"Chocolate Desserts" by Pierre Herme (Part 2)

[Thornado]

So, I'm finally in Paris, and might be going to PH tonight if I'm able to get out of my meetings early enough. Do any of you know when they close? Don't want to come there just to find out that they just closed...

I'm looking forward to hearing about your trip to PH also.

Have fun!

Forgot something -- I think you should try the Ispahan.  You can try it as a macaroon, but I'd advise you get a little Ispahan complete with raspberries, litchis and a fresh rose petal.  The Ispahan is PH's bestselling pastry and it's what started rose fever in Paris.  It's a delicious pastry and after he created it he went on to create several variations on the theme, making it a cornerstone of his current work.

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[Alinka]

Congrats, Alinka! Your tart looks delicious.

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Thanks, Patrick! I think I am ready to buy the book: the tart was a great success, and there are so many things I want to try from the book. Besides, I already have Greenspan's Baking with Julia, and love it, love it, love it!

I'm still not clear as to why the cake layer all but disappeared into the ganache ... It was kind of soft inside and brittle outside after it cooled down. I was surprised that the baking time was so short and the temperature was so high for something without flour. The idea is similar to the meringue, but isn't meringue sort of dried in the oven at low temperature rather than being baked, like genoise, for example?

[Thornado]

Argh! Disaster!

We were going to PH tonight, but just to make sure we wouldn't come there and see that they had closed for the day, we had the concierge at the hotel give them a call, and apparently they are closed until August 24 for some reason...

So, seems like there won't be any PH for me. I've just consoled myself with a chocolate macaroons from another patisserie close to my hotel. There are a bunch of other patisseries all over the city, but it's hard to know which ones are good. Any recommendations on good ones when PH is closed?

So, I'm finally in Paris, and might be going to PH tonight if I'm able to get out of my meetings early enough. Do any of you know when they close? Don't want to come there just to find out that they just closed...

[Alinka]

There are a bunch of other patisseries all over the city, but it's hard to know which ones are good. Any recommendations on good ones when PH is closed?

To me, the best part is discovering on my own . Just walking on the street, looking at all those gorgeous window displays, then walking in, buying something, tasting... I have to confess, I'm a little of a pig: to be able to try as many yummy things as possible I just take a couple of bites and then move on.

Sorry to hear about you disappointment though, Thornado.

[Patricia Austin]

Hi Thornado,

So sorry the timing didn't work out.

Here are a few great places I went to last fall.

It's always good to call ahead.

Dorie Greenspan has a fine list in the back of her

book if anyone else has easy access to it.

Patricia

Boulangerie Poilane (famous for their bread)

8 rue du Cherche-Midi

0 1 45 48 42 59

Patisserie Arnaud Larher

53rue du Caulaincourt (Montmartre)

0 1 42 57 68 08

Lauduree (my favorite. PH spent some time here)

3 choices

16 rue Royale( lovely tea/lunch room)

0 1 42 60 21 79

75 avenue des Champs Elysees

0 1 40 75 08 75

21 rue Bonaparte

0 1 44 07 64 87

Lenotre

48 avenue Victor-Hugo

0 1 45 02 21 21

15 boulevard Courcelles

0 1 45 63 87 63

Patisserie Mulot (great savory to go as well)

76 rue de Seine

0 1 43 26 85 77

Boulangerie-Patisserie Poujauran

20 rue Jean-Nicot

0 1 47 05 80 88

Sadaharu Aoki

35 rue Vaugirard

[Wendy DeBord]

Have you also looked thru this thread? I believe there are references to several pastry shops and chocolatiers in that thread. You may also want to read and ask questions in our French Forum for some really specific advice.

[Bernaise]

Well after reading through this thread and being inspired and tempted over and over again I decided I would try my hand at the "Nutella Tart". In fairness it souded a bit rich for me but it had everything I liked in it: an almond crust, dark chocolate, nutella and the fabulous filbert!

