Homemade project 1 and Avranches Guesnay's Renard

Last night, I did some dessert cooking, cheesecake tarts. I choose this next because I had a lot of cream cheese in the freezer, I needed some egg whites for other projects (the crust got me two), and I need some cream for a project. Actually, I realize now, that I need a little egg yoke, so I should have just reduced the recipe and had some creme cheese on bread, but it's too late now. Anyway, I ate the big one.

For professional cake, I bought Renard from Avranches Guesnay for 507 yen. This was this week's recommend cake, so I put off trying their dark chocolate cake again. Renard is a caramel mousse cake with a hazelnut cluster base and an inner layer of dried, at least to the point of being solid, orange, which worked, but was not a major part of the flavor (because it's not that big, just a few millimeters thick). This combination worked for me, although not to the point that I feel a need to seek it out. On the point of caramel, this was somewhat bitter, so not caramel-candy sweet, but not too bitter for me. Basically, the cake was excellent and I enjoyed it, but I'm stilling looking for a great cake from there after too excellent cakes, which is enough to keep my eye on it. First, though, I want to top up my a few of my great shops to 10 cakes, but I'll also get to the backlog of unvisited shops.

Cooking project number two, was to try to make meringue-based cake. It failed again: wasn't stiff enough, but still very edible and the Silpat demonstrated its usefulness. Could double the amount of nuts, though. Not shown is project number three, which was to make rum (because that's the only flavor I have right now: if I get into making chocolates, I'll buy more, smaller bottles, but my interest is still mainly cake) chocolate truffles. I did not manage to get them round, so I'll have to do some research before next time, but the taste seemed okay.

Paris S'éveille: Comme Newyorkais

Went to Paris S'éveille and actually parked my bicycle at a legal parking spot. I've never used there and did not really realize it was so close (although it is on the other side of the RR crossing). I also obeyed the little sign on the table that I had not noticed previously, which said don't take pictures, as it disturbed other guests, which is reasonable but unfortunate.   

I got their New York style cheese cake, Comme Newyorkais. Here's what it looks like:

I have no complaints, as far as it being as advertised. The little cookie-like topping tastes like my traditional pie crusts, so I assume it is oil-based rather than butter-based, whereas the bottom of the cake is a sponge to soak up some of the moisture, which works. I'd say it was excellent, but still not a priority for me. I tend to like it more during than after. This was 580 yen and they let me not order a drink, which I appreciate, because the drinks are more than the cake, so presumably that's where the profit is.

Later, I also got a Choux Creme from Glycine for 380 yen, which was very good, but I realized that I need to stop getting these, because I don't really like Choux Creme that much, or at least, I don't like them enough that I want to eat a whole one, but I would split one with someone, much like ice cream (which they are closer to in taste than cake).

I also went to Cuoca, mostly hardware but some chocolate and decoration-type cocoa powder. I stuck to the about 1000 yen/200 g chocolate rather than the 4000+/200 g stuff because, wow, that's why chocolates are so expensive.

Viron: cherry mousse cake

Got cake from Viron, which I thought was Pompette, but maybe it was Pampette, although I get more hits from Polpette, but nothing showing cake. I guess I just have to go back to find out, since as usually, I can't find any other posts showing this cake, which is not part of the regular lineup. It has Kirsch mousse I remember, which I didn't even have to look up to know what it is from the Japanese, because I just looked it up yesterday for a cake recipe: it is a transparent, not sweet, cherry brandy. So whatever it was called, it is a cherry mousse cake with some whole fruit. This was good, certainly, although not really it was cherry cake, which is something I would normally avoid but I was willing to give this a try (and had limited options for new cake). This was good, but not really 734 yen good. And it was definitely not great that I could tell, so Viron is too hit and miss for me to keep it as a "great" shop, so I'm downgrading it to "excellent" (so I probably won't be back there again soon, except for bread).

Thursday: Andersen Walnut Scone

Didn't run, nor will I be running for another couple weeks, but went to Andersen Isetan and this time I got actual bread: a Walnut Scone for 248 yen. Besides walnut, it seemed to have maple in it, but in any case, it was excellent.

I also tried cooking. I've got some new ingredients around the house, specifically, at lot of almond powder and also powdered egg whites, so I looked in the Super Patissier Book and found something that I could sort of do: I have the ingredients for the cake part (but not the filling, which is way too complicated, as they often are), which is macaron-like, and thus starts out like meringue, which I've failed with over and over again. This time, it looked reasonable, although still, merginue is a mystery to me, since there are hints not to over-whipping it or you'll break the proteins and they do it in just a couple minutes on yuutube, and elsewhere I've read and been told that it takes a long time (one recipe recommends 9 minutes for the degree of stiffness required), so I'd like to see whether I can get it a little stiffer. Just case, I also prepared ingredients for financier, in case I found myself with just a bowl of egg whites and sugar, but those went back in the refrigerator. I don't have the baking supplies for the recipe though, though, so the bottom was still a mess, but that didn't stop me from eating it. One project for the weekend is to buy a Silpat and that thing you squeeze pastry out of with 1 cm diameter nozzle.

Blondir: Tentation

Ran again today. My left knee was still not happy, but it was not happy at the beginning after a day of office work, so I ran anyway and it didn't get any worse, nor is the discomfort where I was having trouble initially there. This run was under 7 min/km, so a little faster than I intended and went 3.9 km, which was a little farther than I intended but still okay: still only 7 km in three days, so I'm on track for 15 km this week.

Since there was a new visiting shop at Isetan, I went there first and got Tentation (?) for 518 yen. At first, I thought it was pretty good, but my opinion faded afterward. It's rhubarb I think (the website is pretty useless and does not even have store hours, nor does the business card they were handing out: I think they just moved), with pistachio cake underneath maybe, although the sweet red fruit taste dominated and the texture was okay for mousse on the top and a soft bottom (it's leaning toward the camera, but it was that way when they gave it too me). Ultimately, I'm less satisfied than with a seven-eleven donut, but I'm going to stick with my average impression, which is it is just good. Maybe it is not fair, when I like chocolate and nuts, but I had a Great rhubarb cake from Toshi Yoroizuka, which was what was on my mind when I picked it.

Le Petit Mec: Flan Tart

Went to Le Petit Mec for bread, but ended up with a Flan Tart, which is sort of cake and was good.

Sadaharu Aoki: Cheese Cake Citronné

Raining today, so I went to Isetan first and got Cheese Cake Citronné from Sadaharu Aoki for 730 yen, since I haven't had great cake for a few days (although I went to a couple potentially great shops that I've since demoted to excellent or potentially excellent).

It was raining but I still ran. It was not running that hard and I was not planning to run that long. My upper limit of running for the week is 15 km. My knee was not completely happy from the beginning, but it did not seem to get worse. I jogged 3 km.

I'm not a big rare cheesecake fan, but this was very delicious, from the crust to the cheese. It's lemon cheesecake. Citronné apparently means "lemon juiced" as a verb. I liked it very much and I'll call it great.