Tuesday, May 20, 2014

Macaron Cooking Class in Paris


Come with me to some French
cooking classes in Paris.

Today we are making Macarons.




French Macarons are so
popular right now that we decided 
we wanted to take lessons on
how to make them correctly.

They are delicious and beautiful but
very expensive to buy, so
why not try making your own.



Welcome to the kitchen of La Cuisine Paris!

We found them online and everyone
highly recommended them and we do too.
They are located right along
the Seine at 80 Quai de l'Hotel de ville


Everyone we met were so charming and
made you feel so at home.

The classes fill quickly as there are only
8 students in the classes so they are
very hands on.



This is the adorable Frances.
She is from Great Britain and studied
at a culinary school here in Paris and
is now teaching at La Cuisine.  She was
so fun and entertaining.  You will be
charmed to death by her humor and 
fun personality.


We took the special extended
macaron class that taught us about
decorating the outsides of our
macarons to take them up a notch.

I am very glad that we did.  We learned
lots of fun things.



Each class came with detailed recipes
and you were given a pencil to take notes.

Taking classes from trained pastry chefs
is a bit more technical and exacting than
most classes so it is a good idea to take notes.


Everything was weighed (in grams)
and then put through a fine sieve.
She said in her school they made them
sieve the ingredients twice, but we only
did it once.


I fell in love with this fun gadget.
Frances said you can get this at IKEA.
I hope ours has it.  You set the temperature
on the right and then it is connected by
a metal covered wire to the thermometer
which you pop into your liquid. It was
so easy to keep a constant read on
the thermometer.


A sugar syrup is brought to a boil.  If any of it
browns on the edge, just wet a pastry brush
and wash it down in so you don't have
burned sugar on the edge which will affect
your flavor.


When the temperature reached 114C (237 F)
we began beating the egg whites
in the electric mixer.  When it reached
118 C  (244 F.) we removed the sugar mix
from the heat and poured it in a steady
stream into the egg whites.

Let it keep beating until the mix
has cooled to 50 C (120 F).


Meanwhile pour your other portion of
egg whites into your almond flour and
powdered sugar.



Add the food coloring.  French macarons
use such pretty colors.  They will become
significantly lighter after you stir them
into the meringue so go heavy on the
color if you want them bright.


When the meringue has cooled off so that it 
is no longer hot, just a little warm to the
touch it should be stiff and glossy.


Begin to fold the egg whites in 1/4th
at a time.


After you have folded them all in, give it 
about 50 stirs with the spatula.  Now it
should be glossy and run off the spatula 
in a ribbon and the ribbon should disppear
back into the batter in about 15 seconds.


Get ready to pipe.


Try to be as consistent as you can in your sizes.

Drop the pan on the counter several 
times to remove air bubbles.



Decorate tops if desired.


After baking let them cool.
They should have this fun 
little foot around the bottom
but if they don't they will still 
taste great.  All of our turned
out perfectly.


These are hubby's.  


Ok, today at class I told my teacher
that I was trying to convert the
recipes over from grams and he (not Francis
today) said that all of the ingredients are 
weighed when you are working with
breads and pastry and to tell you to 
just get an electronic scale and
weigh them and that your scales
should measure in grams as well
as ounces!  So I am going to give
you the recipe as I received it.



Macaron Cookie
Italian Meringue Method

300 g ground almonds/ almond flour
300 g powdered sugar
110 g egg whites (room temp)
powdered or paste food coloring
(We used powdered.  Liquid will change your consistency.)

300 g  granulated sugar
75 g water
110 g egg whites (room temp)

Sift the almond flour and powdered
sugar into a large bowl.  Add the first
110 g. of egg whites and food coloring
to desired color.  Remember as you lighten
this with the whipped meringue the color
will lighten up substantially.

Place the remaining 110 g egg whites in
the bowl of a Kitchenaid mixer with the whisk
attachment.   Do not
start to beat yet, just set aside.

Meanwhile in a small saucepan
place the granulated sugar and water
and begin to bring it to a boil.

When the sugar mixture gets to
114 C or 237 F
turn your Kitchenaid on at high
with the whisk attachment.  Let it run
at high while sugar syrup continues to
boil until 118 C or 244 F.
(Frances said this is the perfect amount of time
for the eggs to whip and it worked great.)

When it reaches 118 C or 244 F, take the
syrup off the heat and while the
Kitchenaid is running pour the sugar
syrup slowly into the egg whites.  

