Veronica's Test Kitchen

I am so not gelling...

So, I’m back! For the first 2 weeks of June, I had to attend to my day job plus an influx of macaron orders. Remember I mentioned some exciting projects? One is underway and won’t be finished until the end of August… I am so psyched about it.   The second was supposed to be a minor kitchen renovation to add a second oven but that fell through because we decided to get one of those stand alone kitchen ovens instead - the ones that restaurants use. You see, when you are an IT person like me - a database administrator- you always think of your backups. I’m always afraid that if my one and only oven fails – what do I do with my orders. We also inquired about a generator from the electric company but got a sticker shock – that’ll have to wait.

I was also busy in the Test kitchen. First, experimenting with a new ingredient called gellan. This is what Pierre Herme uses to make some of his gelée cubes. A question that came up often in class was when to use gellan and when to use gelatin, he said it all depends on the texture you want.

So why am I not gelling...

  

      My passion fruit gelée needs some more work. I don’t like the texture- the graininess in the mouth feel – the gellan probably needs to be cooked some more. My raspberry one did not turn out any better either and acquired the texture of tomato paste … yuck! So, if any molecular gastronomy geek can guide me as to its proper use, I will be eternally grateful :).

But I am most excited experimenting with the macaron au sucre cuit. I think I’m close to getting the results I want. I take back what I said about this method before. It is not any sweeter than the French Meringue way. Now whether I will use this for my business still remains to be seen – I find it more involved but has a better rate of return for big orders with multiple flavors.

     Anyway, here’s a sneak peek:

 

    I will reveal my new flavors for Petites Bouchees towards the end of August. But most of you familiar with PH’s macarons probably could already tell what the cocoa-dusted yellow one is. J

   My grubby little fingers have thoroughly smeared sticky syrup on my PH recipe book - I'm finding some pages stuck together! I’ve also received multiple requests to publish some of the recipes from his class. I am looking to make the Emotion Ispahan soon and maybe… that’ll be the first ;).

   And last but not least, check out this cute watercolor from Cakespy. Isn’t it the most lovable thing to have? I know I had to have it the moment I laid eyes on it. Jessie also has an etsy shop here.

 

 

 

 

 

Meeting the Picasso of Pastry

Weeks ago, I was lamenting the fact that I got an email from the French Pastry School in Chicago that I was not selected to take part in an exclusive class taught by Pierre Hermé. A week after that, I got a phone call from them telling me that I was on the waiting list and a spot opened up – did I want it? Heck ya! I tried so hard to keep my voice calm but I remember barely squeaking out the information needed to reserve the slot. Apparently there were 2000 entries – hmm I wonder how far down the waitlist I was – but who cares!

That was in the 1^st week of March. Can you imagine how hard I had to contain my excitement and wait 2 ½ months for this class? Fortunately I was kept busy with a new job assignment, the business and a visit from my brother.

            You can’t believe how paranoid I was about getting sick or about flight cancellations or whatever might prevent me from attending the class. Anyhow, I did arrive at the French Pastry School in full chef uniform and was greeted by the school director and was told to go up to the second floor. Three tables were arranged in a U shape and I already saw like 10 students seated and having coffee or tea.

            I was informed that we had our chef’s jackets made especially for the occasion and I looked for my name on the hanger. It was then that I saw him...suddenly appearing and walking over to the table to greet the students at the table and then he headed my way.

            I smiled…he smiled and said “Bonjour” and gave my hand a firm hand shake… and all I could get out was a weak “Bonjour” ….and then he moved on to the next person.

Gah! I suddenly remembered Meg Ryan (Annie) in “Sleepless in Seattle” when she flew all the way from Baltimore to Seattle to meet Tom Hanks (Sam) and all she could say was “hello”. I am an idiot!

            Over a breakfast of black-truffled eggs, bread and rose-litchi jam, I continued to ogle him as he was took the chair right across from me. Also luckily for me, his assistant Mickael Marsollier was seated right next to me and spoke perfect English …plus was very friendly. I sure did not waste any time and grilled him on the technique of their macarons. PH uses Italian meringue in his macarons and I complained it was too sweet. Mickaél said, yes it is sweet but the shell is balanced by the filling. I told him, I’ll give him the benefit of the doubt until I taste it (am I not cheeky?)

            So I finally found my voice and talked to Pierre. I told him I made his white truffle macaron from his PH10 book and it was awful. Could it be my truffle paste? He agreed and said that it took him a while to find the right truffle paste for it. He said in our class he has included a black truffle macaron recipe as well as a foie gras one. Oh my God…I can’t wait!

