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.