Pierre Hermé's "Macarons"

[gap]

They had a couple of copies of PH10 in the Rue Bonaparte store when I was there a few weeks ago - if you have a friend in Paris they might be able to pick it up.

I'm hanging out for my copy of Macaron to be forwarded on by a friend in Ireland who is taking delivery for me

[adey73]

Can't find it in the UK. Books for Cooks in Notting Hill says there will be a re-print.

Amazon.ca says it will be out November 2010.

[fooey]

Someone will pirate it (as a scanned Adobe PDF document) and post it on the interwebs.

I can't say "Someone will hopefully..." can I?

[gap]

My copy of Macaron just arrived. It was 5 weeks late from Ireland (where a friend was receiving/forwarding it for me) and I was beginning to give up hope. Time to make Google Translate my homepage!!

[Kerry Beal]

Ishpahan

Got my copy from a bookseller who had no copies when I called - but happened to see one when she was in France. She e-mailed and asked if I wanted it - didn't have to ask me twice!

[gap]

Salted butter caramel (at least I think that's the translation of Macaron Caramel Au Beurre Sale)

[Aloha Steve]

I bought mine yesterday off of Amazon France, from a 'other' seller and paid 29.90 €, plus 10.40 € shipping.

Total with exchange rate about $60. Amazon itself is out of stock but if you click other sellers, the entity I bought it from still has them in stock.

MACARON

AND the shipping should be a bit cheaper to almost all of you then it was to me in Hawaii'

Now all I need is a translator.

Edited September 15, 2009 by Aloha Steve (log)

[Kerry Beal]

Sacrilege I'm sure - but I made these lemon macarons (using PH Lemon Cream as the filling) using 'Simply Whites' instead of separating all those eggs.

I made a half batch so to 55 grams of egg whites in my 6 quart mixer didn't really get nicely up to soft peaks before I added the sugar syrup. I never got the nice birds beak with the Italian meringue, and the batter was easily mixed to the magma like texture. It didn't make quite as many halves as I expected, but the finished macarons turned out well, no air spaces, nice texture, came easily off the parchment.

[gap]

I had a go at the Menthe Fraiche tonight. Not sure what "Pipermint Get" was and couldn't get a translation on Google Translate. In the end I cold infused the mint for 24 hours and then chopped it up into the mixture after it had been boiled and combined into a ganache. Very minty and fresh tasting

[tan319]

Those are looking great!

"Get" is a French type of creme de menthe I believe...

[gap]

"Get" is a French type of creme de menthe I believe...

Ahhhh, that makes sense. I'll have to keep an eye open for some . . .

Cheers

Edited September 16, 2009 by gap (log)

[gap]

Ishpahan

Got my copy from a bookseller who had no copies when I called - but happened to see one when she was in France. She e-mailed and asked if I wanted it - didn't have to ask me twice!

Hi Kerry - my French isn't great and I was wondering if you could lend a helping hand? For the Ishpahan, does the rapsberry jelly set solid? Of did you pipe it into the middle of the ganache? And when making the lychee ganache, I THINK the directions are to take 400g of lychees in the syrup they come in and puree all together and then scale out 240g (going from memory on the weights)? One last query - the rose essence that is used . . . did you use standard rose water or rose essence (which is maybe stronger??)

If anyone else has the book and can help with translations it would be much appreciated

Cheers

[gap]

OK, with the help of Google Translate and my wife's school French, I'm pretty sure I've got the jelly sorted (needs to be frozen before being placed in ganache) and the lychee ganache worked out (drain the syrup before puree'ing the fruit). Still not sure about the rose essence

The book asks for "d'essence alcoolique de rose" which is apparently available from a pharmacy or a bio store (health store?). On Google Translate, this shows up as "Fuel alcoholic pink" . . . so I'm not too sure about Google's accuracy on that one. I'm thinking it must be rose essence with an alcohol base which sounds like the rose essence we would buy in a supermarket in Australia.

Any help on that last ingredient would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I'll add rose water and rose essence to taste

Cheers

[Kerry Beal]

OK, with the help of Google Translate and my wife's school French, I'm pretty sure I've got the jelly sorted (needs to be frozen before being placed in ganache) and the lychee ganache worked out (drain the syrup before puree'ing the fruit). Still not sure about the rose essence

The book asks for "d'essence alcoolique de rose" which is apparently available from a pharmacy or a bio store (health store?). On Google Translate, this shows up as "Fuel alcoholic pink" . . . so I'm not too sure about Google's accuracy on that one. I'm thinking it must be rose essence with an alcohol base which sounds like the rose essence we would buy in a supermarket in Australia.

