Julien Merceron - À la Mère de Famille: Recipes from the Beloved Parisian Confectioner

LA MRE DE FAMILLE

MAISON FONDE EN 1761

First published in the United States of America in 2014 by Chronicle Books LLC.
First published in France in 2011 by Hachette Livre (Maramount).

Copyright 2011 by Hachette Livre (Maramount)
Text copyright 2011 by Julien Merceron.
Photographs copyright 2011 by Jean Cazals.
Illustrations copyright 2011 by Sophie Pechaud and Julie Serre.

All rights reserved. No part of this book may be reproduced in any form without the written permission from the publisher.

ISBN 978-1-4521-2995-2 (epub, mobi)
Library of Congress Cataloging-in-Publication Data available under ISBN 978-1-4521-1828-4 (hc).

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JANE : I remember the night you came home and told us how youd come across the shop.

TIENNE : You had just turned sixteen, and wed celebrated your birthday in the country. Coming back to Paris, we paid a visit to Sophie and Steve.

STEVE : We already knew about the place. Sophie, you had been talking about it for some time, remember?

SOPHIE : Its the one and only time in my life that I have walked into a space and said to myself, I want this place to be my home. Do you remember our first Christmas here?

STEVE : We were cleaned out, the shop was empty in three days! I think it was the following year when you created the famous orange bags.

TIENNE : This place resembles all three of you. What I love the most is coming into the shop in December and seeing the three of you bustling around. You, Sophie, stand in the back with the chocolates. Steve is having an intense discussion with Julien, and you, Jane, man the cash register like a little girl playing shop.

JANE : Just like your children, Sophie!

SOPHIE : Well, Simon mainly, because Eliott is most interested in making homemade caramels!

JANE : Mom makes Mamie Jojos chocolate meringues with chocolate bars from la Mre de Famille.

TIENNE : In any case, Hlne, youre our official taster.

HLNE : Everyone in the family has their own sweet. Janes is the Gteau Russe; Steves is Mums chocolate cake; Sophie, the lemon tart; and Jonathan, the coffee clair.

STEVE : The night we first met, I brought my wife into the shop after hours.

JANE : Ha ha!

STEVE : Its true. And my son Joachims first excursion was to come here. I have a photo of him in his pram, all the jars of bonbons behind him. He must have been a week old.

TIENNE : Each of us has started our own story here. It was already a place that was loaded with history, and together each of us, with our different personalities, has built our childhood dream. Jane takes care of the chocolates with Jean-Marc. Sophie brings her spontaneity and joie de vivre to everything. The boxes, the window displaysSteve is the creative force.

STEVE : In fact, its often Jane who has the ideas. At Christmastime, I showed her a chocolate pine wreath and she asked, Do you think thats super Christmassy? Super Nol? And that gave me the idea of the Su-Pre Nol, which we then created.

JANE : Its crazy to think that other people will be able to make Mamie Jojos meringues now!

STEVE : I adored making this book. I re-tasted all of these treats from my childhood. We even had trouble getting a clear shot sometimes because everyone was trying to eat what was being photographed!

TIENNE : This book is a true souvenir. It traces the story of la Mre de Famille, and a bit of our history as well. I hope that your children will make these recipes, too.

La Mre et sa Famille, Paris

~ A ~

ACETATE sheet

Available from baking supply stores, acetate sheets are clear, nonstick sheets used when making chocolate shapes and decorations. Chocolate can be spread in a thin layer on the sheet, then picked up and molded. Freshly dipped chocolates can be placed on the sheet, and the chocolate will maintain its sheen.

ARRESTING caramelization

Dip the base of the saucepan in cold water to stop the caramelization process.

~ B ~

BEAT eggs until pale

Vigorously whisk sugar and egg yolks to make a thick, pale paste.

BUTTER, brown

Gently melt the butter in a saucepan; it will bubble, then foam. When all of the water evaporates and the milk solids fall to the bottom and begin to turn the color of hazelnuts, pour immediately into a cold container to arrest cooking.

BUTTER, softened

Butter that has been allowed to soften at room temperature is worked with a spatula until it has the consistency of a paste.

~ C ~

CARAMEL, dark

Follow the instructions for dry caramel (below), but cook the sugar to a deep, dark brown color.

CARAMEL, diluted

Adding warm cream to dry caramel brings down the caramels temperature, arresting the cooking process. Be careful of spatter, and use a large pot.

CARAMEL, dry

Coat the bottom of a heavy saucepan with a thin layer of sugar. Place over medium heat. The sugar will melt and start to caramelize. Gradually add more sugar, being careful not to add too much at once or the mixture will seize and become lumpy.

CARAMEL, light

Follow the instructions for dry caramel (above), but remove the caramel from the pan as soon as it turns pale brown. Be careful: caramel darkens very quickly!

CARAMEL sauce

Cook the sugar without water in a heavy saucepan to make a pale caramel, then dilute with lukewarm cream.

CHOCOLATE

Chocolate comes from the processing of the cocoa bean and its combination with other ingredients. Producing good chocolate requires a rigorous process: the beans are removed from the cocoa pods, and then fermented (which is when they develop their first cocoa aromas and brown color). The beans are then sun-dried and sent to processing plants, which transform them into cocoa mass (through sorting, roasting, crushing, and grinding). The cocoa mass that results forms the basis of chocolate as we know it. This mass contains 50% cocoa butter.