Pierre Hermé

Hello! I’m back from a week in sunny Florida, where it didn’t feel like fall at all. But I have a surprise side story: while I was there, I made a quick side trip to New York, and the 6th Star Chefs International Culinary Congress.
I didn’t intend to mix business with pleasure, but there was one reason why I couldn’t pass up this opportunity: Pierre Hermé. Any of you who have read my blog know that he has been one of my biggest pastry heroes and inspired me to go to pastry school.

The master himself was at the congress to judge a pastry competition, and to give a pastry demonstration. It is extremely rare for him to make an appearance in the US, so when Bravo North America kindly offered me the chance to sit in on Hermé’s class, there was only one answer: YES!
There were so many other famous and accomplished chefs at the congress; I wish I could have attended the entire three day event. The congress is a showcase for culinary professionals, so there was a lot of very refined, cutting-edge cooking going on – the best of the industry sharing information and techniques with each other.
Again, there were many amazing-sounding presentations I would have liked to see, but I was there for only one day, and really for one person. Above, the first presentation featuring Hermé on the main stage. Here he is, going over some last-minute checks with his assistant chef.

The talk was titled, “Emotions to Share: A Total Immersion in Sensations and Pleasure”, and focused on Hermé’s dessert philosophy and continuing pastry innovations
. Hermé showed off two creations from his dessert line called “Emotions to Share”. These desserts are a middle ground between the traditional simple cakes found in bakeries, and the elaborate, multi-component desserts in restaurants, and quite appropriately the theme for these two creations was “Entre”, or “in between”. On the video screen above you can see some of the ingredients used in the demo.
If you are familiar with Hermé’s Emotion line, a series of verrines, or parfaits, these are like supersized versions, hence “Emotions to Share”. Hermé explained that by using a mold to contain the various layers, he was able to use more delicate textures, such as pastry cream, geleés, and thin genoise, than he could in a standalone cake.
The second dessert, called “Delicieux”, featured wasabi geleé, fresh and confit grapefruit, white chocolate and wasabi mascarpone, and matcha marshmallows.
While the combination of flavors may seem offbeat, Hermé’s elaborations about the genesis of this dessert showed how much thought he puts into every element of his creations. For example, he met with a wasabi producer in Japan and learned that the bottom 1/4 of a wasabi root has a sweeter taste than the rest, so that is the part he uses. He grates fresh wasabi into the geleé as he is making it for the best flavor.
When he cuts up the grapefruit to layer in the dessert, he always includes part of the flesh, the pith, and the peel, because he wants to include all of their different flavors in the final product. The combination of wasabi and grapefruit is meant to contrast bitter and acidic – although this may not seem intuitive for pastry, he has obviously figured out how to make the two flavors work, because this is one of his most well known pairings.
The first Entre was composed of a strawberry-tomato geleé layered with olive oil mascarpone cream flecked with black Ligurian olives, and tomato fleur de sel puff pastry. You can see the puff pastry here, cut into individual “matchsticks”, which are placed between layers of cream to give texture and crunch.
Afterwards, I took a stroll around the main floor before the second Hermé demonstration started. Here’s a display case full of more dessert-y goodness. I like the cakes on the upper right with the multi-colored macaron fringe.The finished dessert has strawberries and more puff pastry arranged over the top. A very intriguing sounding combination – it was too bad that we could not sample it!
Obviously the big question in the audience was, how does Pierre Hermé come up with his crazy yet delicious flavor combinations? When asked, Hermé displayed his true artist’s nature. Asking an artist where his inspiration comes from is obviously one of the most difficult questions to answer. Hermé claimed that he does not seek flavors, they find him.
He comes up with a scenario, an architecture of taste in his mind, and then selects and refines the techniques to achieve this imagined result. As I listened to him describe his creation process, I was able to parse some general guidelines:
1.Get to deeply know your ingredients – for example, going to Japan to learn about wasabi.
Hermé also likes to explore all the various forms of one flavor: his Infiniment Vanille series of desserts features vanilla in every component, layered to create an extreme vanilla experience.
He even created a special Pierre Hermé house blend of vanilla, a mix of Tahitian, Madagascar, and Mexican vanilla proportioned to his liking, that he uses in his pastry.
2. Don’t take flavor combinations for granted. Hermé said that every time he recreates his famous Ispahan combination (raspberry, rose, lychee) in a new form – say ice cream, or tart, he has to re-evaluate how the flavors work together in a different format.
It’s not just of matter of throwing the same flavors together any old way. He works to recalibrate the flavor balance in the new incarnation so the interaction, and the overall experience, is the same.
3. It may take time to get flavors to work together properly. Hermé related how he originally paired grapefruit and wasabi in a sorbet, but wasn’t happy with the result. It wasn’t until later that he got the combination to work in a macaron, and finally his “emotions to share”.
Hermé also has a sly sense of humor. When someone in the audience mentioned that she was having difficulty getting her customers to try her matcha-inspired desserts, he answered that the first time he tried matcha, he hated it. He said that he had to keep trying it to figure out how to use it in a dessert.
He suggested that sometimes it will take time and patience for your audience to “get” what you have created. He also joked that when he first came up with the Ispahan combination at Fauchon, it sold once every earthquake – meaning not very often. It’s hard to imagine that Hermé’s signature flavor wasn’t immediately embraced by the public, but it took a while to catch on.
Now, it seems every pastry shop has their own version of the Ispahan. I thought Hermé was very kind in encouraging young pastry chefs to be persistent, and to believe in their craft.

