Miette Patisserie, San Francisco, CA

One of my favorite macaron flavors has to be hazelnut. It’s rich and nutty! Hazelnut flavor macaron is like one of the standard that every shop should have along with vanilla and chocolate. Of all the places I’ve tried, my favorite hazelnut macaron has got to be the ones from Miette Patisserie.

Miette Patisserie made their macaron with ground almond with the skin intact. And unlike most macaron shops, they do not use food coloring in their cookie shell and buttercream. Also, instead of placing them in the refrigerated display, they place them in these really cute jar. So as you move along the line, they are right at your eye level–super catchy and mouth-watering.

Okay onto macaron tasting…so one major reason that Miette is one of my favorite macaron shop is because they have the chewiest macaron cookies! They’re thick and they are chewy! After a bite, you can see individual grain of almond meal that come together. The shell is also not as smooth as other shops because they coarsely grind their almonds. The buttercream is also to die for! It’s so light and super, duper silky! Yup, silky!

If you do plan to visit Miette Patisserie at the Ferry Building, try going on a Tuesday, Thursday or Saturday afternoon, when farmer’s market is also present! I can easily spend half a day there enjoying the lively atmosphere and delicious food!

Miette Patisserie
1 Ferry Bldg, Ste 10
San Francisco, CA 94111
(415) 837-0300

and

Miette
449 Octavia St
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 626-6221

Madagascar Vanilla Macaron

Hi guys! I’d been MIA forever! What have I’d been doing? Pretty much I did anything but baking macaron. I know, it was sad. The last batch I made consisted of a little over 100 macarons for a wedding and since then, I got a little overwhelmed. As much as I love baking them, I hit a road block where I like a break to get my inspiration intact and just to make sure I still have fun making them.

Anyhow, the 100 macarons I made was a little challenging considered I made them in my home kitchen, and it was toward end of the week on top of my full time job. The batch also consisted two different flavors–Madagascar vanilla and raspberry. I will give you tips on time management and what you can do to prepare everything and get them out on time in future posts.

In the mean time, the wedding batch consist of one of my favorites (and according to my friend, also the crowd’s favorite that night), Madagascar vanilla macaron.

The recipe is just the basic Italian meringue way, found in my earlier post here…MINUS the green tea powder and food coloring.

For the buttercream, here is the recipe:

Madagascar Vanilla Buttercream

[Ingredients]

1 cup butter, room temperature
4 cups powder sugar
3 tbsp Madagascar Vanilla extract

[Instruction]
1. Sift powder sugar, and set aside.
2. In a stand mixer or handheld mixer, beat butter until soft and fluffy.
3. Add in powder sugar a cup at a time.
4. Add in Madagascar Vanilla exract
5. Beat until soft and fluffy. Use spatula to scrape down the side of bowl occasionally.
7. Ready to use.

They look so simple and clean. But as always, fill with big flavor! I hope you enjoy it!

Pierre Herme’s Macarons!

My good friend Mei went to London for work recently. I ask her if she can bring me back some Pierre Herme’s macaron (if she doesn’t mind and has the time to stop by the boutique).  Ahh! The day after she returned, she stopped by with them! A whole box of 12.

The box is silky red. I felt it and looked at it, as if there are magic inside! Mei said they charge extra for the box. I plan to keep the box and set it aside with my Laduree one.

Unlike Laduree, Pierre Herme placed a plastic holder in the box, on top and under the macarons, securing them.

I couldn’t resist and didn’t wait for my first one to reach room temperature. Just from one bite, I can tell it’s not super sweet, and it’s to my liking. I brought the second one to room temperature, and omg, it was divine! Super chewy, the buttercream was velvety.

I cannot express how happy and thankful that Mei brought these back for me. I don’t think I’m visiting London anytime soon. So, it means a lot to me to able to try his macarons without paying a lot for shipping and have the box go to a lot of postal handling.

Black Sesame Macaron

I love black sesame desserts–ice cream, dumplings, mochi, pudding etc etc! So I figure, why not make a black sesame macaron!

You can get black sesame seeds whole or grinded already. One of the key to intensifying the flavor of the macaron is toasting the black sesame. You know they’re ready when you smell the sesame. The toasted sesame is then used for both the shell and buttercream.

So for the macaron, just use a basic macaron recipe and add 1 tablespoon of toasted sesame. For the buttercream, whipped 1 cup of butter with 4 cups of powdered sugar, and when everything is whipped. Lastly, mix in 2 tablespoon of toasted black sesame. Oh yeah, and the secret ingredient…sesame oil! Just add in 1 teaspoon when everything is blended.

Last but not least, the million dollar shot! Just kidding, but I just love the color of the buttercream against the lighter color cookies.

Happy Macaron Day!

Woohoo! It’s finally here, Macaron Day! Sooo…if I were in New York or Paris, I would be getting some free or discounted macarons right now, but I’m at neither. Aww.

I just got off work, and I am nowhere near a macaron shop or a bakery that sell macaron. I feel like I really should have one just for this day. What to do? Luckily, I have a few leftover chili chocolate shells, but I have no buttercream or ganache. I’m so tired that I don’t want mix up anything and clean up after either. Now what? Quick! Think of plan B! I opened the refrigerator and guess what, I have a pint of cappucino gelato in the freezer…score!

I had my first ice cream macaron cookie few years ago at Milk in LA. They put them all in a skinny tall see-through freezer. I stared and stared, and took forever to choose one flavor to eat at the shop. I ended up with the grasshopper one– it was delicious!!

Anyhow, cheers to Macaron Day with my chili chocolate macaron and cappucino ice cream sandwich, and a large cup of hot coffee!

Oh yeah, I sprinkled a dash of fresh ground coffee for that bitter coffee taste on the shell. You can also sprinkle them on top of the ice cream.

Have you ever had something cold and then hot right away? I took a bite of this and then had a gulp of coffee. Everything just melts in my mouth. It’s like drinking a root beer float!

Okay, time to go wash my ice cream scooper.