Les Madeleine's Revisited... since April 2011

My first macaron experience was here, at Les Madeleine's, one of the few French pastry shops in Salt Lake City.  And I have to say, it was thoroughly disappointing.

On our first visit, Mom and I purchased a Meyer Lemon Tart and their pistachio macaron.  The Meyer Lemon Tart was delicious, the lemon curd nice and tangy with natural lemon flavor, and buttery tart crust.  As for the macaron...

Up to that point, we've never had a macaron, so didn't know what to expect.  Wanting to share, we decided to split it in two.  Or at least tried to.  It was so dry and tough it got mangled into (almost) bazillion pieces during the process.  As for the taste, it tasted nutty alright, but no trace of pistachio flavor whatsoever.  At $2 for one dinky little cookie, we felt ripped off.

Maybe we went on a bad day, we thought.  We tried again, almost a year later.  This time, we got the Oriental Express (Paris Brest with pistachio creme instead of the hazelnut) and the mini New York cupcake (Valrhona chocolate cupcake with chocolate frosting).  As I've mentioned....again, we were very disappointed.  The pistachio creme in the Oriental Express was amazing, velvety smooth, with good pistachio flavor.  The choux pastry part, however, was tough.  The mini cupcake had good quality chocolate flavor with good texture, but the frosting was horrid.  It was way too sweet and gritty, almost like a Duncan Hine's cheap chocolate frosting.  And at $2.25 for a mini cupcake, we again, felt ripped off.

That was a year ago.  Then about a month ago, my friend offered to hook me up with the pastry chef there, for an "apprenticeship".  I was looking for a job, so I figured "Why not?"

...But after being disappointed twice, I was feeling quite skeptical.

So we set up a meeting time, and I got to meet the chef.  A nice cheery lady, she went over several options that are available.  I got scheduled to work there (sans pay...) the beginning of May.

My friend and I stuck around longer and ordered a vanilla macaron, Paris Brest, and some Citrus pastry.  I was again, a bit skeptical, but when I tried the macaron...it was good!  Crisp shell and soft interior...just like what the others have described the ideal macaron to be.  The Paris Brest was, as expected, a bit tough, but the cream was smooth, creamy, and hazelnutty.  The citrus pastry was basically citrus creme inside a joconde spongecake cup, garnished with candied orange.  It was pretty good. 

Wow.  I guess they really improved on their technique within the last year!  I was quite impressed.

Then the other day, my friend brought me a new pastry made there:  Strawberry Dome.

The outermost layer is strawberry mousse.  The interior consists of layers of vanilla creme, strawberry jam, a genoise/joconde sponge, and what I call a "mystery gelee".  The strawberry mousse was texturally spot-on, light and fluffy, with good strawberry flavor, but a little too sweet.  The vanilla creme was nice and smooth, not too sweet.  The sponge was thin and moist.  I'm not sure what this "mystery gelee" is.  It had a sour tang, but no discernible flavor--no lemon or orange, so it definitely wasn't citrus.  If I had to guess, I would say apple or rhubarb.  The white chocolate crispy pearls were crunchy and added a welcome textural contrast to the fluffy mousse.
Overall, this tasted good, light and fluffy, with good strawberry flavor, but again, a little too sweet.  This one is also very similar to the birthday cake I made for my niece back in October last year, when my sister's family came to visit.

Samoa Macaron

What??  A French Samoa Macaron?  Sounds like an oxymoron...

But no, the "Samoa" here refers to one of the most popular Girls Scout cookies.  The cookie consists of vanilla cookie coated with caramel, sprinkled with toasted coconut and laced with chocolate stripes.  I've had it before, but it was so sweet it made my teeth hurt. 

As an experiment, I decided to make Samoa macarons.  How about a coconut meringue shell, caramel buttercream filling, and chocolate?

I substituted about half of the almond meal with dessicated coconut (that I pulverized in the food processor to a fine powder).  My macarons always come out hollow, so as another experiment, I added a tablespoon of cornstarch to see if that will add stability.

Wait, I lied.  There were times when my macarons didn't come out hollow...and those were chocolate macarons.  Those were the only ones that didn't come out hollow.  All I did was add two tablespoons of cocoa powder to the regular batter and that seemed to fill out the empty space.

So I added the cornstarch, and baked it a little longer than usual.  I did some research and found out that underbaking can cause hollows.

They turned out quite nice...at least on the outside.  I filled them with caramel buttercream, and rolled the outside with finely chopped chocolates and cashews.

