(Marrons glacés from La Maison du Chocolat)

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Available in shops from November to March, these glazed/ candied chestnuts are seriously ‘the’ most luxurious sweetmeats around. Upon reading up on it in D’s old copy of Larousse Gastronomique: The World’s greatest cookery encyclopedia, it says: ‘… Chestnuts that have been poached in syrup and then glazed… Marrons Glacés were created during the reign of Louis XIV and are today manufactured chiefly at Privas, in the Ardèche…’

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Ardèche, is in the South of France. It is the epicentre of the chestnuts, more than 50% of chestnuts in France are cultivated there. They do a chestnut festival in Autumn to celebrate it & many local restaurants will include a chestnut-based dish on their menu. One day I’d like to go & get stuffed on chestnuts… (although before this, I’m dying to go to a village in Alsace called Niedermorschwihr, where my heroine patissier Christine Ferber has her shop ‘Au Relais des Trois Épis’. – I’m currently working on persuading D to the trip – who says he is slightly tired of cakes right now…).
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Concerning the origins that Larousse mentions – I have also read elsewhere that apparently a candied chestnut confection was served 150 years earlier in Piedmont, a northwestern area of Italy close to the border of Switzerland & France. – The origins of foods, just like the Tarte Tatin I wrote about, could sometimes have several versions to it, it seems.
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Marrons glacés are a labour of love – it involves 16 different processes & is painstakingly time consuming. No wonder it is expensive (£1.85 each), but oh boy, it’s worth it.

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Here is a rough description of how the chestnuts turn in to Marrons glacés:

First, the chestnuts are washed & sorted to eliminate those that are not perfectly round or has deep grooves. Then it is boiled to so that it is easier to peel the shell & the inner skin by hand. It is sorted again. Finally, the chestnuts go under a repeated process of being cooked for two days in a rich vanilla syrup (which gets concentrated as time passes). Eventually the flavour seeps into the very heart of the chestnut. Here is a link to a recipe.

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This week:

Since I decided that my stall will open from 27th this year, I had the most mellow week. Which is a relief because I am still feeling bloated from all the eating I’ve done over the festive season, & am feeling unhelplessly lethargic.
In fact, this is part of the reason why I am not operating the stall til late January, because I think people would generally be staying away from chocolates & cakes post-Christmas eat-fest, & going on a mass-diet. So it’ll start on the 27th, that’s when I’ll be deviously counting on people putting down their salad forks & give up their dieting!!

(Beard Papa’s cream puff)

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Dearest readers, has 2006 treated you well?

The end of the year always makes me review how the year has been, & I can honestly say, it went by like a storm, fast n’ furious. 2006 was full of excitement & activity to a point of not having much energy left. I have been getting little sleep or rest because I’m busy until late every night & get woken up early every morning. A far cry from the old days…, when I used to sleep til 12 noon easy on weekends. Working & being a mum ain’t plain sailing. That said, doing something I am passionate about is so satisfying that I never find it a chore. And most importantly, my son is growing up well & there really is nothing major to complain.
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This year, the stall operation has become much smoother. I now use disposable cardboard food trays for transporting my produce from kitchen to market. It is something like 70p per tray & so I’m throwing away five to six pounds every week, but atleast I don’t need to wash them at the end of a tired Saturday like I used to. And the speed of me doing these cakes & chocolates has trippled it seems, as I have more practical experience under my belt.
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It was also a year of good girlfriends leaving London… Lisa, Layla, Nikki – three of ’em! *sigh…* But I mustn’t forget that it was also a year of meeting great new people too. The kindness I came across this year from some of these people still glow warmth in to my heart.
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This week I am in relax-mode since the market is not open. Drinking pink champagne, wine, beer & Otima 20 year old Tawny Port (which was seriously delicious) over the Christmas celebration that stretched several days. I also had the treat of going out in to town while my parents looked after our son. We first spent money like water on Winter Sales shopping, then ate Dim Sum for lunch. A de rigueur visit to La Maison du Chocolat, & then crossing the road to check out the sales shelves at Fortnum & Mason.

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Just before we went in to cinema to see the new James Bond movie (thumbs up to gorgeous Daniel Craig!), we bought the Beard Papa‘s Cream Puff (freshly made choux pastry with whipped cream custard piped inside)… Oh boy,,, it was de-licious!

