Le Salon des Champagnes et des Patisseries Fines, Pavillon Ledoyen

What a fabulous whirlwind the past few weeks have been ending in the grand finale - the 2-day Le Salon des Champagnes et des Patisseries Fine at Pavillon Ledoyen Sunday was a festive family day - many children (free from ages 3-10). Monday was for professionals, journalists, restauranteurs etc.

I'm just coming down to earth...maybe too many bubbles.

My work station next to the pastry demo station.

I painted a few champagne glasses before I left the house Sunday morning.

The perfect setting for all the exquisite desserts. New Hotel Crillon pastry chef Pablo Gicquel demonstrates a miniature version

His choux d'amor - vanilla creme, almond praliné, vanilla bean

My watercolor of his chou d’amour 

Patissier chef Guillaume Sanchez signs my watercolor.

Chef James Berthier of Sucré Cacao made this lush morsel - a deep chocolate base, plus black cherry, plus black sesame flavored chantilly on top.

Pavillon Ledoyen's pwn pastry chef, Aurélien Rivoire combined courgette flowers and strawberries with a vanilla cream.

Staff plate 100 sample desserts as the crowd looks on, waiting impatiently.

Pavillon Ledoyen's top 3-star chef, Yannick Alleno jumps in to help the team plate desserts

Miniature peach-red current meringue pavlovas from Cafe Pouchkine's chef Nina Métayer. I missed tasting this one but I had the full-size dessert earlier in the week at Pouchkine. I was 'rehearsing' for the big event.

Don’t forget the 34 stations of champagne! Many fabulous producers were present.

It was an opportunity to taste smaller family brands like grand cru, De Sousa

Plus renown names like Billecart Salmon, Pol Roger, Taittinger, Lanson.

A number of wineries asked me to paint their bottles onsite

I loved painting this deep green bottle of Aspasie plus the chunk of chalk from their caves.

All tasting glasses were provided by Spiegelau,

A big THANK YOU to the many PBers who showed up at the salon, including macaron queen, Jill Colonna of Mad about Macarons, whose background training was as a sommelier. The two days were a delightful whirlwind of tasting, painting, and imbibing beautiful bubbles. Plus the chance to participate with Paris top chefs. Now back to Paris realité. If you'd like a dessert or champagne watercolor or letters from Paris let me know🥂🍾🍒. Thanks for reading Parisbreakfast. Cheers Carolg

Teatime in Paris! - Almond Financier Teacakes with Jill Colonna

Last Thursday I had a house call from TEATIME IN PARIS cookbook author, Jill Colonna of Mad About Macarons fame.

It's not because I painted her Paris pastry map endpapers, but I love ❤️ this cookbook.

Jill knows all the little tips and secrets to making baking easy for idiots like moi. I can't even ice a cake, though I can paint one and eat it.

I will be making almond financiers while Jill gives instructions. 

1st things first. 

Weigh out the ingredients on my balance (scale).

Only a few days later I spotted this adorable ladybug balance in Pylones window. 

Drool.

Next make the 'beurre noisette' (burnt butter). 

A few days ago I overheard French girls chatting in Galeries Lafayette by the Liberté pastry counter, 

"Oh you must taste my financiers! You brown the butter first. Then they're divine, best ever!"

I reported back to Jill only to find out we were going to do the same thing. The recipe is on page 31.

Jill said when the butter begins to 'chirp' it's done. 

Who knew?

I had big plans to add in apricot jam, honey, raspberries, lemon zest, you name it into the financiers. Hmm..

I feel if you happen to have a French whip among your kitchen equipment you should use it. When in France as they say.

Jill said a plain old spoon 🥄  would do fine.

Financiers are mostly ground almonds with just a 1/4 of regular flour. Is there anything you cannot add lemon zest to? Next time I'll use two lemons 🍋 (untreated please).

The batter rests and cool on my roof.

Time to fill the flexipan molds. No butter required. Yay! 

Jill said, lose the spatula 😳

Drop in the dough with either a pastry bag or 2 🥄🥄 spoons.
Jill says, “it is NOT OK to eat the raw dough.”

Who says? I've been doing it since I was a kid and nothing's happened. OK, its why I don't bake much. Eating uncooked dough doesn't leave very many financiers.

I wish I'd gotten a shot of Jill's face 😨 when I liberally threw the almond slivers helter-skelter on top. Ha!

I did not have a nice flat baking pan for my tiny oven. 

Jill said just fold over several layers of tin foil and use as a base.

Do you like my appropriate knife & fork rug?

Aren't they gorge? I had no clue I could bake but Jill's Teatime in Paris makes it easy to make real French pastry. 

If I can do it, you can too.

Frankly I'd recommend losing the raspberries, pretty as they are. The cakes were too moist in my opinion. Just almond slivers on top make for a crunchier crust. I like the mini 'gold brick' size best. You eat more cake and feel less guilty👍

I felt obliged to taste Angelina's financier the other day for comparison. Heavy and a tad soggy. 

Much easier to make them using Jill's recipe!

Here's the Special Offer!

The first 5 buyers of Jill's book on Amazon get the Paris tea Salon map sent to them.

Buy the book and subscribe to the Paris letters or maps (6-12 months) + an original watercolor of Jill's financiers + the tea salon map.

Next batch of almond financiers will go to Ms. Piggy who lives in a houseboat on the other side of the Seine.

Astier de Villatte Paris

There's a tiny shop full of treasures lower end of rue Saint Honore, at 173, 75001, easily missed if you don't know the inside scoop.

That's why ParisBreakfasts is here PBers!

Bear knows about Astier de Villatte naturalement.

In fact Bear told me about it.

You may already have seen the divine all-white porcelain from Astier. They have it in ABC in New York and many other special shops.

The well-kept secret is!! Shhhhh...

Astier de Villate has the most enchanting collection of tree ornament in Paris, maybe the world. I kid you not.

Starting in early November they fill the upstairs room with bits of joy.

The vendeuse told me I was already 'Late!'
Many of the best tree ornaments have already sold out.
How is this possible? Everything looks pretty damn good (PDG) to me.

And she said, "it keeps getting earlier and earlier" (the Christmas season). So if you happen to be in Paris in November, make a mad dash over to Astier to get first dibs. I'll do the same next year or as they say here 'a la prochaine'.

Sadly the only gateaux in the joint :(
I was looking for an ECLAIR tree ornament. No way.

A big carp? No problem.

Paris' famous giant crows. You got it!

I did not see any of their stunning wolves this year. Trop tard.

Still ya gotta admit the leftover ornaments look pretty terrific non?

I'll take them in a heartbeat.
Speaking of a dear heart, lovely Macaron queen, Jill Colonna, soon to be all-time pastry queen has given the Paris Sketch letters a very nice shout-out. Do drop in if you don't know Jill's lovely blog or her book, Mad about Macarons and say Hi. You might pick up some tips to improve your macaron-making on the way.  Paris is all about desire isn't it?