[Yogi tea journey cake]
It was the end of autumn and my days were spent on a farm, milking goats and making cheese. I met her. She had a name from the earth and an Australian accent.
Don't you love techniques ?
How to become a pastry chef? – The checklist
Being a pastry chef is most possibly the best decision I’ve ever taken. Everyday, I have no words to describe the bliss I feel when I’m busy making things. Yes, making. With my hands dirty, and more often than never, with my apron too.
Réussir le fondant pâtissier blanc, pas à pas – Mastering white pâtissier fondant, step by step
One of the first things you see through a boulangerie-pâtisserie window in France is a herd of glazed éclairs and choux. Pretty in pink, brown, white, and more often than not, green too.
Not unlike living in cotton – Scones, scones, scones…
So it seems I’ve told you I’d see you soon with tips for the perfect scones. Apparently, soon can hold different meanings.
A birthday to the sound of drum n’ bass, and glow-sticks around my wrists.
Fields of frost – Éclairs au chocolat, presque comme chez Fauchon
[Chocolate eclairs, almost like Fauchon's]
When trees are shaped like hearts; and breakfast means just-brewed coffee slash bike ride slash jonchée eaten as soon as I’ve taken my gum boots off.
And we run barefoot in fields of frost.
La vanille
It’s hard to play favourite with vanilla.
Tahitian vanilla (or for the geeks out there, and that includes me, Vanilla tahitensis) is a bit of a outsider – considered its the only vanilla to contain heliotropin – with its floral burst and nutty undertones.
Réussir la crème pâtissière, pas à pas – Mastering pastry cream, step by step
It was a day at the end of September. A couple of years ago. I put on my pied-de-poule trousers for the first time since the internship I had done the summer before at Pierre Hermé.
A lucky strike with tangzhong 湯種 – Petits pains au lait à la japonaise
[Japanese-style milk buns]
It was a night of early winter, I think. It was possibly raining. And dark.
I can’t remember for sure, but it seems right.
I weighed flour and water in a pan.
Comptine d’un autre été – Des chouquettes
[Lullaby from another summer - Sugar choux puffs]
I could tell you how my dad would take me to the boulangerie after school, as I was smaller than the smallest tree of your garden.
I’ve been locked inside your heart-shaped box – Des pretzels au chocolat
[Chocolate-covered pretzel]
Many people will tell you that tempering chocolate is easy. Well, I’m afraid I don’t agree.
The theory is easy. The practical side of it? Not so much.
It’s messy.