Beautiful Cookies

As I’ve told you before, last Purim I’ve played the cookie game, on an Israeli food forum I’m a member of. There are many talented members on that forum, but one of the most talented among them is Sivan, the girl who sent me the cookies on that game. The cookies were so great, that they barely lasted a week, and we’re talking lots of cookies here.

One of the cookies we loved most in that package were these alfajores, maybe the best I’ve ever eaten. Avi says I’m declaring that too often about food, but in this case, he definitely agreed with me.
For a few months now, a good friend I work with, told me about her cookie fobia. “No cookies I ever make turn out well”, she used to tell me. So a few weeks ago I invited her over for a cookie baking evening, to get rid of her fobia. And we made these awesome alfajores! The recipe was very accurate, as all Sivan’s recipes, and it allowed us to reach the same great cookies as the ones she sent me.
Do you also have a cookie or other pastry fobia? First of all, try these cookies. They are real easy to make and to get great results with. And second, remember that many times the reason of a failed dish is a not accurate enough recipe, or one that is lacking important information, and there’s also the reason of not following the recipe closely enough. The pastry world, as you probably know, requires a great deal of accuracy. So go ahead, give your fobia subject one more try, this time with a recipe from a reliable source, and try to follow it exactly as it’s written.

Some notes and tips about these cookies:

* This recipe calls for a mixer. Don’t have one? No worries, you can also do it manually. Use cold butter instead of softened one, and cut it into cubes. Place all the ingredients except the egg yolks and vanilla extract in a bowl, and crumble the mixture by rubbing it in your palms. The final mixture should be crumbly, and resemble to couscous crumbles, only a bit bigger. Then add in the yolks and the vanilla extract, and knead it only until a uniform dough is created.
* The secret of a good short crust is processing it as little as you can since the flour comes in contact with liquids, so make sure you pay attention to it.
* Not that much into dulce de leche? You can fill these cookies also with Nutella or with a chocolate spread or halva spread, and even with dates spread.
* If the spread you chose is too firm to work with, warm it for several seconds in the microwave.
Alfajores / Siva
For about 25 alfajores
Ingredients:
150 gr butter, soft
100 gr powdered sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract
150 gr cornstarch
150 gr flour
5 gr baking powder
4 egg yolks
For filling and rolling:
A jar of dulce de leche
Coconut flakes
Directions:
1. Cream butter and powdered sugar in the mixer (no mixer? see tips), add in the yolks one be one and then the vanilla extract.
2. In a separate bowl, mix the cornstarch, flour and baing powder, and add them into the butter mixture. Process only until a dough is formed, and not longer than that. Chill in the refrigerator for 2 hours.
3. Preheat the oven to 350F (180C).
4. Roll the dough 0.5 cm thick, and cut cookies out of it using a glass or cookie cutters.
5. Bake for about 10 mins, or until the cookies just begin to change their color, but are still relatively light.
6. Pipe (or use teaspoonfulls) dulce de leche on top of one cookie, close it with a “clean” cookie and squeeze a bit, for the filling to show a little, so that it will easily stick to the coconut. Roll the cookies in coconut flakes.

