Challenge of the Week #5

Like most French patisserie the true origin of the small cakes known as madeleines is lost in the mists of time. However, also like most French patisserie, there is creation myth, in fact two. It’s generally agreed that they were named after a cook called Madeleine Paulmier, but one version has her living in the 19^th century and the other has her working in the 18^th century, for Stanisław Leszczyński, ex-King of Poland, Duke of Lorraine, and father-in-law to King Louis XV.  Leszczyński subsequently introduced them to the court at Versailles ensuring their entrance into the canon of French cuisine. 

The second story rings true, because the town of Commercy, within the Duchy of Lorraine, claims them as their own a claim supported by the early 20th century writer Marcel Proust who mentions them in his classic À la recherche du temps perdu. ‘Mentions’ in fact is an understatement, since Proust devotes no less than 1,043 words singing the praises of this little cake, which he finds a most sensual experience.

As Proust puts it, the cakes are baked in a special tin that makes them look as if they were ‘molded in a fluted scallop shell’. The top of the madeleine is supposed to rise dramatically in the middle which Proust describes as ‘richly sensual under the severe and pious pleating’. If you look the photographs, I think you can see what this typically French man was thinking about. One side is like a ridge bishop’s mitre, while the other has a baby bump.

The baby bump is formed by creating a ‘thermal shock’ achieved by cooking the cakes in a very hot oven and then lowering the temperature for the rest of the cooking. The cooking time is very short, which combined with a process of resting the batter, contributes to a very light but moist cake which can actually be heard to sigh when you bite into it. You, see, I am turning into Proust.

To make madeleines properly you need a special mold, which is available all over France, quelle surprise, but also widely available elsewhere. Here is a link to, for example, amazon.com. You can flavor the madeleine with vanilla, orange water, or as is traditional lemon zest. Whatever you choose the flavor should be subtle and delicate just suggested in the background to the, sumptuous, elegant sponge.

The recipe below is a classic one, but in future weeks I plan to revisit the madeleine perhaps taking it to some very surprising places. But for now, sit back and enjoy the taste and perhaps compare it to Proust’s experience.

Madeleines

Active time: 20 mins

Total time: 1 hr

1 lemon

90g / 6 tbsp butter

3 eggs

110g / 4oz flour

100g / 1/2 cup caster sugar

1 tsp baking powder

1. Preheat the oven to 220°C / 425°F.

2. Melt the butter in a saucepan and let it cool for about five minutes.

3. Remove the zest of the lemon using a potato peeler; chop into small pieces using a sharp knife.

4. Beat the eggs and sugar together in a bowl with a whisk The mixture should thicken slightly and be very frothy.

5. Add the flour and baking powder and mix with the whisk until incorporated. Then add the butter and the lemon zests. The result will be a batter which falls off the whisk in ribbons.

6. Leave the batter to rest for 30 minutes. During this time you can grease the molds with butter.

7. Using a piping bag, half fill the molds with the batter. Then bake for 4 minutes. Lower the oven to 200°C / 400°F and bake for a further 8 minutes.

8. Leave the madeleines to cool a little before removing them from the molds.

The top side of the madeleines showing the 'baby bump'.

Challenge of the Week #4

The challenge: The classic post Christmas cake the galette des rois. 

On 26 December, through the magic of Christmas, the bûches de Noël disappear from the pȃtisseries of Paris, and in their place appear flat discs of puff pastry, destined to be eaten on the Feast of the Epiphany or the Fȇte des Rois, celebrated on the Sunday closest to January 6. They tend to come in three varieties, some with plain tops, some with simple geometric designs, and others with elaborate patterns of laurel leaves, rather like the gold, frankincense and myrrh offered to the baby Jesus by the three Kings. 

Biting into the cripsy exterior, your mouth fills with a sweet almond frangipane as flakes of pastry fall like needles from the Christmas tree to cover the floor. But let the eater beware, for one lucky person will have, concealed in their slice the fève, orignally, as the name suggests, a bean, but now more commonly a ceramic figure from the Christmas story. Tradition dictates that the youngest person present must sit under the dining table while the galette is cut and chooses the order in which the slices will be distributed. On finding the fève you have the honor of being crowned King for the day, with a cardboard crown supplied with the galette. 

A selection of traditional fèves

In keeping with the commercialization of Christmas, you will often see galettes sold in the supermarket with fèves in the shape of cartoon characters, or whichever children's film is popular that year. This year, for example, my local supermarket was touting the rather bizarre concept of galettes concealing Bilbo Baggins. 

The recipe for the galette des rois is quite simple in itself, but it calls for pȃte feuilletée, which as you will remember from my last post, is anything but simple. If making the recipe below, you can either make your own, or do as many French people do nowadays, and buy it ready made from the shop. 

Here is a link to a round of up of the galettes des rois created this year by the top pȃtissieres here in Paris. 