Let the beater continue until the meringue
reaches 50 C or 120 F.  It should now be
glossy and not fall out if the bowl is tipped over.  
(We didn't use a thermometer, we just touched the
bottom of the bowl, it was still slightly warm but
not hot.)

Now comes the sacrifice!
You will stir 1/4th of the egg white meringue
into your almond flour mixture.  You can just
stir this in - you are sacrificing this part of the
egg white and not trying to keep the air of the
meringue.

Next you will fold 1/3 of the remaining meringue
into the mixture using a rubber spatula and 
gently folding it over and over until no
white streaks appear.  Do this with the 
second third, gently folding it in until no 
white streaks remain and finish the same way
with the third and final addition of egg whites.

Now you want to stir the mixture about
50 times.  You are trying to now achieve
a mix that will run off your spoon in a ribbon
rather than clump off and fall back into the
bowl.  After this stirring a ribbon of
batter should disappear into the 
bowl of batter by the count of 15.  

Now your batter should be ready to
pipe into a large pastry bag with a 10 mm
round pastry tip.  Place about half the
batter into the bag and using a plastic
scraper, scrape the batter down and
try to get all of the bubbles out.

Now begin the fun of piping rounds.
We piped onto a Silpat liner.  You want
to create all of your rounds the same size.
You can "cheat" by drawing circles or
just eyeball it and try to create them the
same size.  If I were making tons I would
want to use a circle template.

When you have piped the entire pan
with your desired size of macaron
(they can be small, medium or large)
lift the pan and drop it onto the counter
several times to remove air bubbles.  If
you have any large air bubbles remaining,
use a toothpick to pop them.  

Now is the time to decorate them if you
desire.  Sprinkle on chopped pistachios,
sanding sugar, shaved chocolate, or anything
you like.  

Let them rest
on the counter for about 30 minutes.

Pre-heat the oven to 160 C or 320 F.  
Bake for about 12 minutes or until cookie
does not wiggle when you touch it.  Let cool.
It should remove easily from the pan if it
has cooked enough.
(Everyone says humidity can affect these
so I don't know that I would make them
on a rainy day!)

Once they are cool you can pipe
chocolate on for decor if you like.  
Let the chocolate set before you sandwich
them.

When they are cool fill with
buttercream, jam or ganache.

We made chocolate ganache, orange infused
chocolate ganache and a white chocolate and
raspberry ganache.

Try to sandwich similar sized cookies together.

You can also pipe them into shapes like the
hearts.


You can sandwich different colors together.
These are so pretty.  They will be crunchy
the first day but after one day in the fridge
they should soften to perfection.  They are
fresh and have no preservatives so they
should keep 3-4 days refrigerated.


This was the dessert Francis
made for each of us with our
initial written in food markers. 

This is a French J for me.

She used a large macaron on the 
bottom and topped it with a circle
of whipped cream which she filled
with the white chocolate and raspberry
ganache and then a few fresh raspberries.
She topped it with a small cookie and 
then drizzled it with melted chocolate.

It was fabulous and would amaze
all of your friends and family and
this way you wouldn't even have to
worry about making them the same
size!!



By the way, today is my 
FOUR YEAR BLOG ANNIVERSARY!
What better way than to be taking cooking
classes and sharing them with you!

Two times my blog has disappeared
so I print it out on Blog2print
about every six months and 
now have 6 volumes.  It is a
fun family history that I have
sitting out in my living room.

I never want to lose all of the
fun things I have blogged.

Thanks for sharing in 4 years with me!





Monday, May 19, 2014

Sunday at the Tuileries Gardens


We spent Sunday afternoon walking
through The Tuileries Gardens.  

We were here a few years ago in May
but the flowers weren't in bloom
like they are this time.

I had to stop and take this beautiful
shot of a purple bike against
the purple gardens!  So perfect -
it was like a prop brought along for 
my delight.


Hubby and I are architecture fanatics
more than art fanatics and we
could just walk the streets of Paris
endlessly enjoying all of the
architectural detail and taking
photos of those details.

Add to that the beauty of flowers
and I had the perfect stroll!


The blooms were fantastic.


At the end of the garden 
is the Louvre.  You can imagine
what this garden must have been like
when it was part of the royal palace.
Today it was crowded with people.
How nice that so many can now enjoy it.


The fountains were all on and people were
enjoying the sunshine pulled up in their
chairs around the fountains.


