"Chocolate Desserts" by Pierre Herme (Part 1)

[SethG]

Lookin' good, yellowmnm81!

Edted to add: and welcome to eGullet! Would you please explain your moniker? Are you a food chemist?

Edited January 8, 2005 by SethG (log)

[yellowmnm81]

thanks for the welcome and compliments! but, i am no food chemist.. (did you get that from yellowmnm81??) but yellowmnm actually relates to my name.. which is emily huang. i'm taiwanese but we speak mandarin too and in mandarin (or chinese) huang means "yellow" (think huang or yellow river) and emily turned into m&m but you can't use & so i used "n". amusing i guess? thanks patrick for the chilled suggestion, i had it chilled this morning (for breakfast, of course!) and it was amazing! a lot better than warmed, i must say.. sooo very good!! can't wait to have more. :-)

[Dorie Greenspan]

Emily, your tart really does look great.

And Patrick, I'm with you on the amazingness of the lemon cream. I used to think that if that were the only recipe in the book, the book would be worth buying. It's astonishing what adding the butter at the end does and how much better the cream is whipped rather than just stirred. At first it all seems like extra work -- waiting for the cream to cool before adding the butter, then whipping, whipping, whipping. But the fact that the butter is not melted, as it is in a traditional lemon curd, is what makes this so special, don't you think?

[tan319]

Patrick,

If I may suggest, use that lemon creme for a napoleon type thing.

This looks pretty much like the one I make, in which I emulsify the butter in with a whisk.

I've tried my stick blender but thought it beat it up too much.

But the end result is pretty much identical.

You let it set up overnight/8 hours or so, correct?

BTW, I'm lame, I don't have the Hermes book yet.

Great work,'y'all!!!

[Patrick S]

Patrick,

If I may suggest, use that lemon creme for a napoleon type thing.

This looks pretty much like the one I make, in which I emulsify the butter in with a whisk.

I've tried my stick blender but thought it beat it up too much.

But the end result is pretty much identical.

You let it set up overnight/8 hours or so, correct?

BTW, I'm lame, I don't have the Hermes book yet.

Great work,'y'all!!!

←

A lemon cream/strawberry napoleon sounds really good. On the other hand, I'm also thinking Herme's lemon tart sounds good too, with is just a sucree shell filled with the lemon cream and covered with a fruity clear glaze. On the third hand, I have some phyllo left over from the last time I made baklava, and phyllo cups or purses with lemon cream and strawberries sounds really good too. . .

The lemon cream seemed to set pretty quickly. The photo was taken maybe 2 hours after I put the lemon cream in the fridge, and was already pretty firm at that point.

Dorie Greenspan:

And Patrick, I'm with you on the amazingness of the lemon cream. I used to think that if that were the only recipe in the book, the book would be worth buying. It's astonishing what adding the butter at the end does and how much better the cream is whipped rather than just stirred. At first it all seems like extra work -- waiting for the cream to cool before adding the butter, then whipping, whipping, whipping. But the fact that the butter is not melted, as it is in a traditional lemon curd, is what makes this so special, don't you think?

Yes, and I'm sure that is one of the reasons for the exquisite creaminess of the caramel ganache in the pave recipe as well. I'd gladly spend the extra 10-15 minutes waiting for the cream to cool and whipping with the immersion blender to get such a tasty finished product.

Edited January 9, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[kthull]

Patrick, I did the lemon tart for my Mom on Mother's Day last year because lemon is her favorite. It's a great way to enjoy that lemon cream. Simple, so the flavor and texture really shines. And whenever you have extra, lemon crepes with a little whipped cream are killer.

[yellowmnm81]

wow, thank you dorie! and thank you for joining us in the forum-it's so much help and also an honor. the books of yours that i have -- chocolate desserts, desserts, paris sweets, and baking with julia -- are among my favorites. i love all of the hard work you put into your books.. can't wait until your next one!

staying on the "lemon train"........ i'm thinking about making the chocolate and lemon madeleines next! anyone like to join me?? i bought a madeleine pan a little bit ago and still haven't used it yet!! what a travesty.. but this looks like a great oppurtunity.

[Swisskaese]

Patrick,

If I may suggest, use that lemon creme for a napoleon type thing.