Chocolate Dessert

To start off, you need to make two lots of biscuit dough, one flavoured with vanilla, the other with cocoa. For the vanilla dough, mix one batch of flour, icing sugar, butter and salt with the seeds from the vanilla pod and rub together.

Work the mixture until it warms slightly and turns to a firm dough.
For the chocolate dough, mix a second batch of flour, icing sugar, butter and salt, only this time replace 25g flour with 25g cocoa. Work together in the same way.

Line the base of two round 18cm sponge cake tins with a disc of nonstick paper and heat the oven to 180C (160C fan-assisted)/350F/gas mark 4. Meanwhile, get on with the cake mix – melt the chocolate, then beat in the oil, cream, sugar, honey and vanilla. Beat in the eggs one at a time, then stir together the cocoa, flour and baking powder, and sift in. Divide the mixture between the tins and bake for around 25 minutes, until a skewer pulls out with just a few crumbs sticking to it.

Line the base of an 18cm square tin with nonstick paper, pat the vanilla dough evenly into it, then flip it out on to a worksurface. Repeat with the chocolate dough, then lightly brush water on top of one sheet of dough and squarely lay the other on top of it. Use a rolling pin to seal, then cut into thirds.

Brush each third lightly with water and stack in alternating chocolate and vanilla layers. Wrap and chill for 30 minutes. Cut lengthways into 1cm slices, moisten again and stack alternately in layers. Wrap and chill once more, then cut into 0.5cm chequerboard slices. Lay on a tray lined with nonstick baking paper and bake at 160C (140C fan-assisted)/320F/gas mark 2½ for 20-25 minutes, until crisp and barely golden.

While the cakes are warm, make the syrup by stirring the icing sugar and vanilla with 25ml boiling water. Prick the cake tops, spoon over the syrup and leave to cool in the tin, covered with paper or clingfilm.


For the frosting, melt the chocolate and butter, stir in the honey, bourbon and sifted icing sugar, leave until cool, then beat in the sour cream. When the mixture firms slightly, beat again, sandwich the cakes together with it and spread the rest over the top and sides.

For the mousse, briskly stir the egg whites and sugar over a gentle heat until about to set and piping hot (this kills any bugs), then whisk to a thick, light meringue.

Melt the chocolate, stir in the brandy and boiling water, fold in the meringue, spoon into ramekins, cover and chill to set. Serve with the biscuits for dunking.

How to make Chicken Enchiladas

Ingredients:
8 6-inch tortillas
1/2 c chopped onions
4 cloves garlic, minced
1 t ground coriander
1/4 t pepper
2 T margarine or butter
3 T all-purpose our
8 oz sour cream
2 c chicken broth
2 seeded and chopped jalapeno peppers; or one 4-ounce can diced green chili peppers, drained
1 c (4 oz) shredded Monterey Jack cheese
2 c cooked chicken
Sliced pitted ripe olives (optional)
Chopped tomatoes (optional)
Sliced green onions (optional)
Chicken Enchiladas Wrap torillas in foil. Heat in a 350 degree over for 10 to 15 minutes or until softened.
For sauce, in a saucepan saute onion, garlic, coriander, and pepper in margarine or butter until onion is tender. Stir our into sour cream; add to onion mixture. Stir in broth and chili peppers all at once. Cook and stir until thickened and bubbly. Remove from heat, stir in 1/2 cup of cheese.
For _lling, stir 1/2 cup of the sauce into chicken. Place about 3/4 cup _lling atop each tortilla; roll up. Arrange rolls, seam side down, in a lightly greased 12 by 7 inch baking dish. Top with remaining sauce. Bake, covered, in a 350 degree oven for about 35 minutes or until heated through.
Sprinkle with remaining cheese. Bake, uncovered, about 5 minutes more or until cheese melts. If desired, sprinkle with olives, tomatoes, and green onions.
Let stand 10 minutes.
Makes 4 servings.