I love the fact that they bake the choux pastry several times daily on premises (the ovens were just behind the counter on view), & once an order is taken, they pipe the freshly made cream & do a little dusting of icing sugar all in front of you! How wonderfully fresh is that!
It was soo cheap too – 10 cream puffs for 11 pounds (I think it was £1.30 for one). My only quarm is that the shop name works out odd in English (the shop is Japanese y’see), & the supposed ‘vanilla’ custard cream was seriously lacking in the ‘vanilla’ front. I only saw a dozen black specks of vanilla seeds in it – basically non-existant (I would have put in a lot lot more). Maybe this is what explains the low price since vanilla is an expensive ingredient afterall. – Despite this minor detail, the cream puff was crispy n’ creamy & I finished mine in nano second flat! And I can seriously reccomend you get one next time you’re in town, it’s opposite Uniqlo on Oxford Street, London. – Beard Papa, respect.

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*Happy New Year 2007*

Wishing you peace, love, health & happiness,

t xxx

(Lemon cream & frangipane tart – white chocolate lettering)

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How Saturday 23rd went:

I made roughly twice as much stuff than usual anticipating good sales – & yes! just as I hoped, the big cakes & the chocolates went in no time! I had stacks of pre-made chocolate boxes (twelve truffles inside) & I managed to sell-out on them by 11.30 in the morning. The ‘flourless chocolate cake’ (which I made 12 of) went by 2pm. Along with pretty much all the other big cakes & tarts. I also had the pre-orders from my regulars. Truly amazing! So happy!

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Except my little items such as individual slices of cakes were slow on the uptake. To my annoyance I realized that I should have allocated the time making those to making more chocoates instead… (mental note for next year). So despite all that selling I had so much left, I ended up shouting; ‘End-of-day sale on cakes! Cake Discount!!’ (which, my technique is to look left & right for potential punters first, but never look at them as I say it because it’ll make them feel especially targeted & therefore make them feel uncomfortable…). I really, really hate shouting discount… (but I have to – my efforts that went on til 3am would go down the drain otherwise). It scratches at my pride & it invites petty hagglers to sneer over my produce. Like offer £1 for a tart that is priced £9, which I very politely tell ’em to stop joking and move on.

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The market itself was not as busy as I imagined though. Non-food stalls seemed to have a slow start. Most shoppers had a mission as it was the last few days to Christmas & was not cruising down the street like they normally do. Now that I think of it, I realize that this was the reason why my slices weren’t selling so well – the ‘cruisers’ who eat as they walk down the market weren’t around.
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What I truly love about working at the market is that I can fully experience the spirit of the festive season. Everyone wishes ‘Merry Christmas’ to one another. And when I say ‘Merry Christmas’ to the customers, I see their faces light up several notches & seem to take pleasure in repeating it back to me. The friendly market manager went around giving cups to all the stall holders for a swig of whisky: ‘Here, have that. Drink up in one go! It’ll warm you up.’ And it did. – There were also some customers who were festively loose with their purse s trings too – telling me to keep the change! Thank you!
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So, here we are, another Christmas. How will you be spending yours? For me, it’ll be about opening the presents that’s been patiently waiting underneath the Christmas tree in the hallway & then cooking up the celebration dinner from the morning. We’ll start the dinner from late afternoon. We’ll be feasting on the roast beef joint I bought from Richard at the market (a couple of stalls to my left), the good ol’ brussel sprouts, roast potatoes, home-made yorkshire puds… & lots of bubbly which has the power of making me deliriously happy than any other drink can do.

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Merry Christmas 2006!

L.o.v.e, t xxx
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“Christmas gift suggestions:
To your enemy, forgiveness.
To an opponent, tolerance.
To a friend, your heart.
To a customer, service.
To all, charity.
To every child, a good example.
To yourself, respect.”

(Quote by Oren Arnold)

Quick message from Germany! How are you all doing? I’ve spent all today wondering about the market… How was the weather in London this Saturday?? I wonder if it rained like here in Hamburg…

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Holiday: pretty cool – mostly been seeing friends & family & going shopping in amazing shops like Manufactum where they sell seriously the ‘best’ quality household goods they picked from around the world – There I bought a selection of Bonnat Chocolate Bars which seem much cheaper than in UK (Bonnat’s one of the best makers around), the most beautiful French Coffee Bowls (now I can drink coffee like those French films!), a can opener that cost me twenty pounds (it better be good!), an aluminium ice cube tray (which D insisted on buying as he used it when he was a child & that it is ‘the best’) & some other little objects like a kitchen sink strainer. It may not sound exciting for some people I’m sure, but for me this shop is heaven. Any product from here is a winner.