This looks pretty much like the one I make, in which I emulsify the butter in with a whisk.

I've tried my stick blender but thought it beat it up too much.

But the end result is pretty much identical.

You let it set up overnight/8 hours or so, correct?

BTW, I'm lame, I don't have the Hermes book yet.

Great work,'y'all!!!

←

A lemon cream/strawberry napoleon sounds really good. On the other hand, I'm also thinking Herme's lemon tart sounds good too, with is just a sucree shell filled with the lemon cream and covered with a fruity clear glaze. On the third hand, I have some phyllo left over from the last time I made baklava, and phyllo cups or purses with lemon cream and strawberries sounds really good too. . .

←

Patrick,

You can also do something interesting with the phyllo. I keep the filo rolled up and slice in 1/4-inch slices, shake it out as you would fettucine and place it in a round circle on a buttered baking sheet. Bake them according to the instructions on the box. You can make a filo shortcake or napolean by using two or more layers of the flat round disks. I usually scoop ice cream on top of one, sprinkle chopped strawberries, whole raspberries or blueberries and top with a sauce, but I think your lemon curd cream would work nicely with this.

Edited January 9, 2005 by Swisskaese (log)

[Patrick S]

Patrick,

You can also do something interesting with the phyllo. I keep the filo rolled up and slice in 1/4-inch slices, shake it out as you would fettucine and place it in a round circle on a buttered baking sheet. Bake them according to the instructions on the box. You can make a filo shortcake or napolean by using two or more layers of the flat round disks. I usually scoop ice cream on top of one, sprinkle chopped strawberries, whole raspberries or blueberries and top with a sauce, but I think your lemon curd cream would work nicely with this.

←

That sounds very interesting! Thank you for sharing this idea.

[joiei]

Last night, I did the lemon creme into crispy poppy seed meringue shells, and finished with a drizzle of pomegranite molasses.

I love that cream, it is so damn easy to make. And absolutely the best flavor.

Dorie, What and honor. I love this place.

[lemon curd]

I've been away from my kitchen for around 2 weeks now and can't wait to get started on another recipe. SethG, Patrick S and momlovestocook, your Pave's look so good and I'm intrigued with all the comments on the lightness of the ganache so I think I'll try that next.

Everyone has really been doing such great baking from this book - it makes me really appreciate the quality of this book! FoodMan's macaroons look exactly like the picture in the book - absolute beauties!

I don't have the 'Desserts' book yet (I'm still patiently waiting for mine....) but since I'm a big fan of lemon curd I think I'll try that recipe after the Pave.

[redfox]

Not long ago, I made a batch of the wonderful Herme chocolate sables featured with the Dorie Greenspan article in the NY Times. Both those and the plain sables that accompanied the same article were really delicious and only improved with a little age (they didn't get too much time to age in, of course). Are these also included in the Chocolate Desserts book?

[lemon curd]

Not long ago, I made a batch of the wonderful Herme chocolate sables featured with the Dorie Greenspan article in the NY Times. Both those and the plain sables that accompanied the same article were really delicious and only improved with a little age (they didn't get too much time to age in, of course). Are these also included in the Chocolate Desserts book?

←

There's two sable recipes in the 'Chocolate Desserts' book, Viennese Chocolate sables and Hazelnut Chocolate sables. SethG (24 Nov) and kthull (6 Dec) and albiston (6 Dec) have pictures of the hazelnut sables they made in this thread. albiston (6 Dec) also has a picture posted of the Vienesse sables.

[redfox]

Ah, yes. Neither of those are the same as the ones in the NY Times article -- I'd link to it, but all their food articles seem to be exempt from the kind of partner links that let one get around the expiring-free-link problem. These are plain chocolate with shards of bittersweet chocolate incorporated into the dough, then made in the traditional way of cutting circular cross-sections of a log. They are very simple and very good!

[chezcherie]

drat! the book is here from the library, and because of the photos on this thread, i've been thinking of trying the lemon creme first. (i have a recipe i love for lemon curd, but that photo was divine.) of course, had i read the thread with greater care, i would have known that it was the other book. oh well, i guess i'll have to "settle" for hazelnut chocolate....not a bad "settle".

