Laduree Sucre - The Recipes By Philippe Andrieu
Anyone who's received a gift of macarons or pastries from the famous Laduree patisserie in France knows that open- ing the pretty, distinctive, pale-green box is almost as pleasurable as the first taste of its contents. It's the same thing with the book, Laduree Sucre. The small, gilt-edged book is packaged in a Laduree-green box lined with lavender-coloured tissue paper.
The book starts off with recipes for macarons, the patisserie's most famous confection. The ingredients in the recipes are mostly listed in metric and cups/teaspoon measurements, except - maddeningly - for egg white. The macaron recipe calls for '6 egg whites + 1/2 egg white'. Macarons almost certainly came about as a way to use up leftover egg white, which pastry shops produce in abundance since yolks are used in large quantities for such things as pastry cream, creme anglaise and other custards. So why not give more accurate measurements for egg white?
Other than that, though, the book is a delight, with recipes for many famous Laduree desserts. Some recipes call for multiple components: there's Paris brest (choux pastry filled with praline mousseline cream, caramelised almonds and hazelnuts), verrines mont blanc (meringue, chestnut vermicelli and whipped cream), duchesse (meringue ladyfingers, walnut cake, chestnut cream, chestnut mousse and milk chocolate glaze) and fraisier (almond genoise, kirsch syrup, pistachio mousseline cream, pistachio-almond paste and strawberries). Easier recipes include gaufres maison (although you'll need a waffle iron), chocolate truffles, madeleines and pain perdu (aka French toast). Instructions are quite basic, though, so it's clear this book is intended for those skilled in French pastry techniques.
A tip: you'll probably want to keep this pretty book looking as pristine as possible, so if you want to cook from it, make a copy of the recipe and keep the book out of the kitchen.