             Although Pierre spoke English, he was most comfortable speaking in French. Chef Jacquy Pfeiffer – owner of the French Pastry School- was on hand to translate. (My lessons with Helen helped tremendously because the language did not sound completely foreign and I was able to pick up on a lot of words). We were each asked to introduce ourselves. We were an interesting bunch. There were a couple of pastry chefs from some high-profile places like Spago, Payard and Robuchon. There was also another food blogger, Mitzi of Yummy in the tummy blog - such a sweet lady!

 The class started with PH giving a power point presentation regarding his ideology on how he runs his business.

1.      Quality of his ingredients.

2.      Attention to detail. He hates perfection but loves detail. If you look for perfection you will never be satisfied. He always wants to make his offerings interesting and different from others. Every patisserie in Paris makes macarons but his macarons stand out in terms of detail.

3.      Packaging – enough said.

4.      Always think of how you can do things better. His recipes are never staid. He keeps on tweaking them.

His products are classified in three categories:

1.      Classics like tarts and millefeuilles

2.      Fetishes – which are his flavor combinations

Ie. Ispahan, Chloe, Sarah, Elise

3.      Creations – how it is interpreted – Emotion, Miss Gla Gla

Before PH started delving into the recipes, Chef Pfeiffer said that we will have a test at the end of the class on saying the word macaron properly. “Maca-RAWN” with that tricky French R sound.

We had a total of 12 creations, one of them not yet released. But here are the following:

Black Truffle Macaron

Emotion Depayse (green tea , red bean, grapefruit)

Emotion Ispahan (rose, litchi, raspberry)

Ispahn Entremet

Chocolate and Foie Gras Macaron

Macaron Ispahan

Macaron Satine (Orange, passion fruit, cream cheese)

Miss Gla’Gla Ispahan glace

Revelation ( tomato puff pastry, black olive, olive oil and vanilla mascarpone)

Tarte Ispahan

Vanilla Tart

New Creation 2008

It was confusing at first as we jumped from recipe to recipe while completing each component at a time. We started with the geleés and the English cream that went with the Buttercreams. Most of PH’s macarons use ganache, but his Ispahan uses buttercream.

I’m sure it will be tedious for most readers if I go into too much of the details in this post. I selected a few pictures and some captions to give a gist of the class. Warning: there is an overabundance of the Ispahan creations - they are absolutely heavenly!!!

PH preparing the sugar dough for the Vanilla Tart. He said to mix the dough very little so the tart dough will not puff too much.

Preparing the Litchi Gellee for the Tarte Ispahan.

Delicious Chocolate and Raspberry Sable we had during the morning break. Pierre said to undercook them. The interesting crunch witihin the cookie comes from Fleur de sel.

PH getting down and dirty with the Ispahan macaron batter. He said there was no spatula big enough to mix the batter properly.

 

Piping the macaron batter for different creations.

My first taste of PH's macarons. Passion fruit and chocolate. It was the moment of truth too - the shells were not sweet at all. They were perfect in texture. Though I love my French Meringue method I am curious again to try sucre cuit again. 

PH weighs each component of his Emotion creations. This is because the balance of flavors are very important. Such attention to detail!

Putting the different Ispahan creations together. It is important to select the same size raspberries.

Shaping the vanilla mascarpone cream for the tart. Poured into warmed rings so it can be lifted out easily.

 

Taking care of Miss Gla Gla (gla gla is what the French say when they are cold)

 

 

 

Pierre with a margarita in hand during cocktails. We headed out to Art Smith's house (Oprah Winfrey's former personal chef) for Mexican food.

 

 

 

 

 

 

DAY 2

Most activities on the second day were assembling all the creations.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Working on the Ispahan tarte.

PH  pointed out that the tart shell should be really browned because you will taste the flour.

Finishing up the Foie Gras macaron. Pierre said that his idea of a perfect macaron should have a lot of filling.

Rolling out the tomato puff pastry in the laminator.

Ispahan Emotion

Ispahan Entremet

I asked Pierre what he did with the litchi juice leftover from the can. He said to take a bath in it was a dream of his. Someone added :"With rose petals?" The class burst out in laughter.

The finished Vanilla Tarts with the trademark PH logos.

The next few pictures are from the dessert buffet that immediately followed the class . We started with some champagne. But seriously, I think it was pretty cruel to have us eat all the desserts in one hour. I mean look at the spread!

My favorite macaron turned out to be the foie gras macaron. This is not savory, it is sweet. How this combination worked simply blew my mind. Pure genius!!! I was not able to finish a whole Ispahan entremet...my tummy was pretty close to screaming :Enough!!