The children were gathered around this
fountain playing with the wooden
boats and someone even had brought
a motorized boat.  The movement of
the water pushes the wooden boats
around and the children use poles to push
them back out.  They were delightful to watch.

There is an area for children with trampolines
and another with slides.  Families were out
in large numbers enjoying the perfect spring weather.


It couldn't have been a more perfect day!

I have pictures and a recipe for you from
our first cooking class - 
Macarons
but I am running out the door so will
leave those for later.  I promise to
do a tutorial.

Here is something to tempt you to come
back!


Yes, I made all of these.  Frances our teacher
made it so fun and so easy and we each took
home about 15.  We have been enjoying them
ever since!

Today we are off to learn Croissants!

Wish you were all going to class with us!!


Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Disneyland, Paris



We have arrived in Paris and went right outside
of our terminal to board a bus for 
Disneyland, Paris.

Lucky for us, they have a non-stop flight from
SLC to Paris on Delta airlines and with
all of the fun movies to watch, I didn't
even sleep!  Our flight leaves at 5:00 pm so
with the 9 hour flight you are arriving at
2:00 am.

I don't believe in the "stay up all day and go
to bed at your regular time" philosophy.
Been there, tried that, hated that!  I felt like
the walking dead.  We have found that if we
head straight to the hotel and take a 2 hour nap
we can get up and enjoy a full day and then go
to bed at the regular time and sleep through the
night.  Works like a charm for us.



Sleeping Beauty's Castle
 inside the entrance is magnifique!
I love all of the French influence.


My favorite part is that they let you walk upstairs
and out onto a parapet.  No one lets you do that
anymore!
(This is the parapet on the front,
you get to walk around the parapet 
on the back side.)


This is the inside railing and the roof inside
the castle.  


Look at these columns holding up
the roof.  What would it be like to 
be a Disney Imagineer?


From here you can go outside
on the back parapet and look out over 
the land.


The upstairs has magnificent stained glass
windows


and stunning tapestries.  This one is
huge and incredibly detailed.


After you leave the Sleeping Beauty Castle,
just around the corner there is a 
carriage waiting for another princess.
There wasn't a soul in line to take
pictures by Cinderella's carriage.


The front of the castle has water fountains
that are going off regularly and are a 
beautiful part of the Disney Dreams
spectacular at night.
Disney Dreams is their nighttime
fireworks, music and laser light
show celebrating 20 years
of Disneyland, Paris.  It ends
in September.

Paris in the springtime is
spectacular but you can't find
more spectacular flowers
than here at Disneyland. 
They just blow your mind how
stunning they are.





The Phantom Manor
(not Haunted Mansion)
is unique and the changes in it 
make for a fun ride.  It takes the
theme of a bride all the way through 
the ride.


The grounds are cleverly
filled with spooky music and
fun walkways.  There is so much space
here and they have used it so well to
create intrigue.



Alice's Curious Labyrinth
is an incredible maze that ends
with more parapets you can climb
up to and walk around.  


Afterwards, pose for pictures at
the Tea Party.


Over by Pirates of the Caribbean 
they have a fun pirate ship you can board.


They also have massive 
Skull Rock that is a maze
of caverns that you can explore.

So some might by disappointed that 
they don't have Splash Mountain or
the Matterhorn, but all we could say
all day was,
"Enchante!"



We loved the uniqueness of
Disneyland, Paris
and were thoroughly enchanted by it.

We were thrilled that we got to see
the Disney Dreams
spectacular at night even though it wasn't
a weekend.  The fireworks show is
always my favorite thing to see.



The most enchanting part was how uncrowded
it was all day.

This is my fantasy - to be at Disneyland
without massive crowds.  We didn't even
need a FastPass all day!!!



Leaving at night we had this
fabulous moon!  What a great
first day in Paris!
(Well, actually it is a little ways
out of Paris, but in Disneyland, Paris!)


We are staying in the 
Disneyland Hotel.  The park 
entrance is just an extension of the 
hotel.  I decided I had to stay
here when I saw it was PINK!
We aren't more than 100 feet
from the entrance of the
park and the hotel sits
right between the two parks.
Talk about convenience!


This is the back side of the
entrance and it is restaurants
and lounges.  This is where we
retired to after a long day at Disneyland
for a hot cocoa.


The Disneyland Hotel knows how to
make hot cocoa!

What a fabulous presentation - a block
of rich and creamy chocolate on a stick
to melt in your warm milk with a sugar
cookie spoon - yum!

I have nothing to say but
Je suis ENCHANTE!

I will be posting this with





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