La galette des rois

Active time: 20 mins
Total time: 1 hr

500g pȃte feuilletée (puff pastry)

For the frangipane:
125g / 4 tbsp butter
125g / 5/8 cup sugar
125g / 1 cup powdered almonds
2 whole eggs
1 tsp almond essence

For the glaze:1 whole egg, beaten

1. Make the puff pastry, if you are starting from scratch, and give it four turns only. 

2. Make the frangipane. Beat the butter and sugar together using a whisk or an electric mixer. Add the powdered almonds and mix well. Then beat in the eggs and the almond essence. 

3. Roll and cut out two large discs of the pȃte feuilletée (approximately 8 inches each). Put the frangipane into a piping bag and then, leaving about an inch  at the edge, pipe a spiral into the center of one of the discs. Take the fève and push it into the frangipane in a random place. 

4. Using a pastry brush, wet the exposed edge of the pastry with water. Then cover the whole with the second disk and press down to stick the edges of the disks together. Brush the whole of the surface with beaten egg and leave in the fridge for approximately 30 minutes. 

5. Preheat the oven to 200°C / 390°F Brush the surface with a second layer of egg and then make a small hole in the centre with a knife. Score a pattern on the top with a sharp knife, being careful not to cut through the pastry. 

6. Place in the oven and bake for 40 minutes and then a further 10 minutes with the oven door open. Bon appetit!

I decided on a star design for my galette in keeping with the Epiphany story.

Challenge of the Week #2

The challenge: Eat a classic pastry from a top pȃtisserie in Paris and, using it as inspiration, create a similar recipe that can be made easily at home.

The pastry: macarons

The pȃtisserie: Dalloyau, 101 Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré, 75008, Paris

A few weeks ago, I was lucky enough to attend a masterclass by Christophe Michalak, one of the top pȃtissiers in France. At the beginning, he went round the group asking people what they liked to bake and home and what they wanted to be able to bake. One woman said, ‘I would love to be able to bake macarons, but …’ and everyone else in the room, Chef Michalak, included, gave a knowing sympathetic look.

Macarons are to France what cupcakes are the the USA. However, unlike cupcakes, they have a mystique surrounding them based on their supposed difficulty to make. A recent episode of Le Meilleur Pȃtissier contributed to this mystique when almost every contestant completely bodged their macarons and more ended up in the bin than before the judges.  They consist of two almond meringue shells with a flavored filling sandwiched between. The shells are colored to reflect the flavor of the filling.

Almost every eatery in Paris, MacDonalds included, serve macarons. Two boutiques in particular, Ladurée and Pierre Hermé specialize in them and are often have queues the length of which seem proportional to their prices. It would have been obvious to have visited one of these for this challenge, but instead, I chose what is supposed to be one of the oldest pȃtisseries in Paris, Dalloyau.

Dalloyau, Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré

From 1682-1789 four generations of the Dalloyau family served as master pȃtissier to the kings of France at the palace of Versailles. As the macaron was popular even then, it seems inevitable that Dalloyau would have baked them for Queen Marie-Antoinette, and it is for this that I chose them. After the revolution, in 1802 the Dalloyau of his day set up a pȃtisserie in the Rue du Faubourg Saint-Honoré which is where I found them ready and waiting. Later, the shop was responsible for the introduction of another Parisian classic, the Opéra Cake, but that’s a different challenge.

I chose four different flavors of macaron from Dalloyau: pistachio, pink grapefruit, raspberry, and caramel fleur de sel. They all had a delicately crisp outer shell, with a gooey interior and fillings that I would say were competent rather than inspiring. I would have liked for the raspberry filling to have been more tart.

For my macarons, I chose to fill them with a home-made lemon curd as I adore the deliciously sour flavor that adds to the comfortingly sweet almond shells. For the recipe below however, I concentrate on the shells, as you can really fill them with anything you like but it’s the biscuits themselves that fill people with dread. However, like any baking, if you are meticulous about the measurements, oven temperatures and baking times, then you will master the macaron in no time. 

Note: I have written the recipe in weight measurements as they are more exact than volume measurements and for macarons, you have to be exact. The method is an amalgam of advice I have collected from top french chefs and cookery writers and a bit of trial and error from myself. However, for me, this produces perfect macarons every time. 

Macaron shells

Coque de macaron

Active time: 15 mins

Total time: 2 hrs

125g /4 1/2 oz ground almonds

225g / 8 oz icing sugar

¼ tsp food coloring powder

30g / 1 oz caster sugar

110g / 4oz egg whites

1. Heat the oven to 150° C / 300° F . Place the almonds on a baking tray and toast them for 10 minutes. Allow them to cool completely. Then pass them through a sieve, discarding any pieces which are too large. Sift them, together with the icing sugar, into a bowl.

2. Mix the food coloring with the sugar. Place them in the bowl of a stand mixer and add the egg whites. Using the whisk attachment, beat until they form stiff peaks. The consistency should be such that if you hold the bowl upside down, the mixture will not fall out.

