June 08

Antonin Carême's  Birthday
 

However, architecture, not cooking, was Carême's first love. Whenever he had a little free time from his first apprenticeship, Antonin would take his sketchbook and sketch all of the major architectural landmarks in Paris with exceptional detail. After he began a new apprenticeship to Sylvain Bailly, a famous pâtissier with a shop near the Palais-Royal, Carême was able to apply his architectural skills to the elaborate cakes am pastries that became one of his trademarks and still survives today in the croquembouche (from the French 'Croque en bouche' meaning 'crunch in the mouth'), a popular wedding cake made with a high cone of profiteroles (choux puffs filled with pastry cream) bound with caramel, and usually decorated with threads of caramel, sugared almonds, chocolate, flowers, or ribbons. It was Carême's architectural pastry masterpieces that brought him to the attention of Talleyrand who hired him as his personal pastry chef where Carême studied cooking under Talleyrand's head chef Boucher after which the pupil became the master

Antonin Carême went on to work for such famous men as England's Prince Regent before he became George IV (June 24) at which time Carême created the Apple Charlotte; Czar Alexander I where Carême invented the Charlotte Russe, Chicken Kiev, and Mushrooms a la Greque; and, eventually, the Baron de Rothschild (May 15) under whose patronage Careme was happiest. It was Rothschild  who gave Carême a blank checkbook to spend as much money as he needed to create the most elaborate banquets in Europe. Rothschild also provided Carême with enough free time to write a series of famous cookbooks that fundamentally changed the future of French cooking. Carême's recipes were divided into two sections. The more elaborate and often expensive recipes from the basis of what became known as grande cuisine (elaborate cooking) and haute cuisine (high class cooking). There was also another section an everyday cooking, or bourgeoisie cuisine.

While Carême's grande cuisine recipes are seldom used, his haute cuisine and bourgeoisie cuisine recipes form the basis of what is commonly thought of as French cooking. It was Carême who created the soufflé, and perfected the use of puff pastry in many of the classic French desserts such as the Pithiviers, which he also created.  Carême perfected and defined the use of those miraculous French sauces that are probably the most fundamental aspect of haute cuisine. Carême's sauces were so exceptional that there was a popular joke in diplomatic circles that "if I were forced to eat an elephant or my grandmother, I would ask Carême  to prepare the sauce". The joke, however, was somewhat prophetic because in 1870 shortly after Carême's s death, all of the Paris zoo animals including the elephants were slaughtered for food during the siege of Paris.

While many of Carême's creations are feature in other sections of this book which discuss the people for whom the dishes were invented, here is a selection of three of his most popular desserts:
 

Apple Soufflé
 

2 large Yellow Delicious apples, peeled, cored,  and sliced thin.
2 cups powdered sugar
 

1. Preheat over to 350º F.
2. Mix 1 cup powdered sugar, zest, am wine in a saucepan. Add apples am cook aver medium heat until all fluid is cooked away and apples are dry, but not burned.  Mash apples with a fork and set aside.
3. Beat egg whites until they form soft peaks. Gradually beat in remaining sugar and keep beating until stiff. Fold in mashed apples.
4. Turn into a 2-quart soufflé dish and bake for 40 minutes.

Pithiviers
 

1. In a food processor, grind together the sugar, butter, egg, almonds, extracts and rum until light and fluffy. Line a shallow 6-inch bowl with plastic wrap and spoon in the nut mixture. Smooth the top flat and chill in the freezer 30 minutes to form a disk of firm nut filling.
2. Preheat oven to 475º F.
3. Roll the puff pastry out a bit thinner just to flatten it and make the sheets square, about 10 inches, then chill them. Using a pizza cutter and a lid or cake pan as your guide, cut the largest disk possible out of both pieces of pastry.
4. In a small bowl, whisk together the egg and water to make an egg wash. Place one of the pastry disks on a parchment lined sheet pan and paint a 2-inch border on the edge of the pastry with the egg-wash.
5. Pop the chilled nut filling out of the bowl, peel off the plastic, and place it in the center of the pastry. Carefully place the second pastry disk on top and ease it over the nut filling smoothing it out on the edges to match up the bottom piece. Brush the whole top surface with egg wash. Using a small sharp knife, score the surface of the pastry decoratively in a spiral pattern.
6. Bake for 15 minutes, then turn the oven down to 400º F for 30 to 40 minutes more. Ten minutes before the cake is done, sprinkle it with powdered sugar then finish baking. Cut into wedges to serve.

Croquembouche
(Glazed Puff Pastry Pyramid)
 

2 recipes pâte à choux*
2 recipes crème pâtissière (pastry cream)*
1 cup water
4 cups sugar
 

* See Appendix A

1/2 tsp cream of tartar
2 TB water
optional candied violets (February 27)
optional candied almonds
optional candied cherries

1. Fill pastry bag fitted with a 1/4" plain tube with pâte à choux*. Squeeze bag to make 2" circles on a cookie sheet. Lift up bag with a quick jerk after squeezing. A snail tail of dough will remain en top of circle. Take a damp towel and gently press it down into circle. Repeat procedure keeping at least 1-1/2" between circles of chou. One cookie sheet will hold about 20 chou circles and recipe should make about 55 - 60 (3 cookie sheets).
2. Preheat oven to 350º F.
3. Bake choux  puffs for 35 - 40 minutes, or until golden brown, leaving oven door slightly open during last 10 minutes of baking. Remove choux puffs and allow to cool. When cool,  take a small, sharp knife and make a small slit in the bottom of each puff.
4. Fill pastry bag with a 1/4" plain tube with crème pâtissière . Insert tip of tube in cream puff through slit in the bottom. Fill puff with crème pâtissière. Repeat procedure until! all puffs are filled.
5. Mix 1/4 tsp cream of tartar with 1 TB water. Combine 1/2 cup water and 2 cups of sugar in a saucepan. Place over high heat am bring to a boil, stirring occasionally to dissolve sugar. Add cream of tartar/water mixture and continue to book for 8 - 10 minutes, or until mixture turns to a light caramel. Remove from heat.
6. Dip the side of 1 cream puff  in caramel and set it on the outer edge of a 14" plate. Repeat procedure placing each dipped puff next to the other so that the caramel will make them stick to each other and form a ring. Use a knife dipped in caramel if any of the puffs need extra caramel to adhere.
7. Repeat procedure for second layer, except dip both bottoms and sides of puffs in caramel so that they adhere to the tops of the puffs forming the lower circle.
8. In forming the second and subsequent circles, move puffs about 3/4" closer to the center to form a circular pyramid. Each layer will be smaller and smaller.  When you run out of caramel, repeat recipe  for second batch. When pyramid is completed, use a knife dipped in the caramel to drip strands of caramel over pyramid to give it additional support.
9. (Optional) Decorate pyramid with candied cherries am candied almonds to form flower patterns by dipping them in caramel and sticking them on puffs. For added color, use a few candied  violets. To serve, cut off puffs with a strong scissors.