I was able to take four macarons home to the "Hungry" hubby to try. I tried to take him the Ispahan Entremet but it did not survive in my purse as Mickael said it wouldn't. :(

And of course , the class will not be complete without a picture with the man himself and his brilliant assistant Mickael. :D

Learning from the Master...

It was a rare opportunity that I was able to spend two full days with the most brilliant pastry chef of my lifetime...

   

Recognize him from his profile ?

....

No? How about this front view shot?

Still do not recognize him? The clue is in the initials of his chef's jacket or his most famous creation shown below :

  

More later... I just got back and there is a ton of pictures to sift through. And as usual when I go on this "business" trips I end up in a sugar coma...

The Missing Half-Cup

A few weeks ago, I received  Pichet Ong’s amazing and inspiring book The Sweet Spot . It had been on my wishlist for a while but I was trying to get a handle of my ever-growing cookbook collection  - which had grown exponentially ever since I started food blogging (I think I buy every book on all my favorite bloggers' must-have books), I decided it was time to be more practical (yeh, right) and think three times before clicking on the “add to cart” button.

Anyway, I had no buyer’s remorse with this book on Asian-inspired desserts. The pictures are so well composed and infinitely appetizing you can almost taste the sweet offering.

But as with most of my cookbooks, I have not made anything from it yet, I just drool over it night after night swearing that I'll be making something from it soon.

Then the talented Amrita of La Boulangette announced the theme for Sugar High Friday:  Asian-Sweet-Invasion. It was a no-brainer. This event was the perfect opportunity to use my new book and I could not remember the last time I’ve participated in SHF either. But I was presented with a dilemma of which recipe to use because there was a bounty to select from. There were chocolate spring rolls, the chocolate mango cheesecake parfait sounded especially interesting, and I’ve always wanted to make something with tapioca. However, I knew that I wanted to use matcha green tea and found the perfect recipe for it. Cream puffs. And as perfect as that sounded, the Cream Puff deities had something else in mind … 

Cream Puffs

   From Pichet Ong’s “The Sweet Spot”

• ½ cup (4 oz/113 g) unsalted butter
• ½ cup (4 oz/113 g) whole milk
• 2 tbs sweetened condensed milk
• ¼ tsp salt
• 1 cup (5 ½ oz/155 g) all purpose flour, sifted
• 5 large eggs
• 1 large egg yolk
• ½ cup plus 2tbs. water

Preheat oven to 400 F (I used convection 375F). Line two baking sheets with parchment paper and set aside.

Put the butter, milk, sweetened condensed milk, ½ cup plus 2 tbs water, and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil over medium-high heat, stirring occasionally. Add the flour and cook, stirring constantly with a heatproof spatula, scraping the bottom of the pan and folding the dough over and over, until it is smooth and just starts to stick to the bottom of the saucepan, about 7 minutes.

Transfer the dough to the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the paddle attachment. Mix the dough on medium speed for 1 minute to allow the steam to escape and the dough to cool slightly. With the machine running, add 4 eggs and the yolk one at a time, mixing until well incorporated, about 2 minutes. Turn the mixer speed to high and mix for 10 seconds.

Transfer the dough to pastry bag fitted with a ½-inch diameter plain piping tip. Pipe out 1-inch-wide 1-inch-tall rounds 2 inches apart onto the prepared baking sheets; try to form a peak at the top of each. Lightly beat the remaining egg and brush on the tops of the puffs.

Bake for 10 (convection 5 min) minutes, and then lower the temperature to 350F (convection 325F)and bake until the puffs are risen and golden brown, about 20 (convection 15 min.) more minutes. Resist the temptation to peek in at the puffs as they bake or they may fall. Remove from the oven and cool completely on the pans set on a rack.

When ready to serve, cut the puffs horizontally in half. Spoon or pipe 2 tbs. of the matcha cream onto the bottom half of each puff, sandwich with the tops and serve immediately.

Green Tea Cream

• 1-cup (8 oz/227g) heavy cream
• 1/8-cup (1 oz/28 g) whole milk
• 1 tbs vanilla extract
• 1/8-cup (12 g) matcha (green tea powder)
• 1/3-cup (2.25 oz/63 g) sugar
• 1 tbs fresh lemon juice

Put all the ingredients in the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment. Whisk on medium speed until medium-soft-peaks form. (When you lift the whisk from the bowl, a peak will form and the tip will fall back down.) Refrigerate until ready to use.