What a disappointment

the crust was perfect but the filling was so rich no-one and we are talking diehard desert eaters could finish a piece after dinner. The recipe suggested it served 8 we actually cut 8 portions out of half the tart!

I found it too unctuous with no relief offered by the nuts or the crispy crust!

Anyone else have this experience? And by the way, I followed the receipt to the letter including the size of the tart pan.

It has left me unsure if I would venture into another Herme adventure...

[Patrick S]

Well after reading through this thread and being inspired and tempted over and over again I decided I would try my hand at the "Nutella Tart".  In fairness it souded a bit rich for me but it had everything I liked in it: an almond crust, dark chocolate, nutella and the fabulous filbert!

What a disappointment 

the crust was perfect but the filling was so rich no-one and we are talking diehard desert eaters could finish a piece after dinner.  The recipe suggested it served 8 we actually cut 8 portions out of half the tart!

I found it too unctuous with no relief offered by the nuts or the crispy crust!

Anyone else have this experience?  And by the way, I followed the receipt to the letter including the size of the tart pan.

It has left me unsure if I would venture into another Herme adventure...

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I've made that tart twice, and both times it was gobbled up quite greedily by everyone who tried it. If you're liable to put off by desserts that are too rich, I would have tried something other than the Nutella tart, which after all is basically a ganache-tart, just about as rich as a dessert can get. I'd venture to say that if the Nutella tart had so little appeal for you, you'll probably find little in the book that will appeal to you.

[Mette]

Last night I made a half-recipe of Herme's caramel chocolate truffles (p. 163). Chocolate-wise, I used 5ozs  Valrhona Caraibe bittersweet, and 3oz Callebaut milk chocolate. I dry caramelized the sugar as directed in the book, and let it get as dark and intense as possible. I waited til I was getting a faint trail of smoke from the sugar before I moved from the heat added the butter and cream.

I feel like gushing, but I won't. I'll just say that these caramelicious jewels are the best truffles I've ever had (well, I guess that is gushing. . . ).

I made the truffles yesterday, using Callebaut Java (which is quite 'caramelly') and Callebaut 70/30, and I must say, I find them to sweet for my taste. It may be being a 'continental' or maybe just a bit strange, but I find a lot af american or american adjusted recipes too sweet (of course, Herme is french, so there goes that line of argument....) - anyway....

For my next batch, I'll try without the milk chocolate, and with a very bitter chocolate (whatever I can get my hands on). Anybody tried making these with all dark choc and if so, which make and which result? Thanks

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Mette,

Just to follow up, I've since made the caramel ganache with all bittersweet, and it was still delicious, and still sweet enough for someone like me who prefers a sweeter chocolate taste. You could probably even increase the butter or cream a little, and swap in some unsweetened chocolate for the bittersweet.

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Thanks for the feedback - I'll give it go (mmmmmmm....)

[Mette]

Finally got round to making another little gem from the book. I made the apricot and ginger chocolate loaf cake, but as it is going on a picnic, I decided to make little individual cakes instead of a loaf. The batch yielded 24 little fellas, and I baked them at 180 c. for 20 mins. They are very tasty (there aren't 24 to go on a picnic anymore, unless you count those currently inside me), but could have had a bit more sharpness to them - maybe I'll try adding some orange zest next time.

Here a pic:

Incidently, I bought some organic, fair trade cocoa for this batch, and for the first time ever, I had a real whiff of chocolate when opening the jar, instead of that dusty smell, most cocoas give off. I think I'm off regular cocoa for good.....

/Mette

[Mette]

Last night I made a half-recipe of Herme's caramel chocolate truffles (p. 163). Chocolate-wise, I used 5ozs  Valrhona Caraibe bittersweet, and 3oz Callebaut milk chocolate. I dry caramelized the sugar as directed in the book, and let it get as dark and intense as possible. I waited til I was getting a faint trail of smoke from the sugar before I moved from the heat added the butter and cream.

