Origines Cacao, Tarte Houjicha

Ran to Ginza 6 and back to visit Origines Cacao. This time I was successful at finding new cakes (there were three, I think, two of them seasonal ones). I went with the (seasonal) Tarte Houjicha [revised], though I was a little worried that I had eaten this one before, despite my record to the contrary. Actually, it was B-E that I had had a houjicha (roasted green tea) and chocolate tart from previously. The running was 1 min:3 min of walking:running, adding up to 55 minutes total of running (so I wasn't going that fast).

The tart was very nice. I wouldn't have identified houjicha without the name, but I also wouldn't have known what it was. The chocolate and tea really harmonized for a subtler flavor than I usually appreciate but this time thought was excellent.

Bien-être, Houjicha Tarte Chocolat

Monday, I did muscle training inside and baked fondant/moelleux chocolat, which I did not do perfectly correctly, but good enough to be worth doing even if I don't improve it. I chilled the batter for the cake too much and maybe pushed the ganache part too deeply, as the fondant version leaked through the bottom, though no trouble with the moelleux version, which I used molds for, so I'll try again when I can buy more chocolate and post a picture here if they turn out better. After that, I'll start modifying the recipe to make darker chocolate (omit milk and maybe some of the sugar from the ganache, and maybe reduce the butter in the cake part). Of course, I recognize that the quality of the chocolate (and probably the cream and butter, if I want to worry about them) matter, so I'll be tempted to upgrade those once I get the construction down.

Tuesday, I went out to Bien-être, since I say that they had three new cakes over the weekend. I was surprised that they had all three in stock, since they tend to sell out. It was not like they were not busy when I went, at least in the café, though parfait seem to be the main attraction. I choose the Houjicha Tarte Chocolat, versus season versions of things I've had before. The tea taste was not too strong, but enough that it harmonized with the chocolate to create a different taste. The quality was good and I would say that it was excellent. I had a sequence of five potential back-ups that I could probably have checked in sequence and caught them open, if I had needed them, and recalled another on the way back, though that one might have thrown off my time enough that I couldn't make all five of the others. Maybe next time. I've almost brought Bien-être up to the target level, but I'll need those other two cakes.

Frédéric Cassel: Mille-feuille Finger Kaki

Tuesday, since the once-a-week applies only to new cakes, I went back to Frédéric Cassel and this time got the new mille-feuille, the Mille-feuille Finger Kaki. This was a full run both ways, and I used my eco cake bag from Ryoura. It's been a while since the Mille-feuille Finger has been part of the line-up. Previously, this was part of the regular monthly "Inspiration", but actually this month's inspiration has no individual cakes and this mille-feuille is separate with an unclear cutoff day.

The visible fruit is persimmon. Not sure what the gelatin cubes are. The main filling is yuzu cream, rather than mascarpone cheese, like in the old versions.  The whipped cream on top is flavored with houjicha (roasted green tea), so it's got lots of Japanese elements. Accordingly, I ate with green tea rather than the usual western/Indian tea. Bien E. has me used to different fruity mille-feuille, which is probably why I could appreciate this and consider it great. I guess it's going to be a Ginza first-round cake-off next.