How were they?  Not bad.  The coconut flavor was subtle at first, then kicked in later as they're being chewed.  And chew you must.  They were pretty chewy for macaron--don't know if that's due to the coconut powder or because I overbaked them.  Again, they were hollow....
Or so I thought.  I was delighted to find out that there were a few that weren't!!
Was it the cornstarch that did the trick?  Maybe.  It's definitely worth playing around with.

Pistachio Macarons revisited



With approximately 2lbs. stockpile of pistachios on hand, making pistachio macarons was my next agenda.  I've made these before;  while they turned out tasty, they were a little too soft and the color too pale to be called "pistachio".

For these, I used the recipe from Advanced Baking & Pastry textbook.  I've been using my own recipe (adapted from Martha Stewart's.  Hers had the most bizzare instructions) which worked pretty well, but always resulted in hollow shells. 

Yes, I have a confession to make: I've yet to make the perfect macarons that are not hollow.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong either.  Anyway, I just went ahead with the recipe, substituting about half of the almond flour with ground pistachios.

 I folded in the almond-pistachio flour + powdered sugar mixture into the whipped meringue. There was this nagging feeling I may have overwhipped the egg whites a tad bit, but the resulting mixture looked fine, except they still looked a bit pale.  I piped them out, let them rest, and baked them...



It's just so cool to watch how the feet develop on macarons! 

Well, they look gorgeous on the outside...

 For the filling: Cardamom-spiced Pistachio buttercream and Morello cherry jam.

So how were they?

DELICIOUS.  Even my Mom, who hasn't been feeling too well this past week (due to extremely unstable weather and temperature) and had very little appetite, pronounced them divine.

Unfortunately they were all hollow.  I recently found Chef Eddy VanDamme's blog (he's one of the psatry chefs who wrote the On Baking textbook that we've been using at school), and he said that the On Baking recipe is excellent.  I shall try this recipe next time...

Triple P's: Pear, Pistachio, and Puff Pastry

Pistachios were on sale this week! I was quite ecstatic--the price of the pistachios had skyrocketed the past couple of months. There are several reasons why this is, but the main idea is that the supply just can't keep up with the demand.

Pistachios are harvested in the fall, when the supply is at its highest, and hence the price is lowest. Over the course of the year, as the supply dwindles, the price increases, and is at its highest in the summer. The skyrocketing price of pistachios during winter is perhaps indicating at the ridiculous and insane increase in the demand. If half the world is clamouring after this nut, then of course the price will increase.

But who can blame them? I love pistachios (and any nuts for that matter. I'm a nut addict), love their intense, yet not overpowering nutty flavor.

I ground some pistachios and mixed it into my homemade vanilla ice cream. With scrap pieces of the puff pastry (still leftover...), Moscato-poached Bosc pear, and caramel sauce....

 

A Deconstructed Pear Tarte Tatin with Pistachio ice cream and rum-caramel sauce. The ice cream was intensely pistachio-y and nutty.

I'm brainstorming on what to do with the pistachios. A torte? Mousse? Macaron? Tart?

The possibilities are endless!

Gastronomical Exploration: Em's Restaurant

It's been a long time since I went out to a restaurant for dinner.  My friend had a free concert ticket, so he invited me, along with a dinner at one of his favorite restaurants, Em's Restaurant.  I've heard good things about this place, so I was pretty excited.  I was especially looking forward to their bread pudding.

We started out with their special, the Asparagus soup with Creme Fraiche.



Creamy and smooth, with just the right amount of seasoning (they used a good stock) the soup actually tasted like asparagus!  The creme fraiche added a mild tang for a nice flavor contrast.

Bread with butter.  It was a regular baguette, definitely not sourdough.  I wonder if they bake their own?

My salad.  Apple, pinenuts, and dried cranberries with Blue Cheese-Lemon vinaigrette, fresh mixed greens.  Again, just the right amount of dressing, not too much, not too little.  Being used to eating Maytag blue cheese straight, I found the dressing to be tame, but flavorful.

 My friend's entree.  Marinated Pork Chop with Maple-Mustard-Bacon BBQ Sauce, mashed potatoes and crispy fried carrots.  I only had a bite of the chop (I can't eat a whole lot of meat--my GI goes berserk otherwise), but it was very juicy and tender.  The chop itself was almost an inch thick, yet it was cooked all the way through--the cooks definitely know what they're doing!

