The Art of Living According to Joe Beef a Cookbook of Sorts
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The marjolaine cake may not get quite as much attention equally the Opera or Mille-Feuille, only enquire any chef who is well-versed in classical French cuisine and it's likely they'll start going on and on about how succulent this layered dessert is. The marjolaine—made with nutty meringue, rich chocolate ganache, and vanilla and hazelnut buttercreams—was created by celebrated French chef Fernand Point. During its heyday in the 1930s, Point's eating place La Pyramide, located in Vienne, France, was a culinary temple for many—including famed chefs Paul Bocuse and the Troisgros brothers.
Point was a "roast-chicken-for-breakfast-eating, two-bottles-of-Champagne-at-lunch-drinking" kind of guy, wrote cookbook author Mark Bittman in the New York Times . His larger-than-life approach to cooking and living, combined with his tendency to exist "a diligent perfectionist," in the words of writer Bryan Miller, fabricated him one of the virtually influential chefs of his time. Point's ethos was captured in his book Ma Gastronomie, which contains elaborate, fine-tuned recipes for foie gras parfaits, trout mousses, and aspic-glazed birds. The book was lovingly compiled from Indicate's notes and recipes by his married woman, Marie-Louise, and published in 1969, fourteen years after the chef'southward decease. It is however highly sought after today: An original printing of the volume in French is currently listed for $600 on eBay, and it is often difficult to come past the at present out-of-print English translation that came out in 2008.
Within the pages of this tome is the original recipe for marjolaine, the royal cake Point served at La Pyramide. There is an air of mystery surrounding the cake's proper noun: Marjolaine means "marjoram" in French, but no 1 knows why Betoken named it so, as none of the herb appears in the cake. Fans of the marjolaine include Bittman, chef Thomas Keller of The French Laundry and Per Se, the writer Patricia Wells, and chef Frederic Morin of Montreal's famed Joe Beefiness, amongst many more. I, likewise, became a fan when I kickoff encountered the marjolaine while working equally a pastry cook at Per Se. I was tasked with neatly portioning the cake—each slice weighing precisely 35 grams—for dinner service. I still remember taking my starting time bite at 6 a.m., continuing in the temperature-controlled chocolate room and hiding from view. The piece I'd eaten hadn't been good enough for service, simply it all the same tasted like a masterpiece to me—and far better than my usual breakfast.
In his book The French Laundry, Per Se, Keller shares that he received a re-create of Ma Gastronomie from his mentor, Roland Henin, and was inspired by Point'south continuous search for perfection. "Point says the marjolaine was a constant work in progress for him, always changing as he tweaked the recipe in search of the perfect block, something he never quite achieved," Keller writes. "I wanted what he searched for, a cantankerous between a cake and a meringue, i that's creamy, with a slight crunch, both chewy and cakelike, fully flavored… All those components in i bite."
At Keller'southward restaurants, the marjolaine has 1 layer each of vanilla buttercream, praline buttercream, and dark chocolate ganache, sandwiched between delicate layers of a meringue sponge that incorporates both almond flour and hazelnut flour. Similar Signal, Keller and his pastry chefs accept continued to refine the block over the years, always looking for means to meliorate information technology, experimenting with different intensities of the chocolate, and dialing in the platonic serving size. At one point, at that place was even a processed bar-sized marjolaine made for guests at a private event—a delightful, compact version of the block that was sure to exist one of the few Michelin-starred processed bars in the globe.
These days, the marjolaine is also popular at Le Coucou in Manhattan. Marker Henning, the restaurant'south pastry chef, showtime came across the cake when he was developing Le Coucou's card. Like Keller and Point before him, Henning arrived at his current version through much trial and error. "I lost count of how many versions I made just I retrieve it was around 40," Henning tells me over electronic mail. His version is rich with chopped hazelnuts, and draped with an elegant, shiny chocolate glaze.
Another pastry chef, who currently works at a three-Michelin-starred establishment and preferred non to exist named, shared his honey for marjolaine with me. "It's but freaking delicious," he gushed. "The fillings are rich, yet the dacquoise is light and textural." The block, he says, requires time, patience, and attention to detail, but it's absolutely worth making. Asked if he had whatever advice for home cooks looking to try it, he emphasized the importance of whipping your eggs to stiff peaks and not overmixing your batter. And, of course, practice makes perfect.
The recipe may seem daunting, but if you interruption it into parts, it really is just similar whatsoever other cake that you might brand for a birthday, Valentine's, or any other special occasion: You bake your layers, make your fillings, then gather. I set aside an afternoon and followed the recipe from The Art of Living According to Joe Beef. Unlike Point and Keller's versions, which phone call for both almond and hazelnut flour, Morin'south streamlined accept on the block uses but hazelnut flour. Instead of praline paste for the buttercream, Morin uses Nutella, which is more widely available for buy. Morin's cakes also receive an additional brushing of rum, which adds a warming notation.
I toasted my hazelnut flour until fragrant, and folded it into whole eggs that had been whipped until pale and voluminous. I then folded this mixture into a sleeky meringue. Like Henning, Keller, and Betoken, I, too, felt an urge to tweak and experiment. Instead of dividing the batter evenly betwixt parchment-lined canvass trays equally it was written in the recipe, I piped my batter into identical rectangles to make for easy, straightforward assembling.
The cake baked exactly the fashion I wanted it to, but if you are more than sensible than I am, I highly recommend only following the recipe and not going rogue similar I did. One time my cake cooled and my buttercreams and ganache were ready, I carefully built my marjolaine, and then placed information technology in the refrigerator to gear up. While many cakes tin can dry out the day after baking, the marjolaine gets even better if it sits overnight, when the sponge has had a chance to soak upwards the flavour of the fillings. But if you tin can't spare a whole evening, information technology volition all the same be delicious. Just be sure to salvage yourself a slice for the side by side day, because it makes a corking breakfast. Trust me, I know.
Source: https://www.epicurious.com/expert-advice/marjolaine-classic-french-cake-tastes-like-the-worlds-best-candy-bar-article
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