"Chocolate Desserts" by Pierre Herme (Part 2)

[SweetSide]

Well, I've done my version of the Mille Crepes today, but we have yet to cut into the final product. Of course, along the way sampling have proven there to be delicious components along the way...

My version:

Chocolate Crepes from Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme

Chocolate Pastry Cream (from above as well) with 3T Frangeligo added in for additional flavor. This recipe was folded with 1 1/2 cups of whipped cream with 2 T of Frangelico added.

As the only beer I had for the crepes was Sam Adams Brown Ale -- I was a little strong and nutty, so I figured the Frangelico would play that up.

Crepes and resulting cream were layered, then I bruleed the top of the stack. It is now resting in the fridge until after dinner...

Sample taste of a crepe rolled with the cream proved to be very nice. I'm happy. Just waiting to see the texture of the whole stack...

[SethG]

I had a bit of a disaster the other week with Suzy's Cake. We were bringing the cake to a party, and I didn't have much time to let it cool after I baked it. So I was going to slide the cake, still in the pan, into a paper bag and bring it to our friends' house, but the pan was hotter than I expected, and I somehow managed to drop it upside-down into the bag. The cake mostly unmolded from the pan in chunks, deflating quite a bit.

I scooped together what I could, and it still tasted great. But the way the cake was setting in the pan (still really oozy in the middle) made me question Dorie's instructions. I've had similar problems with Dorie's Best-Ever Brownies from Baking With Julia. If you take her instructions literally, removing the cake/brownies from the oven when the chocolate is just barely set in the middle, I find that it never really firms up acceptably and remains too oozy (undercooked). Have others had the same experience, or is it just me?

Also, I made Pierre's lemon tart from the Desserts book. I forget, is there a lemon curd thread where this is discussed? Anyway, the lemon cream, which I've made twice now, is just out of this world, but both times my lemon cream hasn't had the rich yellow color of the cream in the tart in the photo on page 114 of the book. Mine comes out quite a bit paler, I think a little closer to the color of the cream in the photo of the crepes on page 91, but still a little paler than that. I was wondering about others' experience with this too.

[forever_young_ca]

I forget, is there a lemon curd thread where this is discussed?

Here is the link, I hope I posted this correctly.

http://forums.egullet.org/index.php?showtopic=44015&hl=

PH's lemon curd recipe is my favourite as well. It is highly addictive. A discussion starts about post 69 I think

[SweetSide]

I had a bit of a disaster the other week with Suzy's Cake.  We were bringing the cake to a party, and I didn't have much time to let it cool after I baked it.  So I was going to slide the cake, still in the pan, into a paper bag and bring it to our friends' house, but the pan was hotter than I expected, and I somehow managed to drop it upside-down into the bag.  The cake mostly unmolded from the pan in chunks, deflating quite a bit.

I scooped together what I could, and it still tasted great.  But the way the cake was setting in the pan (still really oozy in the middle) made me question Dorie's instructions.  I've had similar problems with Dorie's Best-Ever Brownies from Baking With Julia.    If you take her instructions literally, removing the cake/brownies from the oven when the chocolate is just barely set in the middle, I find that it never really firms up acceptably and remains too oozy (undercooked).  Have others had the same experience, or is it just me?

Also, I made Pierre's lemon tart from the Desserts book.  I forget, is there a lemon curd thread where this is discussed?  Anyway, the lemon cream, which I've made twice now, is just out of this world, but both times my lemon cream hasn't had the rich yellow color of the cream in the tart in the photo on page 114 of the book.  Mine comes out quite a bit paler, I think a little closer to the color of the cream in the photo of the crepes on page 91, but still a little paler than that.  I was wondering about others' experience with this too.

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I've had variances in the color of my lemon curd (and the cream, which is fantastic) depending upon the color of my yolks. Sometimes my eggs will have a lemon yellow yolk. Sometimes the yolks are near orange. The darker the yolk, the darker the cream. Can't explain the color variance of the yolks other than particular chicken, particular diet. I always buy the same brand...

[SethG]

I've had variances in the color of my lemon curd (and the cream, which is fantastic) depending upon the color of my yolks.  Sometimes my eggs will have a lemon yellow yolk.  Sometimes the yolks are near orange.  The darker the yolk, the darker the cream.  Can't explain the color variance of the yolks other than particular chicken, particular diet.  I always buy the same brand...