The aftermath.  As I've mentioned, I only had a bite--my friend finished the rest.  And I mean, really finished it.  He licked the plate clean, using the bread to mop up all the sauces and any juice that gushed out from the chop.



For dessert, we ordered their famous Pecan Bread Pudding.
I've had bread puddings at other restaurants, but didn't like them at all. So I made some at home, which even my Mom (who normally doesn't like bread puddings) liked. But would mine be considered a "good" bread pudding? What constitutes a "good" bread pudding anyway?? My friend, an avid restaurant critic, claimed the Em's bread pudding to be divine. I trusted his opinion...

Here it is, Pecan Bread Pudding, with ice cream and caramel sauce.  It was indeed, very good.  Light and soft, served warm, studded with pecans, spiced with cinnamon.  The one I make is lighter, with more custard, but this one had a good balance of bread-to-custard ratio, which can be a bit tough to nail.  FYI, do not go to Tin Angel Cafe for bread pudding.  The one I had tasted good, but was way too dense, almost like a dense butter cake.

Finally I know what a good bread pudding is supposed to be like!  And I'm glad to know mine's not too far off.

Not-so-egg-free Choux

After several failed attempts at creating egg-free choux (granted I've still yet to try out the EnerG egg replacer), I was starting to have doubts.

Doubts as in, "Are the eggs (or lack thereof) really the determining factor here?  Or is it that (*gasp!* Heaven forbid!) I've gotten rusty in my choux-making skills????"  

So just to check to make sure my skills are up to par, I did exactly what I've been doing in  making the egg-free choux pastry, but put in actual eggs instead of the substitutes.  I piped them out, put them in the oven, and monitored what happened.


A few minutes into baking.  No sign of puffing yet...

Few minutes later.  The top is getting dry and starting to crack.

 

Woohoo!!  They puffed into golden perfection!
Here are the pics of a bigger choux, about 3" in diameter.

Conclusion:  yes, eggs are indeed the determining factor whether the choux puffs up into an airy globe or not.

But something similar can be made sans eggs:  egg-free popovers.  Egg-free popovers (use EnerG instead of eggs in a regular popover recipe) are definitely less complicated than choux.  Just mix everything together in a blender, portion into muffin pans, and bake.  But again, it will be more like a muffin, and probably won't form those air pockets.
Maybe try scooping out the insides of the egg-free popovers, and fill the resulting cavity with egg-free cream....behold.... A faux puffs!

Egg-free Choux?

My dear sister-in-law has children with severe allergies.  One of them is allergic to eggs, and she asked if I can teach her how to make egg-free cream puffs (i.e. choux creme).  I honestly didn't know if that's even possible.  Eggs are the ingredients necessary to create those lovely air pockets in choux puffs.  In baked goods, eggs can be substituted with a mixture of ground flaxseed and water.  But will it have the same effect in choux?  I decided to experiment.

First off, the basic choux pastry, before the addition of eggs (this is half the recipe)...

Preheat oven to 400F.  Combine 2 oz unsalted butter (half a stick), 4 oz (1/2 cup) of water or milk (or a combo of both), 1/2 tsp of sugar.  Bring to boil over high heat.

See how it's bubbly and boiling?  Make sure to let it boil and melt all the butter.

Remove from heat.  Dump in 1/2 cup of flour all at once.  Stir vigorously to mix.



It will come together into a ball.  Return to heat, and "cook" over moderately high heat until a "film" starts forming on the bottom of the pot, as shown below...

At this point, I put in the egg-substitute:  the flaxseed-water mixture.  About 1Tbsp of ground flaxseed + 3 Tbsp of water for every egg called for in the recipe.

The experimental egg-free choux dough, ready to be piped out.

Piped onto a baking sheet.  Doing this on parchment would be better.

To remedy the pointy tops, use a spoon or your fingers dipped in water.  Press gently to smooth it out.

There!  Nice and smooth.  Not doing this won't affect the flavor, but will cause them to bake into...well, pointy-headed cream puffs, instead of the smooth, rounded puffs.

Bake for 25~30 minutes, until golden brown.

So how did these turn out?

...HORRIBLE.  They were so bad I couldn't bring myself to take their pics.  Ten minutes into baking, they had turned into oily pancakes and I had to put them in the compost pile.  Flaxseeds just do not have the same binding properties of egg proteins to create that air pocket.

