half of the egg whites and left over night? Or is it also added to sugar and almond?

Any clarity would be greatly appreciated.

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