Amandine

[bleudauvergne]

I've gone out for the ingredients I was missing, and my fromagere had this, which I will use for the cake. While I'm letting it warm up to room temp, I would like to talk about this kind of butter. On the package it says that it is matured au levain naturel, which means what? I know that the traditional baguette is made with a special levain, but have never much thought about butter matured au levain, anyone have any insights on that? The salt content is 3%: 1% sel de guerande and 2% fleur de sel. So if you are making this at home and don't have access to this kind of butter, would it be ok to add 3% fleur de sel or sea salt? For this equivalent of 2 sticks butter, that would be about 7.5 grams, or 2 level teaspoons of coarse sea salt.

[Abra]

I'm thinking that the "au levain" part makes it equivalent to our cultured butter, which is delicious. I use Organic Valley unsalted, which is cultured and available here, but there are also some European imports that are cultured. It has a distinctively different flavor from regular butter.

That pastry cream filling sounds fabulous, Lucy! In the Crenn recipe, does fecule mean fecule de mais?

[Ptipois]

What I plan to do to create the Amandine is a Gateau Breton for the cake, a recipe given to me by a woman in Ploemel

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Is this recipe that was given to you of the quatre-quarts type or of the sablé type (the true gâteau breton)? It seems that amandine cake was "a dense sponge", i.e. rather of the quatre-quarts type.

As for the butter matured with "levain naturel", I have never heard of such a thing in my life. If this actually exists it must be something about the maturing of the cream, but cream usually matures naturally or is helped with some "ferments lactiques". I cannot see the point of maturing cream with sourdough starter. I'll do a search.

The Le Gall butter seems OK for any type of Breton pastry. The addition of fleur de sel is a commercial gimmick (coarse sea salt is just as fine), but if you want to add salt to some unsalted butter, fleur de sel becomes interesting because of its smaller crystal structure. Since it will not melt completely, there will still be a pleasant crunch but you will not find it in the cake. Do add only fleur de sel or fine salt, you need not bother with large salt crystals.

The best chocolate pound cake I ever made in my life was born out of extremely limited conditions, I was marooned in mid-winter on the very tip of the Northwestern Finistère coast, hardly a shop was opened miles around, there was a cold windy storm outside and my Breton boyfriend said he was having a sudden craving for chocolate pound cake. Well, we had flour, we had chocolate, we had eggs, and we had tons of salted butter but no sweet butter (Bretons laugh when they see someone using sweet butter). Besides there was no electric hand mixer, only a crank-operated egg-beater. So I mixed sugar and yolks, melted the chocolate, added loads of salted butter as if I were using sweet butter, beat the whites medium-stiff with the crank thingy, etc., and we got the emperor of chocolate pound cakes. That's how I converted to salted butter in pastry.

[Ptipois]

That pastry cream filling sounds fabulous, Lucy!  In the Crenn recipe, does fecule mean fecule de mais?

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No, it's potato starch. In a French recipe, when "fécule" is mentioned, it's always potato. "Fécule de maïs" will more commonly be printed as Maïzena, the only available brand.

[bleudauvergne]

What I plan to do to create the Amandine is a Gateau Breton for the cake, a recipe given to me by a woman in Ploemel

←

Is this recipe that was given to you of the quatre-quarts type or of the sablé type (the true gâteau breton)? It seems that amandine cake was "a dense sponge", i.e. rather of the quatre-quarts type.

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Well, this one is a kind of sable, but if you look at the pic of the Amandine upthread, I think it comes pretty close. When it's nice and fresh it is actually quite soft, and sort of cakey and thick. We'll see. The creme patisiere and the cake dough are in the frigo resting. I'll put them together just before I get dinner on.

[bleudauvergne]

The best chocolate pound cake I ever made in my life was born out of extremely limited conditions, I was marooned in mid-winter on the very tip of the Northwestern Finistère coast, hardly a shop was opened miles around, there was a cold windy storm outside and my Breton boyfriend said he was having a sudden craving for chocolate pound cake. Well, we had flour, we had chocolate, we had eggs, and we had tons of salted butter but no sweet butter (Bretons laugh when they see someone using sweet butter). Besides there was no electric hand mixer, only a crank-operated egg-beater. So I mixed sugar and yolks, melted the chocolate, added loads of salted butter as if I were using sweet butter, beat the whites medium-stiff with the crank thingy, etc., and we got the emperor of chocolate pound cakes. That's how I converted to salted butter in pastry.