Idea 2:

Roast chicken :
1 chicken, cut into 2 sections, then baked
2 tablespoons cooking oil
6 tablespoons sweet taste soy sauce
2 tablespoons honey
Sauce :
2 tablespoons olive oil
1 pc onion, chopped
3 cloves garlic, minced
3 large red chilli
3 large green chilli
200 ml broth
500 grams tomatoes, blender, then boil until thickened
1 teaspoon salt and 1 / 2 tsp pepper powder
6 tortillas, heat
150 grams cheddar cheese, grated

How to cook Chicken Enchiladas :

Roast chicken: for chicken marinade, combine oil, sweet soy sauce, and honey, let stand for 15 minutes. Roast the chicken until cooked, scratched.
Chili seeded and green chilies, then chop.
Sauce: heat oil, saute onion and garlic until fragrant.
Enter the chopped chilies, broth, tomato puree, salt, and pepper powder, cooking until thickened, lift.
Prepare heat-resistant dish, take the tortillas, fill with grilled chicken scratched and cheese, then roll. Pour sauce over tortillas, sprinkle with cheese and grilled for 20 minutes, lift. Serve.

Pumpkin pie is an irresistible fall classic

Pumpkin pie is an irresistible fall classic; here, a new dimension is added with a few simple additions, including adding molasses to the filling and finishing off the pie with an airy meringue.
Recipe Ingredients
Tart Shell
1 cup plus 2 Tbsp all-purpose flour
3 Tbsp confectioners’ sugar
1/4 tsp salt
3 Tbsp each cold unsalted butter and solid vegetable shortening, cut in bits
1 large egg yolk mixed with 1 tsp cold water
Filling
2 large eggs
1/2 cup packed light brown sugar
1 Tbsp molasses
1 1/2 tsp pumpkin pie spice
1/2 tsp salt
1 can (15 oz) 100% pure pumpkin
1 cup heavy cream
Meringue
1 cup granulated sugar
1/2 cup water
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
Recipe Preparation
Lightly butter a 9 x 1-in. tart pan with removable bottom. In food processor
, pulse flour, confectioners’ sugar and salt to mix. Add butter and shortening; pulse until mixture resembles coarse crumbs. Pour egg mixture over crumbs; pulse until dough starts to clump together. Remove dough from food processor and squeeze together into a ball. Press dough evenly over bottom and up sides of pan, slightly extending about 1/4 in. above the top edge of pan. Freeze shell 30 minutes.

Adjust oven rack to bottom third of the oven. Heat oven to 375°F. Remove crust from freezer; line with nonstick foil tightly against bottom, sides and top edge of crust. Place tart pan on baking sheet; bake 25 minutes. Carefully remove foil; return crust to oven 5 minutes (if crust puffs, gently press it down). Cool completely on rack. Reduce oven temperature to 350°F.
Whisk ingredients until blended and smooth; pour into crust. Cover crust edge with foil or pie shields. Bake 50 minutes or until filling is set and crust is golden. Transfer to a wire rack and cool completely.
In a small, heavy saucepan, bring sugar and water to a boil; stir just until sugar dissolves. Boil, without stirring, 4 minutes. Meanwhile, in large bowl of stand mixer, beat egg whites at medium speed until soft peaks form. Beating constantly, slowly add hot mixture to whites in a thin, steady stream. When incorporated, increase speed to high and beat meringue until stiff yet billowy glossy peaks form.
Heat oven to 425°F. Remove sides of tart pan and place tart on a baking sheet. Loosen bottom of tart pan from crust with an offset spatula; leave pan bottom in place. Starting at edge of crust, spread some meringue over filling, sealing it against the inside edge of the crust and mounding meringue high in center; make decorative swirls in meringue. Bake 5 minutes or until swirls and tips are lightly browned. Let cool. If desired, slide tart off pan bottom onto serving plate.
Prep Tip: Tart can be prepared through Step 3 two days ahead and refrigerated. Bring to room temperature and blot surface dry with paper towel before topping with meringue.