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That makes perfect sense. Obvious, I guess. Bright orange French yolks must produce a lovely final color.

[BettyK]

I've had variances in the color of my lemon curd (and the cream, which is fantastic) depending upon the color of my yolks.  Sometimes my eggs will have a lemon yellow yolk.  Sometimes the yolks are near orange.  The darker the yolk, the darker the cream.  Can't explain the color variance of the yolks other than particular chicken, particular diet.  I always buy the same brand...

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That makes perfect sense. Obvious, I guess. Bright orange French yolks must produce a lovely final color.

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It doesn't have to be French to be bright orange. Try to find for some good certified organic eggs. Also, in the summer the yolks are much darker than in winter. It's all in the chickens diet.

[Patrick S]

Difference in yolk color are due primarily to different concentrations of the carotenoid pigments zeaxanthin (yellow) and capsanthin (red), and these differences are caused mostly by diet as Betty points out. Most chickens get their zeaxanthin from corn, but there are other dietary sources as well. Interestingly, if chickens are given a diet that contains little or not zeaxanthin and capsanthin, their yoks will be white.

[alanamoana]

i know this wanders far off topic, but to follow up on what patrick has said:

i saw a huge field of marigolds growing somewhere once and asked why. they grow the marigolds to create an additive to chicken feed in order to enhance the pigment of their yolks. i googled to make sure my memory was correct and it is true. it is funny to find out how many things are enhanced to live up to our expectations.

[RuthWells]

Difference in yolk color are due primarily to different concentrations of the carotenoid pigments zeaxanthin (yellow) and capsanthin (red), and these differences are caused mostly by diet as Betty points out. Most chickens get their zeaxanthin from corn, but there are other dietary sources as well. Interestingly, if chickens are given a diet that contains little or not zeaxanthin and capsanthin, their yoks will be white.

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Patrick, are you a scientist? You seem to have a great store of food science knowledge!

[Patrick S]

Difference in yolk color are due primarily to different concentrations of the carotenoid pigments zeaxanthin (yellow) and capsanthin (red), and these differences are caused mostly by diet as Betty points out. Most chickens get their zeaxanthin from corn, but there are other dietary sources as well. Interestingly, if chickens are given a diet that contains little or not zeaxanthin and capsanthin, their yoks will be white.

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Patrick, are you a scientist?

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Nope, just a voracious reader!

[RuthWells]

Patrick, are you a scientist? 

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Nope, just a voracious reader!

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That 'splains it!

[Wendy DeBord]

I was thinking that the lighter color (for me, when I make it) is the ton of additional butter being whipped into it, lightens its hue. As it will do to ganaches also.

[Patrick S]

I was thinking that the lighter color (for me, when I make it) is the ton of additional butter being whipped into it, lightens its hue.

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That certainly explains why the lemon cream is a lighter yellow than is a typical lemon curd, but I think Seth was wondering why the same recipe would turn out different shades of yellow on different occasions.

[Wendy DeBord]

The temp. of the curd and the temp. of the butter each time you make this can effect your results........ The colder the two substances are the paler your results, warmer.....more yellow......

[Patrick S]

The warmer the butter, the more yellow the lemon cream? Interesting. I haven't heard of that phenomenon before.

[Wendy DeBord]

Melted butter is much darker then whipped butter.

[Patrick S]

As your know, the lemon cream calls for softened butter, not melted or whipped butter. Do you think that lemon cream made with butter that is softened to, say, 70F will be noticably more yellow than lemon cream made with butter that is softened to, say, only 50F?

[Wendy DeBord]

Yes, it all depends upon how you handle your butter....and the recipe. This applys to ganche and frostings too. Herme' has a HUGE amount of butter in his lemon cream recipe. (off the top of my head) It's like 50% butter, no........

Your going to get variances depending upon the temp of the curd and the temp of the butter. If you whip your butter (just how whipped your butter is), if you stir your butter in, if you burr whip it in, etc... Then at what temp. the curd was when you added your butter. If it's pretty hot, it's going to melt your butter, if it's room temp. and you have cool butter you can practically make a lemon buttercream out of it.

This is why Herme' specifys when and how you should add your butter, to get the texture he wants you to achieve.

As far as color........yes, I totally agree that yolks vary in color hugely. That definately comes into play also.

[Wendy DeBord]

The warmer the butter, the more yellow the lemon cream? Interesting. I haven't heard of that phenomenon before.

