ganache Archives - Macarons and Mischief

January 7, 2013

Macarons in Hong Kong: Jean Paul Hévin

I was trying to find Laudrée at Harbour Grand, and I was so short on time in Hong Kong, I deeply regret not being able to go to one of the most renowned macaron places of all time. Despite that, I did see another macaron store at the mall, which is Jean Paul Hévin. Never heard of him before, but I had to get the macarons anyway. These macarons are very expensive compared to Vancouver – $25HKD for a macaron- and I bought a box of 5 for $125 HKD – which is equivalent to $15.90 CAD for 5 macarons, or $3.18 CAD each!

The box holding the treasure is very important too!

These macarons weren’t wildly coloured, but they were one of the best macarons I ever tasted. I got 5 flavours – coffee, dark chocolate, crème brûlée, fig, and mango coriander.

The first one I ate was the dark chocolate- it had the perfect combination of dark chocolate’s bitterness and minimal sweetness. I love dark chocolate ganache.

The coffee macaron was moist, like a molten cappuccino; but it was still airy with a crunchy exterior. The coffee macaron had a white coffee biscuit and creamy coffee ganache.

The winner out of the five was definitely the crème brûlée macaron for me. It tasted exactly like the dessert, not too sweet, and it also had the caramelized sauce when I bit into it. Hello heaven!

Sorry for the blurry picture- had to take a quick snapshot of the inside fast enough without spilling it everywhere!

The mango coriander macaron was very delicious as well – it had two layers of flavour and it packed a lot of mango flavour in it. The mango coriander macaron had an orange biscuit with mango juice cream with coriander.

Last but not least, was the fig macaron. I didn’t take a picture of it. The fig macaron has a deep purple and dark chocolate shell with chocolate and fig ganache. I’m not sure how fig actually tastes like, but I did taste a lot of dark chocolate (yummy!) and a bit of weird tarteness of the fig- it wasn’t a bad macaron; I just didn’t know what to expect of it!

The macarons at Jean Paul Hévin are definitely one of the best I ever tried. I am a bit sad I didn’t get to Laudrée but then I would’ve never had such a delicious crème brûlée macaron!

Have you had macarons from Hong Kong or anywhere overseas that surprised you? 🙂

November 28, 2012

My Chocolate Making Class at Cocoa Nymph

My friend and I bought a Groupon for a Chocolate Making Class at Cocoa Nymph‘s new location! They have two stores and recently opened a new branch on East 7th and Ontario. We got the deal for $35/person instead of the regular price of $70. We’ve heard raving reviews about their chocolates, so we were excited to go behind the scenes and make our own truffles!

The class is from 2-4:30, and we spent the first part of class learning the history of chocolate and how it’s actually made. Making chocolate is definitely a lot harder than I thought. Our very own Vancouver Aquarium actually has a cocoa tree! After our lesson, the real fun stuff began as we headed to the back of their kitchen for some hands on chocolate making.

First, we did a bit of taste testing and tried some chocolate that originated from various countries. The yellow bits on the far left of the picture is pure cocoa butter, and it tastes quite waxy and fat. Then we have some dark chocolate from Mexico, Cuba, and other exotic places I forgot. The little brown bits on the right are cocoa nibs. The long bar of chocolate at the very right is the ganache which is the centre of the truffles we will be making.

To begin, we started breaking the ganache and molding it into small bits. We were given cookie cutters to shape our ganache, but I failed to make nice shapes, so I just made squares or rolled them into balls. After I made separate ganache pieces, they were dipped in 100% chocolate!

Dipping the chocolate was not easy either, it was a goopy mess! After dipping the ganace in the chocolate, we could decorate them with strawberry chooclate pieces, cocoa nibs, cocoa powder, or these little plastic sheets that adds pattern on the top of the truffle!

After they were all decorated, the chocolate truffles were placed in the fridge for around 5 minutes, then they were ready to be taken out and boxed! The plastic sheets are peeled off after taking the chocolates out of the fridge. I love the heart pattern!

I had three more chooclates that couldn’t fit in the box, so I thought, why not, and ate them in store! They were delicious for every chocolate lover and every dark chocolate lover, which is me!

The Chocolate Making Class was such a fun cooking experience! It’s a really good deal if you find a groupon deal on it, since a truffle costs around $2/piece at Cocoa Nymph and I made 18 (in box) plus another 3 which I consumed, which is 21 pieces! They’re also a great homemade gift for anyone special! (Also, in store purchases during the day of the class gets a 10% discount!)

Also, the chocolates don’t have to be fridged and can be left in room temperature for a week. Needless, they were all devoured by the second day! Being a true chocolatier is a talent; my truffles had awkward sizes and randomized placement of toppings; but nevertheless fun! Definitely try out the class or chocolate at Cocoa Nymph.

Hope I made you all hungry!

August 24, 2012

Macaron Adventures Part X – Murchie’s Tea and Coffee

After reading YELP, I gathered some of my friends and went to West Pender to seek out Murchie’s Tea and Coffee for some macarons. It is a retail store selling tea-related goods, and there’s a little food section at the back.

I almost missed the macarons, they were on the last shelf inside the fridge.

No fancy flavours here- chocolate, pistachio, raspberry, and a lone passion fruit macaron sat at the back. They were priced at $1.25, which was definitely one of the cheaper macarons I have found in the Lower Mainland. My friend and I bought 1 pistachio, 1 raspberry, and 1 passionfruit to share.

my macarons — Left to Right: Passion Fruit, Pistachio, Raspberry

I wasn’t overly impressed with the presentation: the shells weren’t smooth, and there was way too much cream. And the cream looks like it was haphazardly placed between the shells. But, if it tastes good then that’s all right then?

