Just like cupcakes, Macarons caught up fast here in Malaysia. Everyone wanted a taste of it, everyone wants to buy it at least once, wondered what was the real thing; and if you listen really carefully (it's a Chef's secret in many parts of the world), many were having a tough time getting it right every time. If you ask me, it's really so easy, rather time consuming and you will get it wrong most of the time.
Nevertheless, it was my mission to taste-test it at "Laduree", find out about "The Real Mccoy", learn about it in Paris itself; and make and bake it in Paris. And I did!
The French Macaron is a feather-light, elegant sandwich cookie re-created time after time by passionate Pastry Chefs. The base of the cookie crumples during baking and is called "the foot" while the top crust is domed and more fragile than an egg shell. The base ingredients are egg white, ground almonds, powder sugar and castor sugar. There are a variety of flavours, classic to dark chocolate, vanilla, coffee, pistachio, passion fruit, mango, raspberry, salty caramel, rose, (to name a few) and sandwiched with buttercream, ganache, curd or thick preserves. So far, real macarons are also hard to find here in Malaysia, I have yet to come across anything quite similar to the ones I've tried in Paris.
I chose to learn this Parisian Macaron (which by the way is best made with Italian meringue) at Le Grenier a Pain Boulangerie Patisserie located at Serves taught by Executive Pastry Chef Patrick Morin. I was to meet up with Corrine Preteur, CEO of Cooking and Lifestyle Vacations France at the front entrance of Darty Store, exit of rue de Bellevue. My class was scheduled for 3 hours, 2.30 to 5.30 pm. As planned, Brabon was to "drop me off" and "pick me up" accordingly and we were gonna head down to "Domaine de Lintillac" for our "French Dinner". Well, that was the plan.
We waited for a bit, Corrine arrived, introduced ourselves, spoke a little, met another American couple who were joining the class, Brabon left and off we went.
We arrived at the Boulangerie, had a really nice cup of coffee and some petite choux pastry, met Patrick's wife, some folks who worked there, sat around and took some shots.
 |
| This is the kind of Boulangerie and Patisserie I'd like open here in Malaysia |
 |
| Le Grenier a Pain - famous for their french baguettes |
 |
| Large Meringues |
 |
| I love french tarts...pity there's no demand here in Malaysia...I just love to make them! |
 |
| of cookies and cake loafs |
 |
| preserves... |
 |
| all sorts of breads fashioned by hand.... |
 |
| and cakes, eclairs... |
 |
The American couple
|
Our class took place in the heart of the boulangerie, in a vaulted basement. There is something magical about the space, the heat from the oven, the aroma, the coolness from the stoned walls, and the cloistering embrace of the low arched ceiling. How lucky I was to be there, with a french chef!
I got to really like Chef Patrick, he seemed old fashioned, warm and very comfortable to learn from. He spoke to me in French and I spoke to him in English! I say old fashion because while other chefs used their thermometers (like me) to test for softball (116-118 degrees) or hardball (125 degrees) characteristics for sugar syrups, he showed me another way. Pick up the syrup with your fingers! People, please don't try this at home....
 |
| see what I mean??? Awesome! |
Except for the Italian Meringue, everything was made by hand, imagine my tiny delicate wrists, half dead! Consistency, consistency, arrgghhh! And colours...oh my God...he is sssooo fussy...no drops..paste!
 |
| "the foot" |
 |
| See what I mean about the walls and ceiling! |
 |
| Rose, Vanilla, Dark Chocolate, Pistachio |
 |
| from Napa Valley, Calif |
As you can see how easy it is to make....and also screw up over and over again!!! Yeap, happens all the time even to me. Anyway, by the time we got out it was past 7 and windy and cold, poor Brabon! We found him waiting ever so patiently - out in the chilly air. "Quickly, let's go for hot coffee and warm you up" I said. After our coffee, I looked at him, he got the chill. "Come, let's go back...dinner can wait"...
No comments:
Post a Comment