 3. Add the egg whites to the almonds and icing sugar. Using a plastic spatula, scoop the almond mixture over the egg whites twice, and then flatten the mixture and slightly turn the bowl.  Continue to scoop, flatten, and turn until all the ingredients are combined into a smooth mixture. As soon as the ingredients are combined, draw a line in the mixture with your finger. If it closes up again, the mixture is ready. If not, continue to scoop, flatten and turn once or twice more until it does.

 4. Place the mixture in an icing bag. Then pipe small disks onto a silicon mat placed on a baking tray.  Lift the tray about three inches off the work surface and drop it to knock out any air bubbles. Do this three times. Then leave the macarons to dry at room temperature for one hour.

5. Heat the oven to 160° C / 320° F. Bake the macarons for 12 minutes. Then gently press the tops of the shells with your finger. If they are still soft, give them one more minute. Remove from the oven and allow the shells to cool completely before carefully removing them from the silicon mat. Refrigerate overnight before filling them.

Macarons filled with lemon curd

Challenge of the Week #1

The challenge: Eat a classic pastry from a top patisserie in Paris and, using it as inspiration, create a similar recipe that can be made easily at home. 

The pastry: religieuse

The pâtisserie: Cyril Lignac, 2 rue de Chaillot, 75016, Paris

In Catholic Europe, it is no surprise to find food and beverages named after members of the church. In Italy, for example, the cappuccino, takes its name from the capuchin monks, who wear coffee colored robes and always seem to have long white beards. France is no different, where one of its most traditional cakes is la religieuse, which literally means nun. A large choux bun, filled with coffee flavored crème pâtissière, with a smaller one, stuck on top by means of a cream necklace, and both buns covered in chocolate ganache, la religieuse is a common site in pâtisseries all over Paris. 

I am no big fan of chocolate and coffee in pastries, so I visited Cyril Lignac's patisserie in the trendy 16th district of Paris, since I had heard he did a raspberry religieuse that sounded intriguing. Originally from the south-west of France, Lignac came to Paris thirteen years ago, and trained and worked with some of the best chefs in the city, namely Alain Passard, the Pourcel brothers, and the legendary Pierre Hermé, and Alain Ducasse. He now owns three restaurants, including Le Quinzieme, which holds a Michelin star, and two pâtisseries, all in Paris. 

Lignac is a common sight on French TV, where he is currently one of the hosts of Le Meilleur Pâtissier, the French version of the BBC TV cult, The Great British Bake Off. 

Cyril Lignac's shop on the Rue de Chaillot, Paris 16ème

Lignac's religieuse was quite extraordinary. He used red choux pastry, which gave it an original look, reminiscent of a cardinal, but which was clearly a woman, in her Sunday best all ready for church. She wore a collar of chocolate which had been colored a metallic bronze, and her raspberry hat was topped off with gold leaf—an extremely elegant touch. The pastry was filled with a rich chocolate cream with mouth-wateringly tart raspberries throughout. I remember thinking, as I ate it in a nearby park, in full view of the Eiffel Tower, that it was one of the most exquisite things I had ever tasted—a truly religious experience. 

I decided to make my version to suit my own taste. Out went the milk chocolate, and in came white, combined with strawberries, my favorite fruit since childhood. I kept the red colored pastry, but decided to try and make it look like a cardinal, dressed up for a grand Vatican ceremony. To achieve this, I used white chocolate ganache as his surplice, and cut a strawberry in the shape of a mitre on top. To keep it simple to make at home, I abandoned the necklace, as this would have required piping skills and voilà the result. Not so stylish as Lignac's but impressive for a family gathering or as a dinner party dessert. I am going to work on refining the presentation and will give you an update when I have, but remember, the challenge was to prepare something that could be made quickly and easily at home. So, how did I do?

The recipe follows after the pictures. 

Strawberry and white chocolate religieuse

Active time: 45 mins

Total time: 2 1/2 hrs

choux pastry

1/2 tsp red powder food coloring

creme pâtissière

12 strawberries

50g / 1/4 cup white chocolate

50g / 1/4 cup cream

1. Pre-heat the oven to 250°C / 480°F. 

2. Prepare the choux pastry, but mix 1/2 teaspoon of red powder food coloring with the flour. When it is ready, put it in a piping bag and pipe six large and six small buns. Turn the oven off and place the buns in the oven for 25 minutes. Then turn the oven on to 160°C / 325°F and cook the small buns for 10 mins and the large ones for 20 mins. Leave to cool completely on a wire rack. 

3. Prepare the creme pâtissière. When it is ready, chop 6 strawberries into small pieces and stir into the cream. 

4. Break the chocolate into pieces and place in a glass bowl. Boil the cream and then add it to the bowl. Leave for 10 mins and then stir to incorporate all the chocolate. Leave to cool. 

5. Make a small hole in the top of the choux buns with a skewer. Place the creme pâtissière in a piping bag and fill each of the buns. Then dip the large buns in the white chocolate. Pipe a small amount of creme pâtissière on the top of each large bun. Dip the bottom of the small buns in the white chocolate and then stick them, upside down, to the large buns using the creme pâtissière. Cut the remaining six strawberries into mitre shapes, and then place on the top of each small bun.