Francois Payard - Payard Desserts

Copyright 2013 by Franois Payard. All rights reserved.

Cover and interior photography 2013 by Rogrio Voltan.

Published by Houghton Mifflin Harcourt.
Published simultaneously in Canada.

For information about permission to reproduce selections from this book, write to Permissions, Houghton Mifflin Harcourt Publishing Company, 215 Park Avenue South, New York, New York 10003.

www.hmhco.com

Design by Vertigo Design NYC

LIBRARY OF CONGRESS CATALOGING-IN- PUBLICATION DATA :

Payard, Franois.
Payard Desserts/Franois Payard with Tish Boyle; photography by Rogrio Voltan.
pages cm
Includes bibliographical references and index.
ISBN 978-1-118-43589-2 (cloth); 978-0-544-18646-0 (ebk)
1. Desserts. 2. Cooking, French. I. Boyle, Tish. II. Voltan, Rogrio. III. Title.
TX773.P358 2013
641.860944dc23 2012043885

v1.092013

THIS BOOK IS DEDICATED TO ALL OF THE CHEFS AND PEOPLE I HAVE HAD THE PLEASURE OF WORKING WITH THROUGHOUT MY CULINARY CAREER. WITHOUT YOUR INSPIRATION, DEDICATION, AND TALENT, I WOULDNT BE WHERE I AM TODAY.

Franois Payard

FROZEN DESSERTS CAN TAKE MANY FORMS , and can be made from ice cream, sorbet, and an egg yolk pte bombe, among other bases. The beauty of these desserts is that they are all prepared in advancein fact, they must beand generally can be assembled and plated very quickly. In this chapter, sorbet is featured in an elegant fashion in my Vacherin la Minute with Licorice and Farm Strawberry Sorbet, and as the filling for a thin chocolate shell meant to look like a coconut in my Chocolate Shell filled with Coconut Sorbet and Star Anise Sabayon. Its also the interior of the crispiest napoleon youll ever eat in my Croustine filled with Fromage Blanc Sorbet and Blackberry Sauce. In three of the desserts in this chapter, a French parfait, made with eggs, sugar syrup, and cream, is molded and served with crunchy elements like caramelized nuts and tuiles to counterbalance its smooth texture. And finally, a fresh Blueberry Ice Cream is dipped in a fritter batter and refrozen multiple times before being deep-fried and served with a vibrant Blueberry Coulis, for a refined take on a Chinese restaurant classic.

I HAVE TO CREDIT DANIEL BOULUD for inspiring me to create so many fruit desserts. Daniel loves fruit, and when I worked for him, I really focused on using the best fruit the market had to offer during its peak season. In my opinion, a pastry chef should think more like savory chefs do in terms of produce. That is, they should decide what to make once they see what is available, then select the best fruits or berries that will become the prime ingredient of a memorable dessert.

The fruits used in the recipes in this chapter represent all seasons, from the lush berries and stone fruits of summer to the pears, quinces, and apples of fall, and the citrus fruits of winter to the delicate pink rhubarb of spring. Whatever the season, make sure you use the best possible produce available, as nothing will compensate for the lack of flavor of poor-quality, out-of-season, or unripe fruit.

THE RECIPES IN THIS CHAPTER were inspired by desserts typically found in a French ptisserie. I took the techniques and elements of these classics and transformed them into restaurant-style plated desserts. Many of the components that make up these desserts can be made in advance, a factor that is extremely important if you work in a small kitchen or with a limited staff. Many of the desserts are also fairly easy to assemble, which is also an important consideration when you are thinking about adding a dessert to your menu.

There are several napoleons in this chapter, some of which are made with classic layers of puff pastry, while others are constructed with thin layers of tuile, nougatine, phyllo dough, or chocolate. I always find it interesting to use unusual elements in a classic form, like the Peppered Nougatine Rectangles that make up my Red Currant Napoleon, or the squares of milk chocolate found in my Peanut Butter and Milk Chocolate Crispy Napoleon.

One of my favorite recipes here is the Cassis Japonais with Japonais Noodles and Cassis Port Sauce, which, with its crown of deep-fried pink bean thread noodles and garnish of ruby-colored Cassis Port Sauce, is as pleasing to the eye as it is to the palate. The scone, a bakery staple, takes on a more sophisticated guise in my Buttermilk Scones with Strawberry and Tomato Jam, an unusual combination of sweet and acidic flavors. My Blueberry Pavlova, which features perfect spheres of crispy baked meringue, is assembled la minute, combining a colorful filling of Blueberry Sorbet and whipped cream.

MANY OF THE DESSERTS IN THIS CHAPTER are versions of cakes that I sold at Payard, refashioned as plated desserts. It includes recipes that feature mousses, creams, or custards as a main element. You never want to serve something like a mousse or custard on its own, because that would be very boring. The balance of a dessert is very important, and here the key is pairing the creamy element with a contrasting textureyou always need something crisp or crunchy, such as a layer of nuts or a tuile, to go with the mousse or custard. Every element in a dessert should be in the proper ratio. Take the Palet dOr filled with Hazelnut Wafer and Manjari Mousse, for example: On the bottom you have a Succs, which is very dry, then a little bit of feuilletine for some extra crunch, then a very dense chocolate mousse. Every bite of this dessert is perfectly balanced, with something crunchy and smooth, with all the flavors working together beautifully.

Many of the components in these desserts can be made a week or so in advance, but most of the desserts must be assembled no more than a day in advance so that they dont absorb other flavors and their texture remains superior. And some, such as the Cranberry Gele filled with Pear Bavarian, Nougatine, and Poached Pear, or the Deconstruction of Crema Catalan, must be composed at the last minute.

SWEET TARTS CAN TAKE MANY FORMS , as youll see in this chapter, which has a mix of classic tarts and newer variations. Though we often think of the classic pte sucre shell for tart bases, tarts can be made with a variety of different doughs. In my Banana Tart with White Chocolate Mousse and Passion Fruit Sauce, for example, I layer phyllo dough sheets with butter and finely chopped cashews in a tart ring for the shell. Puff pastry is the dough of choice in my Lucas Carton Fig Tart and my Apple Croustade, while the Carrot Cake Tart stretches the definition of tart: Its a dome of carrot cake inverted onto a round of Sabl Breton and then covered with meringue. Tarts can be made molded in tart rings or pans, or can be freeform. As for fillings, the possibilities are endless. Here youll find everything from fruit to chocolate to red wine tarts. The tart really has no limits in how you present or interpret it.