I feel like gushing, but I won't. I'll just say that these caramelicious jewels are the best truffles I've ever had (well, I guess that is gushing. . . ).

I made the truffles yesterday, using Callebaut Java (which is quite 'caramelly') and Callebaut 70/30, and I must say, I find them to sweet for my taste. It may be being a 'continental' or maybe just a bit strange, but I find a lot af american or american adjusted recipes too sweet (of course, Herme is french, so there goes that line of argument....) - anyway....

For my next batch, I'll try without the milk chocolate, and with a very bitter chocolate (whatever I can get my hands on). Anybody tried making these with all dark choc and if so, which make and which result? Thanks

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Mette,

Just to follow up, I've since made the caramel ganache with all bittersweet, and it was still delicious, and still sweet enough for someone like me who prefers a sweeter chocolate taste. You could probably even increase the butter or cream a little, and swap in some unsweetened chocolate for the bittersweet.

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Thanks for the feedback - I'll give it go (mmmmmmm....)

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I've now given it a go with all bittersweet, as I had no unsweetened choc around and I need these for a pressie. They are much more to my taste, though still on the sweet side - I'm going to try and tweak the recipe more towards less sweet next time.

I added 1½ teaspoon of cocoa nibs to the ganache, which is a very nice addition - a bit of bitterness and a bit of crunch to the otherwise sweet smoothness. This addition is definetely a keeper.

.....must stop eating truffles.....

Thanks again for the feedback, Patrick

[prasantrin]

Help me, help me! I made the Korova cookies--my, the dough is delicious! But...just look at them!

Granted, they look quite a bit uglier since I took the picture with my cell phone, but I don't think they're supposed to be so flat. Or are they?

My thoughts right now are that the dough was still too warm (I waited for just 1 hour, no more), or I overworked the dough when mixing it. I don't think it was the latter, though, because I tried to be very careful. My butter was quite warm, though, so that may have been a problem, as well.

I used a 170C oven--a tiny Japanese gas convection one, and baked them for 12 minutes. I'm thinking of freezing the other roll I have, and then baking them at the same temperature for the same time (rather than increasing the baking time by a minute, as suggested).

[Patrick S]

Its hard to see the cookies, but my best guess would also be that your dough was too warm.

[Dorie Greenspan]

As Patrick mentioned, and as you thought, a cookie can go flat when the dough is too warm. Having just 1 hour of chilling time could cause your cookies to lose their shape in the oven -- 2 hours is really the advised minimum chill-time for a sable dough. And, if your butter was really warm, then the dough would have really needed this extra time in the refrigerator. Other reasons that cookies flatten include putting them on warm baking sheets or baking them in ovens that are not hot enough -- but neither of these situations seem to apply to your cookies. It's troubling and I'm not sure why this happened to you, but it has happened to me as well -- when it did I think it was because I was in a rush and hadn't chilled the dough long enough and, also, I wanted to get a bigger yield, so I cut the cookies thinner. However, even when the cookies were flat, they were fabulously delicious. Hope that was true of your cookies, too.

[SethG]

I haven't cracked open CDBPH in a while, but it seems tangentially on-topic for me to say that I've become addicted to sable cookies lately. Last night I made the lemon sable cookies from Paris Sweets. I love lemon so I used the maximum recommended amount of zest. The use of confectioner's sugar in the batter makes the cookies come out extra-soft, with still a hint of that sandy crunch. Really good. Took only ten minutes or so to throw the batter together, too.

[prasantrin]

Thanks so much for the help. I was so anxious to try the cookies, that I just couldn't wait any longer to bake them! It was torture just waiting that one hour! But the second roll has been sitting in my fridge for at least 24 hours, and will probably stay there until tomorrow, when I run out of my first batch. These cookies are absolutely delightful. Because mine spread out so much, they are almost like tuille, which makes me love them even more because they're crispy (yet somewhat chewy right now since it's so humid in Japan!).

