0 Jean-Paul Hevin Choco Passion

Jean-Paul Hevin Choco Passion, watercolor, 9" x 11"
Darling Jill of Mad About Macarons fame took me to master chocolatier Jean-Paul Hevin's Chocolate Bar on rue St. Honore.

Only 30 desserts to choose from!
We chose the choco passion - intense dark chocolate ganache + passion fruit mousse - so divine it levitated right off the table.

It would be wise to study up ahead with this Assouline book on J-PH by Le Figaro food critic par excellance, Fancois Simon.

Utterly luscious photos + chocolate recipes in the back.

After tea and dessert you will be well- armed to face the endless chocolate displays downstairs...

Resistance will be so easy...

Chocolate can be quite the seductress you know...

Oh dear, how not to give in to temptation?

BONJOUR JEAN-PAUL HEVIN CHOCOLAT PASSION!

0 Mad About Macarons with Jill Colonna

Remember how thrilled BEAR was when Mad About Macarons arrived in the mail? Yesterday we met up with author Jill Colonna at her favorite pastry supply shop, Mora - 13, rue Montmartre 75001 To get the scoop on all her fav pastry tools for making macarons!! Jill's favorite bowl scraper (about 1 euro). More expensive, but this metal scraper will remove your cooled macarons (after 10 minutes) with one wisk of the hand - voila! Jill likes the Flexipan molds for baking.

Over the plastic kind...

Nozzle #9 is perfect for making macarons - I bought one too.

Jill uses Exopat parchment paper to line her baking pans, not Silpats.*And only bake ONE pan of macarons in the oven at a time!

*PLEASE TAKE NOTE future macaron makers!

You need a proper pastry scale if you want to make proper pastry. All the pros everywhere use them. The measurements in grams in the book are universal. Every pastry chef worth his/her salt has a scale to get the exact quantities correct. C'est comme ca.

Making pastry is chemistry and not a casual handful of this or that.

Another thing Jill pointed out - is get to know your oven.

An oven thermometer is the best way. Macarons can be fickle - much depends on your oven.

Another lecon. Jill does NOT use a Kitchen Aide to beat her egg whites.Simply a Moulinex hand-held electric whisk.

So we can all get down and start making macarons, myself and BEAR included!

Here's a sneak peak inside Jill's shopping basket.

Jill could not be more adorable or accessable or generous with her secrets. Do visit her new blog, Le Blog. And for heaven's sake get her book!

BEAR is thrilled at the prospect of actually making some macarons of his own.Plus Jill has promised a follow-up lecon next trip if we do our macaron homework.

We were both smitten with Jill's bag from Lupo by the way.

The outside of Mora FYI - they couldn't have been nicer or more helpful and the prices are less than across the street at Bovida...hmph

Jill insisted on taking me to Jean-Paul Hevin's new Chocolate Bar, but that's another story.

*Noted in Jean-Paul Hevin's windows -> 'overbeaten' macarons.

See the dents? Ha! Who knew?

Shall we all get baking?

I'm ready to plunge in enfin.
BONJOUR MAD ABOUT MACARONS & Jill!