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Food: many many happy mugs of Glühwein at the outdoor Christmas Markets (getting red cheeked from the alcohol & the cold), & sausage n’ bread rolls from stalls. We’ve been scoffing on Germknödeln with cherries & vanilla sauce, & Baumkuchen. Also bought two different types of Stollen to take home.

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Anyway, I’ll be back in England on Monday & will be back at Broadway Market on this coming Saturday 23rd! Hope to see you there! Love, t xxx

Please Note:

I AM NOT AT THE MARKET NEXT SATURDAY 16TH. HOLIDAYING IN HAMBURG. I WILL BE BACK WITH MANY MANY CHOCOLATES N’ CAKES ON SATURDAY 23RD!

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This week’s entry is about flour.

Flour is the pillar of cakes & also the thickener of creams such as Crème Pâtissière. The most common flour you’d see at the supermarket is made from wheat. But flour can also be made from maize/ corn, barley, rye, rice, chestnut, chickpea, buckwheat. For pastry baking, the wheat kind is mostly used. – Never substitute the type of flour & expect the same recipe to work, as different flour types produce different amount of gluten.
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Without sounding atall scientific (which I’m not so clued up on anyway), I must write about the importance of gluten. It is responsible of the quality of your cake’s turnout.

– The protein in the flour turns in to gluten when you add the ‘liquids’. During oven baking, the whisked egg whites would rise the cake, & the gluten from the flour would become the pillar to keep the cake in that risen shape. The correct amount of oven-heat would make this pillar solid & the cake will not deflate when it comes out.
– One in every 1000 to 1500 people (in UK) have gluten intolerance known as coeliac/ celiac disease. It is an auto-immune disease, when the body produces antibodies that attack its own tissues. Symptoms can be mild to severe, usually bloating, nausea, hair loss, depression, bowel problems, & even infertility. – Since I have started this stall I have come across so many customers looking for gluten-free cakes. The only gluten-free cake is the ‘Moist Flourless Chocolate Cake’ made with just chocolate, eggs, sugar & orange liquer. And even that, I make sure I point out to them that I cook with flour in the same kitchen & that there may be traces of flour in it. Just like what a packet might say about nuts! The thought of people getting ill over my stuff is ruinous…

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Do: always sift the flour – even if the packet says ready-sifted. It not only removes clogged up balls of flour (which will remain as flour balls in your baked cakes), importantly, it introduces ‘air’ in to the flour. It’ll be quicker to mix in the flour & successfully too. Some recipes might ask you to sift twice.
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Do: always measure flour after sifting.
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Do: store flour on a cool, dry, shelf in its bag or in an airtight container. Apparently, damp & warm conditions would invite little insects called ‘confused flour beetles’ & ‘red beetles’ to hatch in it. (As one of my Kid’s friend says, that’s just ‘yucky yuck’). So, never mix new flour with old. White flour generally keep well for 6 to 9 months.

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Do: mix the flour using the ‘folding’ technique; rotate the bowl with your left hand, dig your spatula to the bottom & lift it up in big movements, like you are cutting the mixture from the bottom. Keep rotating & cutting & stop when the white flour dissapears.

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Don’t: over-mix your cake dough – unless the recipe tells you to. Over-mixing would stregthen the gluten structure. You’d end up with a tough & dense sponge where the gluten had squashed the bubbles.

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Last Saturday:

… was a struggle. Every stall holder I’ve talked to was complaining about how there hadn’t been many spending customers. We realized that maybe it’s because it’s a run up to Christmas & people are holding on to their purse until the party season kick starts (hopefully from next Saturday please!). – Although the chocolate truffles (currently doing five types) goes down really well nowadays, & it got sold out quite quickly. I think it is because of the chocolate boxes I started using (pictured below), which costs £1.10 per box. It has a faux canvas texture, & the box is rigid. It’s a type of box you might want to keep, & it goes well with the ‘chocolate = luxury’ theory. – Before these boxes, I have been using self-assembly flat pack boxes made out of white glossy card which cost around 42 pence per box. Huge difference in cost I know, but the difference in quality is so crystal clear, I’ll never go back to those flimsy cheapo flat packs. I’m so happy I found these boxes, it makes me want to roll more truffles…!

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