I don't know if using commercial egg-replacers will do the trick.  I've read up on other people's blogs to see if any of them have been successful.  There were some who said they turned out well, while others said they were horrible.  Still others said the egg substitutes will make a similar product, but definitely not the same.

Guess I'll keep trying... 

Pear compote and Profiterole

From the previous dessert--the Saint-Honore--I had some extra choux shells on hand.  

Choux shells are versatile in sweet or savory applications.  They can be filled with mousse or ice creams for dessert;  with creamy potato salads or savory cheese fillings as fancy hors d'oevoures.

I had used up all the pastry cream, but had plenty of the Tahitian vanilla ice cream (homemade of course).  To spice things up,I mixed in freshly ground cardamom into the ice cream.  I sliced up the Bosc pear compote (poached in Chardonnary).  The sauces (Merlot sauce and rum-caramel sauce here) are spooned onto the plates before the various components are placed.  Doing this accomplishes two things (I believe...):  #1. Anchors the components onto the plates, so they won't slide around. #2. Each component stands out, instead of being obscured by the sauce.

For garnish, I used the Citrus mint that Mom got the other day.  This variety of mint has a lemon-y aftertaste.  To me, it tastes more like basil than a mint.



Both sauces went really well with the pears and the profiteroles.  I love being able to make our own ice creams, thanks to the hand-cranked ice cream maker we bought at a thrift store.  It guarantees freshness, has no preservatives, and having control over what goes into the ice cream is a relief.  I'm thinking about making vegan ice creams in the future.

I have a dear family member whose children have severe allergies.  One of the children is allergic to eggs, and she asked me if I can tell her how to make egg-free cream puffs. 

Honestly, I don't know if that's even possible.  Eggs are what causes the choux dough to expand and create those air pockets in the cream puffs.  Can egg replacers--or any substitutes for that matter--mimic the phenomenon?  Well....there's only one way to find out, right???

...Yet another puff pastry dessert!

I was finally down to one rectangular sheet of baked puff pastry. By this time, we were getting a bit tired of the millefeuille (spoiled, aren't we??), so I made something I've always wanted to make...A Saint-Honore'!

Named after a saint, Saint-Honore is a classic pastry that has a puff pastry base, with Creme Chiboust (a vanilla pastry cream lightened with Italian meringue), Creme Chantilly (a.k.a. sweetened whipped cream), and adorned with miniature choux creme (a.k.a. cream puffs).

The actual saint, St. Honore, is a patron saint of bakers and pastry chefs. Legend goes, that his nursemaid refused to believe that he had been proclaimed bishop, claiming that she will believe only if the baker's peel (a huge oar-like spatula used to remove breads from the oven) she's using put down roots and turns into a tree. Upon being placed on the ground, the peel turned into a blackberry tree.

Legends aside, how does the actual pastry taste? I used the leftover pastry cream to make the Creme Chiboust, baked off a few choux creme shells (there's a side story to this, btw), and assembled the whole thing. The miniature choux are traditionally dipped in caramel.

Turned out pretty good! It was a wonderful combination of textural contrasts: The flaky crisp puff pastry, contrasted by the creamy Creme Chiboust, the more lighter and silkier whipped cream, the crunchy caramel on choux creme... I've never eaten the real thing, so I don't know how close I got. But both my parents thought it tasted delicious. Yet another proof that a dessert that lasted for a few millenia is guaranteed to taste good.

More Puff Pastry Desserts!

I still had lots of puff pastry and vanilla cream leftover from Sunday, so another millefeuille-type dessert was in order. We already had the strawberry version, so I opted for...Chocolate and banana!

I whisked in cocoa powder to the vanilla pastry cream. I was careful to sift it in, so it won't form any lumps. Once smooth, I piped them onto the pastries, arranged banana slices, and voila...

Chunky-Monkey Millefeuille. Despite the fact I used cocoa powder, the chocolate cream turned out smooth and quite decadent, like chocolate truffles. The whole plate is finished with chocolate sauce and toasted almonds.

But it still needed something to balance the whole thing out, since everything on here is quite sweet. Something mellow and neutral...like whipped cream!

It was quite delicious! But there are still some puff pastries left. What shall I make next?

P.S. For an egg-free option, just replace the chocolate truffle cream with chocolate whipped cream. The puff pastry itself does not contain eggs whatsoever. And it will taste just as good!

Puff Pastry Desserts!

Strawberries were on sale this past week again...so a strawberry dessert for our Bible study was in order! But what to make? I made strawberry shortcake last time. Something that's not cake...

