Dorie Greenspan’s life couldn’t be sweeter. The food writer and columnist for Bon Appetit magazine is a New Yorker, who also spends about a week a month in Paris where she indulges her passion for pastry.
Greenspan’s book, “Paris Sweets” (Broadway, $26), is showing up in bookstores across the U.S. The slim volume, with whimsical illustrations by Florine Asch, is an ode to the city and to its pastry shops with their irresistible collections of madeleines, tartes Tatin and beautifully decorated gateaux.
The recipes come from 17 pastry chefs and shops in Paris, some with well-known names, such as Fauchon and Poilane. Greenspan brings to life the aromas and flavors of desserts–and the artistry and personalities of the chefs.
Enduring love affair
Greenspan’s love affair with Paris and its delectable pastries began almost 30 years ago when she and her husband, Michael, made their first trip to the City of Light as young newlyweds.
Although Greenspan tried to visit every two years or so, it wasn’t until 1996 that she was able to visit more frequently. Her work with Pierre Herme, France’s best-known pastry chef, whose recipes were the subject of her books, “Desserts by Pierre Herme” and “Chocolate Desserts by Pierre Herme,” justified six trips a year. Five years ago, the Greenspans rented an apartment where they now spend at least a week a month.
And though Greenspan frequents patisseries the way art lovers gravitate toward galleries, she never looked at them as material for a book until fellow author and francophile Patricia Wells suggested the idea.
“This book is very personal,” Greenspan said. “This was really a chance to meet some of the people who made Paris so delicious for me, to meet them and to share them and their recipes.”
“Paris Sweets” is a mix of the shops that have gained a national and international reputation as well as smaller neighborhood shops. Although she was familiar with the patisseries as a customer, Greenspan had to work to develop a more formal relationship with the chefs and to ask for recipes for the book.
“The big guys were hard,” she says. “At Fauchon, they weren’t sure that they wanted to give me recipes. They didn’t know the American cookbook market or whether Americans would want the recipes.”
The neighborhood bake shop is a French tradition, an important part of French daily life and culture. A loaf of bread, some cookies or a small cake is not something that the French buy on a weekly trip to the grocery store. Instead, those purchases are a daily ritual, one in which Greenspan happily indulges while in Paris.
Although she realizes that, for some home bakers, the art of pastry can be intimidating, she made it her job to translate the recipes for home cooks. The chefs provided special occasion desserts as well as everyday sweets.
“The ones they wanted to give me were really simple,” she says. “These were the ones from their childhood memories.”
Shopping traditions
Parisians love their sweets, but they tend to buy desserts rather than bake at home.
“The American kind of baking, you rarely see in Parisian kitchens,” she says.
When in Paris, she will pop into a bakery to satisfy a craving–and she doesn’t have to travel far. Within a five-minute walk of her St. Germain des Pres flat are at least six famous patisseries, although Greenspan will travel throughout the city to buy favorite things from a favorite shop. She goes to Dalloyau for the regal chocolate cake, Gerard Mulot’s shop for tiny, jewellike fruit tarts, Boulangerie Kayser for buttery almond financiers, and Pierre Herme for miniature kugelhopf.
In New York, Greenspan can savor these sweets within the confines of her kitchen. There, she is baker and consumer.
“It helps to have patience and time when baking,” she says. “It’s not quick. But the process is as pleasurable as the end result.”
Tiger tea cakes
Preparation time: 15 minutes
Chilling time: 2 hours
Cooking time: 10 minutes per batch
Yield: 16 cakes or 48 mini-cakes
Tigres are a Parisian creation, says Dorie Greenspan. These tiny cakes can be found in many shops, but Greenspan’s favorites are the ones from Maison Kayser. Folding chopped chocolate into the batter just before baking creates the “tiger” striping. Although tiger cakes are delicious on their own, Greenspan sometimes embellishes them by cutting each cake in half and filling with chocolate ganache. Adapted from “Paris Sweets.”
6 large egg whites, room temperature
3/4 cup sugar
2 1/4 cups ground blanched almonds
1/3 cup all-purpose flour
1 1/2 tablespoons light corn syrup
1 stick (1/2 cup) plus 7 tablespoons unsalted butter
5 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped, or mini chips
1. Whisk egg whites in medium mixing bowl just to break them up. Add sugar, almonds, flour and corn syrup; whisk until the batter is smooth. Cover the bowl tightly with plastic wrap; refrigerate at least 2 hours, or as long as overnight.
2. Position oven racks to divide into thirds; heat oven to 350 degrees. Heat butter to boil in a small saucepan over medium heat. Remove butter from the heat; stir it into the batter. When the batter is no longer warm, stir in the chocolate.
3. Spoon about 3 tablespoons batter into buttered regular-size muffin tins or 1 tablespoon into buttered mini-muffin molds. (You should have enough batter for 16 large cakes or 48 mini-cakes.) Bake until they are puffed and golden and a knife inserted in the center comes out clean, 15-20 minutes. (Mini-cakes will require less baking time.) Let cool 2-3 minutes, then turn cakes out onto racks to cool to room temperature. The cakes will keep in a covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days or can be frozen for up to a month.
Nutrition information per cake (based on 16):
480 calories, 40% of calories from fat, 23 g fat, 10 g saturated fat, 90 mg cholesterol, 70 g carbohydrates, 6 g protein, 20 mg sodium, 2.3 g fiber