ICE CREAM

MANGO ICE CREAM 

¾ cup heavy cream
2 tbsp superfine sugar
1¾ cups mango juice
¼ tsp ground cinnamon
almonds to decorate
Pour the cram into a large bowl, then add the sugar and whisk lightly until dissolved. Stir in the mango juice and cinnamon.
Cover the bowl with foil and then place in the freezer for 4 hours or preferably overnight, until set. During the first hour of freezing, gently shake the molds 3 times.
Decorate with almonds.

KULFI ICE CREAM 

5 cups canned evaporated milk
3 eggs whites
3 cups confectioner's sugar
1 tbsp rose water
1 cup pistachios, chopped
plus extra to decorate
½ cup almonds
½ cup raisins
1 tsp ground cardamom

ROSE ICE CREAM

 
6½ cups heavy cream
2 tsp rose water
¾ cup granulated sugar
½ tsp red food coloring
Combine heavy cream, rose water, sugar and food coloring.
Cover the bowl with foil and then place in the freezer for 4 hours or preferably overnight, until set.

5-8 candied cherries to decorate (optional)
Start preparing the day before you want to serve ice cream. Place the cans of evaporated milk on their sides in a pan. Pour in enough water to come about three-quarters of the way up their sides and bring to a boil.
Reduce the heat, cover tightly and let simmer for 20 minutes. Remove from the heat, let cool, then let chill for 24h. Place a large bowl in the refrigerator to chill.

The next day, whisk the egg whites in al spotlessly clean, grease free bowl until soft peaks form. Pour the evaporated milk into the chilled bowl and whisk until doubled in size. Fold in the egg whites, then the sugar. Add the rose water, the pistachios, almonds, raisins and cardamom.
Cover the bowl with plastic wrap and freeze for 4 hours, or preferably overnight, until set.
Scoop the ice cream into serving dishes, decorate with chopped pistachios and candied cherries to serve.

Making Dessert

I'm no fashionista by any means – you'll sooner find me in Sur La Table than in Saks, and when in bookstores I go for the cooking magazines over the fashion glossies. However, it has not escaped even my offhand attention that purple seems to be quite the popular shade for fall – in every store window I pass by there seem to be clothes in hues of mauve, eggplant, violet, and plum.

Well, my wardrobe may not be on-trend for fall, but my kitchen is: I've been hoarding plums of every variety that I can find at the market. Their dramatic, jewel-toned skins give them star presence on my table: every day they remind me that I ought to use them properly, in a way befitting their gorgeous succulence.
I'd been wanting to make a galette, and what better showcase for delicately thin slices of plum, fanned out in a golden, ruby-edged sunburst?

Interestingly, galette can mean many things in France, depending on the region. It can be a flaky, sablé-style butter cookie. It can be a crêpe, especially a savory one. It can be a round, pastry-like cake – King's Cake is known as galette des rois, and I made it in pastry school – what a time-consuming task that was! But galette can also mean a freeform, open-faced tart, and that also seems to be the most popular incarnation of the term over here in the states. To me, the casual, almost deceptive rusticity of a galette is what makes it so charming: it simultaneously embodies the spontaneity of making use of what's fresh at the moment, and it's also a really tasty way to enjoy some really delectable fruit.
I kept the galette as simple as possible: my favorite blitz puff for a light, flaky, buttery crust, spread with a little frangipane to add some nutty dimension, and a topping of plum slices – nothing else required.

Modern Classic: This is traditional, tried-and-true, and never out of style: buttery puff pastry, almond frangipane laced with vanilla bean and cinnamon, and sweet, juicy plums on top. Notice the puff pastry got so puffy it nearly unfolded itself!
However, just as in fashion you choose the styles that appeal to you (or least pick the ones that suit you best so you don't end up a fashion victim!), so I've made two variations of the galette, so you can select which one catches your fancy.

Edgy Sophisticate: This number adds a few unexpected twists for a different sensibility. The puff pastry has cocoa powder added for a bittersweet chocolate richness, and the frangipane is flavored with star anise. Combined with the plums, this makes for a decadent and no less delicious experience.

I found both of them worked quite well with the fruit without overpowering it. Flaky, delicate, fruity, sweet, rich – everything I was looking for. And it was so simple to put together, it's easy to experiment with other additions and combinations. I hope you try your own combinations of flavors with this galette. Who knows, you may find your signature style!