[lemon curd]

Ah, yes. Neither of those are the same as the ones in the NY Times article -- I'd link to it, but all their food articles seem to be exempt from the kind of partner links that let one get around the expiring-free-link problem. These are plain chocolate with shards of bittersweet chocolate incorporated into the dough, then made in the traditional way of cutting circular cross-sections of a log. They are very simple and very good!

←

I just bought Dorie's 'Paris Sweets' book. One of the recipes is Korova Cookies (Pierre Herme origin) which are described as sable-like with bittersweet chocolate bits, sliced from logs and then baked. Could this perhaps be one of the recipes you described?

[redfox]

Yes, that sounds like the one! Thank you, that is good to know.

[Dorie Greenspan]

Yup, the chocolate sables from the NY Times article are the Korova cookies from Paris Sweets. Pierre Herme created the Korova cookies for the Korova restaurant in Paris and, shortly after that, gave me the recipe for my book. The restaurant had just opened when I was working on the book and it closed just as the book came out, so, instead of having to explain the name in The Times, we decided to call them what they are: Pierre Herme's Chocolate Sables.

[momlovestocook]

Hi

I haven't tried anything new out of the book. I did use up the rest of the sweet tart dough that I had in the freezer today. I made mini tarts in my mini muffin tin, cooked them and filled them with a bittersweet whipped ganache and topped them with a toasted hazelnut.

Not sure what I'll try next. May take a little break to shed the holiday pounds!!

Sandra

[Richard Kilgore]

Okay Patrick, your lemon curd photo pushd me over the edge and I ordered a copy of the Dessert book last week. My schedule is very tight, and I may not be able to do anything for a couple of weeks, but I'll enjoy following along until then.

[albiston]

I'm not completely sure this fits in the topic, but since it has to do with a Hermè recipe it might be usefull to others too.

I haven't been baking much in the past three weeks, but once I saw Patrick's pictur of the lemon curd I decided I had to try the lemon tart from the dessert book ASAP. Since my wife is celebrating her birthday today and she's a big lemon fan, the occasion could have not been better.

I started setting up everything for both custard and tart shell. While the rolled out shell cooled in the fridge I started working on the lemon curd. Here is where things got wrong: thanks to a combination of bad luck and clumsieness I tipped the to-be custard into the water bath. I thought about starting again but did not have enough eggs, and my neighbours were all away.

So I ended up with an unbaked crust and nothing to fill it with. I decided to freeze the crust, since I'll have to bake something for saturday, when the bulk of the family comes over for coffee. What I'm not sure about is how to handle the crust now: straight into the oven from the freezer? take it out for half an hour or so and then bake it? What would you do?

Thanks!

[Dorie Greenspan]

Albiston, sorry about your lemon cream, but it's good that you salvaged the crust. As for baking it, just use it straight from the freezer -- no need to defrost it. What do you think you'll fill it with for your wife's birthday?

[albiston]

Albiston, sorry about your lemon cream, but it's good that you salvaged the crust.  As for baking it, just use it straight from the freezer -- no need to defrost it.  What do you think you'll fill it with for your wife's birthday?

←

Dorie, thanky ou for the tip and no need to feel sorry, I can be a real klutz at times. I'll probably give the lemon curd another go, though I'm open to suggestions.

My original idea was trying the pave out in addition to the lemon tart, but since my wife's grannies are visiting I won't be able to avoid baking some of the Thuringian cake specialities like Zupfkuchen and Streuselkuchen with Pflaumenmuss. I have to make my customers happy .

[Patrick S]

Tonight, I made the chocolate-lemon madeleines. They're easy to make, and pretty tasty too. This time I actually used Valrhona cocoa, and I think it is quite good. The recipe advises to to let the batter sit overnight in the fridge in order to form a good "hump," or at least 1 hour if you are impatient. I let my batter sit in the fridge about 2 hours before baking, and still got good humpage.

Edited January 12, 2005 by Patrick S (log)

[yellowmnm81]

wow, those are some niiiice madeleines, patrick! great .. humps. hehe. especially since you only let them sit for 2 hours. i wonder if they would have been different overnight?? i will try overnight i think. now i'm motivated and ready to make mine!