French baking book demystifies technique for making fine pastries and desserts
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French baking book demystifies technique for making fine pastries and desserts
“The Art of French Baking” edited by French food writer Clotilde Dusoulier. THE CANADIAN PRESS/ho
Seventy-five years after the publication of Ginette Mathiot’s ultimate book on authentic French pastry and desserts, one of France’s best-selling cookbooks, it has at last been translated into English.
‘The Art Of French Baking,’ edited by French food writer Clotilde Dusoulier (Phaidon Press, $49.95, hardcover), offers readers the basics on how to master the classic art of making pastries such as macarons, gateaus and brioche, to name but a few.
Dusoulier, 32, a freelance food writer and blogger in Paris, was named consulting editor of the book to oversee the editing process.
“My task was to ensure that the recipes are clear enough for an English-speaking cook who may not have grown up cooking or baking these wonderful French delicacies,” she said during a telephone interview while visiting Canada recently.
Dusoulier adds that French pastry and dessert baking is truly ‘an art form’ built on technique which gives them visual appeal.
“You eat with your eyes and your mouth and it appears the art of French patisserie draws you in as a confection that looks and tastes very pleasing.”
Dusoulier adds the value of the book is that it shows that French pastries are fairly easy to make.
“Ginette Mathiot’s approach to cooking and baking was very much based on writing things down,” she says. “Like all French cuisine the techniques are really just a sum of much smaller and easier ways to build that repertoire from the ground up.”
Dusoulier’s visit to Canada coincided with the book’s publication this fall when she was invited to serve as gastronomy writer-in-residence at the Stratford Chefs School in Stratford, Ont.
“I came here to help the young chef students hone their writing and communication skills because it is not just about cooking, but to be able to carry a message which is very important to their careers.�
‘The Art of French Baking’ begins with an ‘Introduction to Baking,’ offering readers a glossary of essential equipment, ingredients and techniques and an examination of how to host a classic afternoon tea the French way.
This is followed by a chapter covering the ‘Basic Recipes’ that are the building blocks of any French dessert: pastry dough, frosting and filling, and sauces and syrups.
Here from the baking book is a basic recipe for meringues, which is a mixture of stiffly beaten egg whites and granulated sugar.
Meringues
The quantities may be multiplied to suit your needs.
Butter, for greasing
150 (2/3 cup) superfine sugar
2 egg whites
Preheat oven to 95 C (200 F) and line a baking sheet with buttered parchment paper. In a bowl, whisk egg whites, adding one-quarter of the sugar after 2 minutes, then delicately fold in the remaining sugar once the whites are very stiff.
Place small mounds of the meringue mixture on baking sheet, well-spaced apart, and bake for 35 to 40 minutes, until completely dry, without letting them colour.
Makes 6 servings.
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