Maybe.

First- they were quite cold. The macarons had a bit of chewiness to it. The flavours were all right, but the cream was just way too much for me. I wanted a macaron, not a mini ice cream sandwich that looked like a macaron.

I thought pistachio and raspberry was all right, and then when I had a tiny nibble of passion fruit macaron, I disposed of it right away. It tasted like it was days old, and it was rock hard. It was actually very bad. I already am on the fence with passion fruit flavours, and my friend wanted it, but Murchie’s should not be selling day old macaron like that!

Sadly, I would not be coming back to this location. It is already quite far, and the macarons did not leave an impending memory for me.

August 11, 2012

Macaron Adventures Part VIII: Ganache

I’m back! After a final exam, my friend and I headed to Ganache Patisserie for a mini victory celebration! I’ve only heard the name Ganache here and there, and thought it was a macaron place, but nope! Inside the store was one of the most beautiful assemble of mini cakes and desserts I have ever seen. Thank goodness this place is a five minute walk from the Yaletown skytrain station, because I will be coming back!

Photo 2012-08-11 3 36 11 PM — Cakes here

Each mini cake costs $5.95 + tax.

Photo 2012-08-11 3 36 08 PM — Cakes there

After much long deciding, I bought the Abricot- Pistache:

Photo 2012-08-11 3 42 11 PM — Abricot- Pistache

I ate half of it in store, and it was absolutely delicious!!!!!! I love the cheesecake, and the combination of it with the other flavours- this cake had like 5 different layers to it! The cheesecake was heaven in a bite! The apricot gelee part was fresh and juicy!

Photo 2012-08-11 11 23 25 PM — Cake; delayered

My friend ordered a strawberry guava cake and she claims it was THE BEST STRAWBERRY DESSERT she ever had. That’s saying something, because she absolutely loves strawberries. There were also lychee bits. I’m tempted to get this next time!

Photo 2012-08-11 3 49 56 PM — Strawberry Guava

I also really like the packaging of the cake to go:

Did we get our macarons? Yes- a small box of 9 costs $8.95. The downside was that you didn’t get to choose specific flavours, and the macarons are prepackaged in a box. They were also fairly tiny, about the size of a quarter.

Photo 2012-08-11 3 42 29 PM — Tiny macarons in a box

Were they absolutely delicious despite not being able to choose our flavours? Yes! Every single macaron in the box was NOT a disappointment. Both my friend and I enjoyed all the macarons. They were also very easy to split!

The flavours in the box are lemon, coconut, coffee, raspberry, and pistachio. Each macaron was true to their flavour. It was chewy and I didn’t just taste sugar + cream. I tasted coffee cream, I tasted lemon cream, I tasted the most authentic pistachio cream I have had, I tasted legit coconut, and I tasted fresh raspberry cream!

Ganache made the way to the top of my favourite macarons! I’m already eager to go back..perhaps this week after work! Ganache is definitely worth a visit for some delicious cakes and desserts! Perhaps I’ll even get my birthday cake from here!

August 3, 2012

Macaron Adventures Part VII: Soirette

I recently visited my 7th macaron joint in Vancouver, after I had some scrumptious gelato from Bella Gelateria. I guess I was on a rampant sweet tooth day…so unhealthy. This time, I went to Soirette Macarons and Tea– a small cafe located on West Pender. I heard many reviews about them, and for a store that dedicates selling macarons, I had to venture there! The location is actually quite far compared to other locations people go to in downtown Vancouver, so it was a bit of a walk to get there. Thank goodness for iPhone google maps to guide my way!

Photo 2012-07-28 4 42 01 PM — Soirette entrance

The storefront was very cute, and something I would expect from a store that sells macarons and tea. Let’s see the macarons!

Photo 2012-07-28 4 43 03 PM — macaronsssssss

There were a lot of flavours that were unique. There was pink peppercorn, mango and black pepper, black olive, earl grey cassis, lavender, orange blossom…

Photo 2012-07-28 4 42 58 PM — Macaron mayhem

They had a sample of Mango and Black Pepper, which I tried, and loved! It wasn’t sweet, it was bursting with mango flavour and I love the heat from black pepper! It was a unique combination, and I liked it!

After much debating, I decided to get 4 macarons ( 1 macaroon = $2, Box of 6 macarons = $11.50, Box of 12 macarons = $22). The size of the macarons were fairly small, so they are quite pricey! I chose Rose, Earl Grey Chassis, Matcha, and Passionfruit.

Photo 2012-07-28 4 53 15 PM copy — My picks

I loved the Rose and Earl Grey Cassis. I don’t know why I’ve been into floral flavoured stuff (the Rose and Raspberry Macaron from Bel Cafe must have stimulated this new taste bud) but I loved the taste of the rose ganache! It was creamy, yes it was sweet, but rose-sweet, and buttery, and it was a good chew. I normally do not like chocolate in a macaron, but the Earl Grey cassis had a dark chocolate ganache and it was lovely with the earl grey flavour. There was definitely an evident aroma of earl grey tea, and I believe Soirette infuses their earl grey tea with this macaron.

The matcha macaron was okay, it wasn’t as strong as I like it; there was only a hint of matcha. I thought I would get a full blast of Japanese flavour, but it didn’t happen. I was not a fan of the passionfruit – it was a tarte chocolate flavour that I wasn’t too fond of. I wish I got another flavour. 🙁

Anyhow, I like the vast flavours Soirette offers, and I would come back to sample the other flavours! I have my eye on the lavender macaron!

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