TWD: Leaf-Shaped Fougasse

To say I love Fougasse is pure understatement. I adore Fougasse, I admire it. Some years ago I was working in Paris for three months and that's when I first saw and tasted it. Quickly I found my favourite Fougasse bakers: At the market on Blvd Richard Lenoir, near Bastille, every Wednesday and Saturday there is a stand (L'Ancienne Boulangerie) that has hillarious good ones with olives, ham or dried tomatoes. And I also like the ones from Aux Peches Normands at the beginning of Rue du Faubourg du Temple, between Place de la République and Canal St. Martin. Curiously, at "La Fougasse " (rue de Bretagne, one of my favourite streets in Paris, hosting my favourite market) you get a lot of excellent things, cakes, viennoiserie, desserts, baguettes - but not a single Fougasse or at least not one that should look like a Fougasse. They sell sort of stiffed bread as Fougasse.

But let's get away from the masters of bread baking and talk about ... my "Leaf-Shaped Fougasse". I gave my best and the result is ok, but nothing compared to what I know from Fance. The dough didn't really rise. I blame the yeast. I guess that's the appropriate reaction to anyhting that goes wrong in bread baking. Just blame the yeast ;-)
I had a bit trouble with shaping them, so the dough was thinner or thicker at the different parts of the bread. And, for sure, the Fougasse turned out thicker or thinner, more or less through, darker from baking or lighter. 
In Paris I learned a Fougasse is baked in a stone oven, what for sure I do not have, but the recipe also doesn't call for. 

I made my Fougasse with black olives because that's how I liked them best. My Fougasse is a bit flat and more like a crispy snack. That's ok and I like it, but it is no Fougasse. I will give it another try, I am sure, because it is just too tempting.

I hope the Fougasse turned out fine for a lot of people in the group so they get to love this bread as it deserves to be loved.
Whenever you are in France - taste it! And until then: Buy the book by Dorie Greenspan, have a look at pp 146/147 and bake your own Fougasse. For hints, advice and inspiration have a look at how it turned out for the other TWD-bakers!

TWD: Burnt Sugar Icecream

 (I'm sorry, but the pictures of the Burnt Sugar Ice Cream are not very impressive, so I have to bother you with some of my Paris-pictures.)

Since I spent some month in Paris last year and discovered David Lebovitz' blog (funnily, not even because I was looking for a recipe or a restaurant recommendation, but on the search for yoga classes in Paris...) I was curious for making icecream. I tried some before, but it more turned out as fruit sorbets (can live with that ...), and frozen mousse au chocolate (can definitely live with that...). The fact that I have no icecream machine didn't improve the situation. But when I came back to Vienna last autumn I started following David's recommendations. And I loved it right from the start. A definite highlight has been the Matcha Icecream with Red Bean Sauce so far. (incredible!)

The procedure is easy, just needs some time, because you have to stir and check your mix several times. You can find a step-by-step introduction here. Also very helpful are his hints for making icecream (with or without machine) softer.

But this is about recipes by Dorie Greenspan and not David Lebovitz, although I am pretty sure she won't be offended being named in the same blog as him when it comes to icecream.

Burnt sugar is a nicer name for caramel. I was very much looking forward to it, because I didn't make icecream for some time. So credits go out to Becky of Project Domestication, who has chosen icecream for a quick-start into the summer! You can find the recipe at her blog or on p. 432 in Dorie's book.

 

The procedure is easy-peasy. I didn't use ordinary sugar but caramel-sugar because I thought of it as a very clever idea. The problem was, that the already caramelized sugar was dark right from the start, so I wasn't able to see when the colour of the caramel was right. Maybe that was the reason why my mix didn't really freeze. Normally, I wait for two hours before stirring it up the first time and then continue to do so every 30-45 mins. I made the icecream-mix at noon, and mixed it up the last time before I went to bed, and it was not frozen by that time. (No, I don't go to bed that early; that was not the reason :o])

Anyhow, the next moning the texture was perfect. I had the feeling it could use some add-in. I couldn't imagine serving the icecream with cookies or brownies, as the Burnt Sugar Icecream itself is already sweet enough. I thought about a fruity side-dish, but had to use all my strawberries for something else. Dried apricots also came to my mind, but I used them in the Chockablock Cookies last week, and don't like to repeat myself too often.