Any help on that last ingredient would be greatly appreciated, otherwise I'll add rose water and rose essence to taste

Cheers

I also drained, then pureed the lychee. No way they went through a strainer - so my ganache was not perfectly smooth.

I read that as rose essence in alcohol base - not available here - so I used a couple of drops of diluted rose oyyo.

Didn't make the raspberry jelly though - used some good jam instead.

[gap]

Thanks Kerry, now I've just got to find some kitchen time to try them

[dans]

I ordered a copy from a vendor on amazon.fr. It came yesterday and I'm glad I got it. Wonderful book. I wish I had bought it before it became scarce.

Dan

[gap]

Finally had a go at the Ispahan. They're for a party this week and I think the lychee, raspberry and hint of rose will be refreshing at the end of the dinner - just what's needed given we're moving into the warmer months now

[Kerry Beal]

Finally had a go at the Ispahan. They're for a party this week and I think the lychee, raspberry and hint of rose will be refreshing at the end of the dinner - just what's needed given we're moving into the warmer months now

What do you think of the flavour?

[Aloha Steve]

Finally had a go at the Ispahan. They're for a party this week and I think the lychee, raspberry and hint of rose will be refreshing at the end of the dinner - just what's needed given we're moving into the warmer months now

It looks gorgeous. I have the book and want to get started. Do you read French or did you have it translated some way?

[gap]

What do you think of the flavour?

I like it . . . but as a disclaimer I grew up drinking lychee juice in South Africa. It probably needed a little more rose taste - the floral smell is there and a slight taste if you're looking for it, but it's probably not quite strong enough. I think they will work well for hot summer dinners when it's nice to end a meal with a refreshing taste rather than anything too heavy or warm. I took a lead from your earlier post and blended the lychees for a long time and then strained them as well to help create a smooth ganache.

[gap]

[it looks gorgeous. I have the book and want to get started. Do you read French or did you have it translated some way?

Thanks. I don't read any French at all. The ingredients are pretty quick and easy to learn with the help of Google Translate - you can even write out the ones that come up often (for example, in the shell batter). Google Translate is also great for working out the fillings and the method for making the fillings. I had made quite a few macarons before trying the book, so once I have the ingredients and basic method, I can pretty much work out what's going on. But Google Translate is a great resource as is this forum - there are quite a few people who do know French ingredients well who are always happy to help.

[gap]

What do you think of the flavour?

I like it . . . but as a disclaimer I grew up drinking lychee juice in South Africa. It probably needed a little more rose taste - the floral smell is there and a slight taste if you're looking for it, but it's probably not quite strong enough (I used rose water rather than the specific ingredient called for). I think they will work well for hot summer dinners when it's nice to end a meal with a refreshing taste rather than anything too heavy or warm. I took a lead from your earlier post and blended the lychees for a long time and then strained them as well to help create a smooth ganache.

[Aloha Steve]

[it looks gorgeous. I have the book and want to get started. Do you read French or did you have it translated some way?

Thanks. I don't read any French at all. The ingredients are pretty quick and easy to learn with the help of Google Translate - you can even write out the ones that come up often (for example, in the shell batter). Google Translate is also great for working out the fillings and the method for making the fillings. I had made quite a few macarons before trying the book, so once I have the ingredients and basic method, I can pretty much work out what's going on. But Google Translate is a great resource as is this forum - there are quite a few people who do know French ingredients well who are always happy to help.

Many thanks, exactly what I needed to hear

I use Yahoo Bablefish all the time to translate antique French porcelain descriptions. I have a good scanner program which I can use to make the scan into into OCR, then viola, translate it. Now I hope I can master the art of making Macaroons, which is not easy.

[gap]

I used OCR software for the first macaron and can only suggest you scan at a high clarity. For the macarons since, I've been teaching myself the key words in French to make it easier for the rest of the book. Good luck

[cookin4acravin]

I was trying to get this book and I'm thinking about getting it via Amazon Fr. because Amazon Ca. has it at 117 Canadian dollars. Is there are any other way to get this? How much does shipping cost from France to US?