How about puff pastries? A Strawberry Millefeuille? ...Perfect.

A millefeuille (pronounced millu-fee-yu) is made from (traditionally) three layers of puff pastry with vanilla pastry cream in between each layers. The top layer is finished with fondant, but can also be dusted with powdered sugar. The puff pastry...I guess the best way to describe it is that it's like the outermost layer of the flakiest croissant, except about 1/2" thick and in sheets. And did I mention that it's flaky? As a matter of fact, millefeuille means "thousand sheets" in French. When made correctly, these fragile layers will literally shatter into thousand flakes and sheets. A portion of mine seriously turned into a 'leaf pile'. Millefeuille is called 'Napoleon' in other places--probably because 'Napoleon' is just easier to pronounce.

It's been a long time since I've made puff pastry, so this was a good practice. I rolled out the dough as thinly as possible before folding into thirds (called a single-book fold or three-fold). The thing of utmost importance is allowing the dough to rest inbetween each turns in the fridge for at least half an hour. The dough should have at least 5 turns completed to produce satisfactory results. This is why homemade/made from scratch puff pastry takes pretty much an entire day to make. But the difference between homemade and store-bought puff pastry is INCREDIBLE. Most brands of store-bought puff pastries list vegetable shortening as their primary ingredient (not butter), so tend to have this weird aftertaste.

I used the recipe from my textbook, and did 6 turns. Once rolled out into a thin, thin sheet (about 2mm thick) I baked it, and cut it into sheets.
I made the pastry cream, and folded some whipped cream into it...except the cream was a little too soft. After I assembled the whole thing, I put it in the fridge to let it chill and set...except when I checked on it a few hours later, the top two layers had slid off to the side (the plate was tilted, thanks to the crowded condition of our fridge)!
I put it all back together, hiding the flaws with fruits and piped cream. Hiding mistakes and flaws also requires technique.

Strawberry Millefeuille, garnished with chocolate mint leaves. This particular variety of mint has a sweet, candy-like flavor, almost like Andes mint chocolates.

Despite not making it for a while, the puff pastry turned out excellent!

But now I was left with lot of puff pastry ends and pieces. What to do with them...?

...Make more desserts, of course!

A lunch for 75, a dinner for 50, and breakfast for 50

This past week, my friend from school asked me if I can help her with a catering event at her workplace--I'll get paid, of course. I was more than glad to--I'm on a job hunt, and appreciated any paid work, even if it's temporary.
She works at a Church Center in downtown. It's basically an event center, where groups from (pretty much) any religious background can hold a meeting, a conference, a retreat, etc.
There were several different groups having a meeting this week. I helped out on Tuesday, with a lunch for 75; Wednesday, a dinner for 50; and Thursday, a breakfast and lunch for 50.

We made veggie and turkey wraps and baked off cookies for lunch on Tuesday. Later, we prepped for the Wednesday meals. My friend, who is none too fond of baking, was more than happy to have me bake the desserts; cookies, pecan pie bars, and poundcakes.
While the goodies were in the oven, I helped her make veggie and turkey wraps for 75 people, then cut up fruits and vegetables.

Wednesday, I cut up and skewered the chicken (while baking more desserts) and made mashed potatoes while she cut up some more fruits, and made pasta salad and Pesto Pinwheels. Once things settled down, we chatted while making cucumber cups and Caprese skewers.

We were so busy making and prepping things I had barely enough time to snap photos. But here is the dinner menu we served on Wednesday.

The Artichoke Dip and the Pesto Pinwheels. The Teriyaki Chicken Skewers are on the chafing dish to the left, out of view.

The hors d'vour and dessert table. The Cucumber cups are filled with hummus. At the last minute, the manager lady rushed in, and gave us *shudder* store-bought Red Velvet and Carrot cake as a backup.

Thursday, I arrived at 6AM for the 7:30AM breakfast service. My friend was already in the kitchen, cooking hash browns and eggs. She had me prepare the fruit and the muffin tray, and make pancakes. It was a LOT of food, even for 50 people; there were so much leftovers and no one touched the pancakes. I think there were about a gallon of pancake batter leftover. My friend told me to toss it out, but I offered to take it home--cuz, you know, that's just me. I always give foods a second chance.

I had a lot of fun with this catering event. Although it can get stressful, once the food gets served, it's over--there's no rush of customers that filters in at the last minute, since there are only a set number of people. The menu is very flexible too. Maybe I'll incorporate catering into my business plan...someday.