I Love Macarons

by Hisako Ogita

Taking the love of French pastries into the kitchen, Mon Cher Eclair shows how rewarding it is to make these delectable treats at home. Using just a couple of simple techniques, home cooks can easily master the basic recipe for pate a choux dough and use it to make beautiful eclairs with modern flavour combinations such as butterscotch-bourbon or Meyer lemon cream. The dough is also the base for an array of profiteroles and cream puffs, which make great appetizers and desserts. With more than 40 recipes ranging from traditional to trendy, savory to sweet, rustic to artistic, this small cookbook will make home cooks look like a very big deal.

• ISBN10: 1452123802
• ISBN13: 9781452123806
• Publish Date: 18 January 2013 (first published 17 February 2010)
• Publish Status: Active
• Imprint: Chronicle Books (CA)
• Format: eBook
• Pages: 80
• Language: English

Reviews

[Joséphine]

The formatting for the ebook was off on a lot of pages, such that full page images didn't show. Also, the presentation of recipes were inconsistent. When it came to food colouring, for instance, in some cases the amounts were stated, in others they weren't. Also, "add more of this than" just doesn't do it when it comes to baking recipes. Accuracy and precision are key. Also, 375°F/ 190°C is way too high a temperature for baking macarons.

I think it's important to note that this recipe books was translated from Japanese to English. That probably accounts for some of the awkward and weird diction and expressions. The book also has a very cutesy feel. Not my preferred style at all but anyone who is into Japanese culture or cute stuff in general will be charmed by this book.

While I wouldn't use this book for the recipes in themselves, it seems that the book would be useful as a source of inspiration. There are a lot of flavour suggestions for the biscuits and cream fillings alike, and also for the combinations. Another important chapter is the one on troubleshooting failed macarons. Packaging ideas, serving suggestions and extra recipes for left-over egg yolk can be found in it as well. Overall, putting together all these chapters proves how much thought has been put into this book. However, the formatting and the actual recipes did leave more to be desired.