Cooking Notes:

    I have made Choux Pastry a couple of times before - maybe that explains my cursory skimming of the instructions. It was only when I was typing them out for this post that I realized that I freaking missed an entire half-cup of water! All I saw was the 2 tbs. of water. The original recipe did not have the water as an ingredient but I have included it here so you, my dear readers, will be alerted that it is part of the recipe. My mind quickly flashbacked to the bafflement I felt when I noticed that my mixture was drier than expected. The crust was all cracked too, but I thought that was because I used convection and my oven was too hot. The puffs did not rise that much. The water was necessary to produce more steam for leavening as well as gluten-formation thereby explaining why the crust was almost like a piecrust in texture. Now you know what happens when you forget the water in your pate a choux. But I want to reiterate that the cream puff was really tasty, I think the sweetened condensed milk adds a nuance of sweetness that is very palatable.

    I was a little disappointed in my green tea cream. It had a strange aftertaste. I do have a confession to make though, I forgot to measure my lemon juice and dumped the whole amount in and definitely added about double than what was required. Yikes. My only excuse was it was 8 am on a Sunday morning and clearly had not have enough caffeine in my system yet.

    Anyway, my mistakes aside, I do want to try this cream puff recipe again with a light pastry cream mixed with some diced fruit like strawberry or mango.

The Quintessential Orange Cupcake

More cupcakes!

I have never made carrot cake before. But when one of my taste testers raved about my vanilla cream cheese frosting saying that he could just imagine this on a carrot cupcake, I was duly challenged. I already spied a recipe I wanted to try months ago. The French Laundry’s pastry chef, Claire Clark recently came out with her own book Indulge.  Miniature versions of the carrot cake in her book were actually served on the lawns of Buckingham Palace back when she was a caterer in England. Her recipe uses dark brown sugar, whole-wheat flour as well as desiccated coconut. (Upon conferring with Helen this is actually the unsweetened coconut you find in Health Food stores).

Carrot Cake (made into cupcakes)

From "Indulge" by Claire Clark

250g/9oz whole meal flour (whole wheat flour)

25g/1oz baking powder

1 ½ tsp ground cinnamon

1 tsp finely ground nutmeg

125g/4 ½ oz. desiccated coconut

5 medium eggs

250g/9oz muscovado sugar (I used dark brown sugar)

185ml/6 ½ fl oz vegetable oil or canola oil

500g/ 1lb 2oz grated carrots

125g/4 ½ oz California raisins

For the cream cheese frosting

125/4 ½  oz cream cheese

375g/13 oz icing sugar, sifted

250 g/9oz unsalted butter softened

a capful of vanilla extract

Preheat oven to 350 F. Grease 10 inch deep , round springform cake tin and line base with baking parchment. (I used two 12-cup muffin pans)

Sift the flour, baking powder, cinnamon and nutmeg together, and then stir in the coconut so it does not clump together. Using an electric mixer, whisk the eggs, sugar and oil together until mixture becomes pale and has doubled in volume. Gently fold in the dry ingredients, being careful not to overmix and lose volume. Finally fold in the carrots and raisins. Spoon the mixture into the prepared tin and bake in the center of the oven for about 40 minutes (25 minutes for cupcakes), until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Leave to cool in tin.

Meanwhile, to make the frosting, simply beat all the ingredients together until pale and fluffy.

Frost cake when ready.

Cooking Notes:

The first thing I noticed with most recipes for carrot cakes was that they don’t explain how grated your carrots should be or how the degree of grating will affect the end-product. I grated the carrots in the food processor and had pretty long strips. I foolishly believed that those were going to dissolve during cooking. So imagine my consternation when I pulled out two trays of carrot cupcakes that have distinct orange strands in them. I bit into one and tasted raw carrot. In fact when I pulled the cake apart, a length of carrot linked them! Wayward carrot strands aside, the crumb looked promising. Nice texture, not too dense and pretty moist. It did need more sweetness added to it though ( a rare occasion since I constantly cut down sugar in recipes). I surmised that because my carrots did not cook enough they did not sweeten the cupcake the way they were supposed to. Twenty-four cupcakes down the garbage bin.

On my next attempt I added ½ cup of white sugar to the entire recipe. I also ran the carrots longer in the food processor to eliminate long strands. The batter appeared runnier than the first batch and looked more orange because of the extra grinding of the carrots. This time the cupcake was perfect – at least in my opinion. I also want to point out that the cleanest method of filling the cupcake liners is to use a pastry bag.

For the frosting, I added white chocolate to the cream cheese frosting recipe. Can I say, Wow! The white chocolate enables you to reduce the amount of powdered sugar and butter but the best part is the luxurious mouthfeel that it imparts. Think rich and smooth cheesecake!

I only had a fourth of the coconut left to use for my second attempt, which might explain why I could not discern any coconut flavor in the cupcake. I omitted the California raisins but I might bring myself to try this out next time.