And might I add that I am not a chocolate fan whatsoever. In fact, chocolate is one of my least favourite (though not hated) foods. But these cookies....I just cannot describe how much I like them. I even refrained from bringing any to work, because I didn't want to share them! And I almost never eat what I bake!

I think I need to by Paris Sweets for more gems like this one!

Edited to add: I also bought some very special rich milk (Y130 for just 180mL) to go along with these cookies, and it's a perfect match! I can see these cookies are going to be my downfall

Edited September 20, 2005 by prasantrin (log)

[SethG]

Hey, anybody have the Desserts book handy? I want to make the lemon tart, and I meant to look at the recipe for the glaze this morning but I forgot.

There's some kind of packaged glaze required for the recipe. I'm hoping to find it or an equivalent at NY Cake & Baking, if someone will remind me as to what it is.

Also, Pierre throws a bunch of stuff in the glaze, includding vanilla bean (which I already have). What other weird stuff does he put in? Mint, or lime, or something? Thanks, anyone.

[Patrick S]

I'm not at home, but I remember that the glaze recipe uses Oetker clear glaze. I think that curls of lemon and orange peel were steeped in the glaze and then removed, but I'm not certain on that because I only used the recipe once.

[SethG]

I'm not at home, but I remember that the glaze recipe uses Oetker clear glaze. I think that curls of lemon and orange peel were steeped in the glaze and then removed, but I'm not certain on that because I only used the recipe once.

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Dude, that's it. You rock. Thanks.

[SethG]

I couldn't get the glaze, so I scrapped the tart. But I had all these lemons in the house, which was my whole motivation to make the tart in the first place, so I sort of made the lemon crepes from the Desserts book. I skipped the nuts, and made Julia Child's basic sweet crepes instead of Pierre's. But I filled the crepes with Pierre's lemon cream and used his honey/citrus sauce.

I know I slip into superlatives pretty quickly when we're talking about Pierre, but please believe I mean it when I say that his lemon cream is one of the best things I've ever tasted. I've made Martha Stewart's lemon curd before, and it was pretty great and everything, but damn, Pierre just has it all figured out, every time, doesn't he? That whipping in of the butter at a moderate temperature-- if that's the secret-- I'm just, like, floored. So light, creamy.... and it sets up beautifully as it gets closer to room temp. I still have a big bag of the stuff in the fridge.

[M. Lucia]

I have to echo the praise for the lemon cream- that stuff is dangerous. I find myself going to the fridge for just one little spoonful, and then find a large portion of it gone moments later.

I was thinking of whipping up some egg whites and folding them into the lemon cream to make a nice light lemon mousse, served with a sable and a blueberry coulis.

It sounds like a good idea, but I worry that the cream will be too heavy for the whipped whites and the thing might separate- what do y'all think?

[Patricia Austin]

I'm crazy about the Korova's too. With the log rolling, slicing technique I was having a difficult time getting an end product that looked appealing and they weren't selling so well. So I changed the technique: I chop the chocolate bits a little finer, roll the dough flat, cut them, give them a light egg wash, a tiny sparkle sugar sprinkle and bake. They look great (they have a crackly texture from the wash), still taste wonderful and they sell.

[Minko]

Well, longtime lurker on this absolutely wonderful topic (and this entire forum, actually). I bought CDBPH quite a few months ago but have contented myself with reading it thus far. I REALLY want to make the Pave but am having absolutely no luck finding the stem ginger (I'm in Vancouver). For those of you who have made it, were you all able to find the stem ginger and if not, what did you use instead? Many thanks for any suggestions!

[laniloa]

Well, longtime lurker on this absolutely wonderful topic (and this entire forum, actually). I bought CDBPH quite a few months ago but have contented myself with reading it thus far. I REALLY want to make the Pave but am having absolutely no luck finding the stem ginger    (I'm in Vancouver). For those of you who have made it, were you all able to find the stem ginger and if not, what did you use instead? Many thanks for any suggestions!

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I couldn't find it until I went away from the spices and condiments to the Asian foods section.

[Minko]