So, what's left? As I came home late yesterday, I flipped through David's icecream book, looking for something fast and easy, and ended up with pralined almonds. I didn't taste the complete icecream so far. But I can't imagine how this can go wrong. Caramel and nuts - what more can you ask for?

(Maybe for reading the recipe properly, and not using one cup water instead of 1/4 cup... - but after a long, long time and adding more and more nuts and more and more sugar I somehow managed to rescue the nuts)

Paris Patisserie - a discussion on dessert

When  I recently was in Paris for a much too short time, I was lucky enough to see David Lebovitz participating in a discussion about French Pastry. It was real luck, because when I was living in Paris this summer, in my second week, just a few days after I discovered his blog, he also had a reading. And this time, it was one of his co-discussant I just discovered for me shortly before - Dorie Greenspan.

So I headed to the American Library, and just as in May I again felt completely in the worng place at the wrong time, because everybody in the room was American. Or at least native English speaking. And the few who weren't - were French. I don't think there was any other person whose mother tongue was neither English nor French.

But what do you have to expect when three Americans living in Paris speak about French Patisserie?

And, as always when I am in the companion of  US-Americans - after a few minutes I did remember what I do like so much about them. Their friendliness (yes, even and maybe especially by New Yorkers - you just don't know how rude other people in other big cities are!). Their relaxed and laid-back behaviour. Their optimism (which can, in the worst case, come along as a dumb happy-peppy, but in most cases is just a refreshing, inspiring way of seeing things).
And, it did remind me that book readings and discussions are so much more unstressed, unwound and open to everybody over there. Come in, take a glass of wine and some snacks, listen to people who like to entertain you (and are not just there to lackadaisically show their intellectual superiority - something also some parts of the audience like to do in a maddening way).

So, I had two hours of American lifestyle in the middle of Paris - how much better can it get?

(And the stalker in me brought up all my courage to ask for a dedication in my all new book on chocolate desserts!)

Teatime - by Pain de Sucre

When I was in Paris last week (what I, as always, enjoyed, enjoyed, enjoyed), I ate my way through many of the great bakeries I got to know when I was living in Paris this summer. (I will post a list of some of them some other day.)

At a book reading I attended (also something I should come back to the next days...) I heard a young women praising a place that was definitely not on this list. I more or less ignored since I once went there in May and had the feeling that (i) the shop itself was very snobby, (ii) the staff was very unfriendly, even by Parisian standards (I don't like to be treated like inferior to the salesperson - no matter if it is an high-end clothing store or a patisserie), and (iii) the products didn't offset the first two points. They didn't have any normal bread (well, ok, it's a patisserie, not a boulangerie. But still - they make sort of "bread", but did look very snotty if asked for petits pains), they had a lot of strange-flavoured marshmallows (and I don't even go for "normal" marshmallows) and besides that only big cakes and no individuelles (and, sorry, but what should I do with a whole cake?)

But the podium as well as audience supported the young women's valuation.
So I decided to give it one more try.
I went there last Saturday. And on Sunday, I couldn't wait the opened up so I could come back.

What a misconception!
The salespersons where just lovely and nice. Both times.
The cakes came in every size.
I dind't spot any marshmallow in the whole shop.
I had wonderful filled little breads.
And the best little cake-something I ate in a long, long time - the Teatime.

Maybe the red-green combination is not that crazy and innovative. Maybe it's not that singular to combine pistachio and cherries.
But it was so humid, so fruity, and the different tastes did match so perfectly...

So, thanks to the unknown young women for being so enthusiastic about Pain de Sucre!