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That's a nice story. I made some cookies for French co-workers one time and most of my cookie recipes call for salt in the dough, in fact when making toll house (the famous American chocolate chip) cookies I always add just a little extra. I never thought much about it, but my co-workers all remarked on how nice it was to have a little salty taste mingling with the chocolate. What a great thing to do for someone craving chcolate cake, by the way, making them one. You beating those egg whites with the cranky thing reminds me of the time I made chocolate mousse for my then boyfriend with a hand whisk in a plastic bowl. My arm was stiff for a week, but a very nice memory because he thought it was alright.

[bleudauvergne]

Here's my attempt at Amandine. It tastes exactly as fi describes it (luscious!), but the looks... A bit messy on the execution and not puffy enough to be even close. Oh well, if at first you don't succeed...

As compared to the original:

Who is going to try next?

[raisab]

Here's my attempt at Amandine.  It tastes exactly as fi describes it (luscious!), but the looks...  A bit messy on the execution and not puffy enough to be even close.  Oh well, if at first you don't succeed... 

As compared to the original: 

Who is going to try next?

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Lucy,

I thought you said you weren't much of a baker? That looks fabulous and it is exactly as I have been imaging this cake in my mind. Would you mind pm'ing me the recipe's for both your Gateau et la Creme patisserie? I promise I will make it and post it, but not untilmid October. I am off to Rome tomorrow and Barcelona tuesday, I know poor me.

Again, pat yourself on the back, it looks so yummy. How was the taste?

Edited October 6, 2005 by raisab (log)

[Ptipois]

Lucy, your cake looks exactly like the kind of cake that tastes much better than it looks

Taking a close look at the original, I am almost positive that it is a quatre-quarts breton base with a caster sugar glaze added just out of the oven, then after cooling the cake is sliced horizontally and filled with a very rich almond cream. I wouldn't add too much flavoring to the almond cream, I would like the nice almond taste to come through, perhaps with a tiny hint of bitter almond extract and dark rum. Rum is a very frequent addition in Breton pastry.

[Woods]

Oh, alright.    But I am a disasterous baker.  One of the reasons I moved to France, you know.

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There is a recipe for amandine aux figues at recette-dessert.com. It looks like a butter almond cake.

[Ptipois]

There is a recipe for amandine aux figues at recette-dessert.com.  It looks like a butter almond cake.

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That is a tarte amandine, i.e. a tart lined with almond cream between crust and fruit instead of crème pâtissière. It is not a cake.

[curlywurlyfi]

The best chocolate pound cake I ever made in my life was born out of extremely limited conditions, I was marooned in mid-winter on the very tip of the Northwestern Finistère coast, hardly a shop was opened miles around, there was a cold windy storm outside and my Breton boyfriend said he was having a sudden craving for chocolate pound cake.

I read this too quickly and thought you said 'macarooned in mid-winter'

[bleudauvergne]

There is a recipe for amandine aux figues at recette-dessert.com.  It looks like a butter almond cake.

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That is a tarte amandine, i.e. a tart lined with almond cream between crust and fruit instead of crème pâtissière. It is not a cake.

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Here's a picture of a little amandine tarte.

[Bux]

I've gone out for the ingredients I was missing, and my fromagere had this, which I will use for the cake.  While I'm letting it warm up to room temp, I would like to talk about this kind of butter.  On the package it says that it is matured au levain naturel, which means what?  I know that the traditional baguette is made with a special levain, but have never much thought about butter matured au levain, anyone have any insights on that?  The salt content is 3%:  1% sel de guerande and 2% fleur de sel.  So if you are making this at home and don't have access to this kind of butter, would it be ok to add 3% fleur de sel or sea salt?  For this equivalent of 2 sticks butter, that would be about 7.5 grams, or 2 level teaspoons of coarse sea salt.

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I've never heard of "levain" in relation to mature butter. Ptipois would be in a much better position than I, and it's an unfamiliar term to her. I suspect "levain" isn't being used to indicate sourdough starter. If there's an update here, I'd like to know it.

I do not understand the use of fleur de sel in any product where it has been dissolved. It distinguishes itself from other salt mostly in its crystalline form. It has "hooks" which enable it to stick to food better than most salt crystals. Once dissolved, it merely imparts a salty taste, although it raises the cost of production and adds a pretentious (in my opinion) note to the product. I feel that way about Pierre Hermé's caramel macarons. Perhaps it also has less impurities than other sea salt, but those are probably good for you and can't have much effect on the final taste.