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I'd say that's almost backwards. It's really more of the cooler your butter, the more whipped it is, the paler and thicker/volumous/not dense your product.

[Patrick S]

The warmer the butter, the more yellow the lemon cream? Interesting. I haven't heard of that phenomenon before.

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I'd say that's almost backwards. It's really more of the cooler your butter, the more whipped it is, the paler and thicker/volumous/not dense your product.

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You're confusing me, Wendy! But then, I confuse easily. A few posts ago you wrote:

The temp. of the curd and the temp. of the butter each time you make this can effect your results........ The colder the two substances are the paler your results, warmer.....more yellow......

I took that to mean that a warmer butter would produce a more yellow lemon cream (the temperature of the curd shouldn't change -- its supposed to be 140F). Sorry if I misunderstood!

[Wendy DeBord]

No.........sorry it's me, I'm not always very clear. Maybe I'm saying too much...........

Let me see if I can rephrase this:

The temp.'s of each..........well I'm horribly guilty at times of not following recipes as written. Sometimes that's deliberate, sometimes it's due to juggling many things at once, etc...

Sooooo there's been plenty of times I've missed my targeted temp.. If I have to run, sometimes I have to add the butter before the curd (or other ingredients) have cooled down to the target temp.. Sometimes I've had to add my butter after the item has cooled completely. So I'm talking about varying from what the recipe says, missing the temp.'s.

But if you follow the recipe exactly each time, your results should not vary. You'd be totally correct Patrick then the color variation would probably be due to the egg yolk color and it's variations. So I was assuming to some extent that if someones finished product was varying, they were not making it exactly each time. To me that's more likely to happen then for them to all of the sudden get darker yolked eggs. Usually.......we get our eggs from the same source and they don't vary wildly. Of course if you went out and bought really fresh eggs they could be way different colored then the eggs from penned up chickens on a specific diet.

As too the color point I was trying to make:

I think you've followed me correctly. The warmer the butter the dark it's color. BUT additionally, if you whip warm butter that will lighten it's color considerably. So a whipped cold butter could be the same shade as a whipped warmer butter.

So then if you add a cold whipped butter to a room temp. curd, the curd won't melt out the butter, so it won't darken the color of the whipped butter, giving you a lighter more airiated product.

Conversely, if you added warm whipped butter to a warm curd, the curd will melt out the butter to some extent and it will be thinner before it's 'set' and a darker shade of yellow. If you add cold whipped butter to a warm curd, some of it will melt too, but the cold of the butter will chill the warm curd faster so there should be less melted butter.

I hope that made sense.............sorry.........

[Patrick S]

Conversely, if you added warm whipped butter to a warm curd, the curd will melt out the butter to some extent and it will be thinner before it's 'set' and a darker shade of yellow. If you add cold whipped butter to a warm curd, some of it will melt too, but the cold of the butter will chill the warm curd faster so there should be less melted butter.

I hope that made sense.............sorry.........

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Makes perfect sense! Thank you for explaining.

[filipe]

I've used PH pâte a choux recipe for the first time tonight.

I've never been very much into pâte a choux, wether used on eclairs, profiteroles, Paris-Brest or whatever other items it can be used, as I've allways thought of it as a "poor" relative of the pastry doughs family. Today I've chaged my mind - Pierre Hermé recipe makes a DELICIOUS and very rich (in texture and in flavour) pâte a choux. I've used it for some profiteroles, filled with vanilla ice-cream and just covered with an ordinary ganache. We had a really cool day today, so having this fresh desert after dinner was like a cherish on the top of the cake

By the way, I've used PH recipe which comes in his Larousse du chocolat

Edited April 3, 2006 by filipe (log)

[tan319]

filipe, how do you like the Larousse du Chocolat book?

There are recipes by other chefs in there too, yes?

BTW, your blogspot is prety damned incredible!!!

Great pix!

[filipe]

filipe, how do you like the Larousse du Chocolat book?

There are recipes by other chefs in there too, yes?

BTW, your blogspot is prety damned incredible!!!

Great pix!

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Thanks Ted

The Larousse book is very good, it has all the basics as well as more than 300 recipes by PH and other chefs, organized by type & level of difficulty. I like it very much, one learn a lot from it (at least I do, but I don't have any professional skills on pastry or cooking, so it's easy to allways be learning things from this kind of books)