Viron, Chiboust aux Marrons

I'll lead with the cake: I ran to Viron (as always, the Marunouchi one) and got the Chiboust aux Marrons for 810 yen (really, but it's big), which is a chiboust top and a bottom that is sort of like a tart with chestnut halves in it. I'm slow to come around to chestnuts, but I'm getting there. Just the base as a chestnut tart is excellent, and I would like to see more chibousts and I've never had a better chestnut chiboust, so I'm saying this is great, which is 6th of 10 tried that I've found great there.

The running was too fast. Even noticing that my first kilometer was over 9 km/h, I couldn't get the average below 8.5 km/h going out, although I did coming back (still not going far enough or fast enough for fatigue to be a big factor). I'm seriously chewing through my 7-day running budget, which is why I've only run 31 km compared to my peak walking only a couple months ago of over 70 km (although I also have 20 km cycling this week, which counts only 1/4 of running). Of course, shorter and faster is more efficient and the best cake targets are somewhat close, although I'm going to have to just do the Gaien Walk again (even if I do 9 km/h again, I'll still be within budget) and get cake from Isetan (it's about time I had Jean-Paul Hévin cake again anyway, though I need to get to the Marunouchi location, too).

In home baking news, I started a new cake, which uses a pistachio macaron shell as a base. It's just a simple substitution of pistachio powder for almond power (simple if you can get the powder), but so delicious. Actually, it seems to "macaronage" a lot quicker, so I have to be careful not to over-mix. I had a fancy recipe with egg yolk and syrup which I failed with, at the stage of combining those two, so I went with a simple American pistachio buttercream, which might be too sweet. I'll try to wing a pistachio marzipan buttercream next time (I've still got lots of pistachio powder and enough pistachio paste for another batch), although probably not soon, as I've got a few dozen macarons in the freezer now, not all that successful, though: lots of chocolate ones with cracked shells and ones with chocolate-strawberry ganache, which isn't well balanced. You'll notice that I don't die the shells, or cover them when baking to keep them from getting brown.
 

Dalloyau, Mont Blanc

Somewhat as planned (at least the route was right on), I went to Kappabashi and bought some cake making things, Silikomart silicon forms for canele and 4 cm cylinders (I really just needed fairly shallow disks, but I'm hoping these will work close enough). The shop is already cheap, and they were on sale. Forgot to look for macaron cases (the same company makes them, although they probably don't import them, since they aren't on Amazon, where I got my mini canele Silikomart one). Only about 20 km cycling today, but got soaked (should have waited an hour). More rain tomorrow after noon, so maybe I'll wait for the afternoon to run to the Marunouchi/Ginza area, with Viron my main aim.

Next was to Mitsukoshi, where I picked up some coating chocolate and a couple 6 cm d, 3 cm h cake rings. While I was there, I got the Dalloyau Mont Blanc (and forgot to get my card stamped, I just realized). The chestnut is more the familiar flavor than the special seasonal one I posted on before, although still very mild. It's very buttery, so maybe a chestnut butter cream is what they work with. Still, excellent, although someone who wants a stronger chestnut flavor might not think so.

Les Années Folles: Noisette Orange

P. les Années Folles is at Isetan fro a way from yesterday, so, even though my experience is that they aren't so great, since I haven't posted on them and they are convenient now, I went. I got the Noisette Orange, which is a chocolate mousse/cream cake with hazelnuts and orange. Neither the hazelnuts nor the orange is so powerful, for good and bad, but they did a good job and this was a combination of ingredients that I appreciate, so I should visit them again soon. Probably won't get to that at Isetan again, but they are actually theoretically accessible on a weekday run, though farther than I've run recently (as is true of most places).

The run was just down to the Meiji Gaien course, where I did three laps. Like the last run, I was slow at the beginning for not real reason, around 7 km/h, but I stuck to at least 8 km/h on the track (where there are 100 m markers). I did the first 525 m at 8 km/h, then alternated between 8 and 9 km/h in 200 m stretches (3 times) then finished the lap at 10 km/h, which is sort of actually running instead of jogging, for the last 125 m. Next lap was the same, and then I did the last half lap and home at 8+ km/h.

Will take tomorrow off, though Saturday will probably be cycling again rather than running, since I want to do some cake-making related shopping for forms and whatever the chocolate tempering sheet is for making strips of chocolate, similar to the above, as well as other food shopping.

Frédéric Cassel, Mille-feuille Finger Yuzu

Went to Ginza and had the opposite problem as yesterday: I was slow. Not that this is a huge problem, but I was closer to 7 km/h than 8 km/m the first kilometer, and then again the second. I assume when I was running along the moat course that I was faster, though I lumped it together with the first part going, because coming back with cake, going slightly uphill for 2.2 km was the stretch that I was fastest. Anyway, 7.4 km at the slower speed and 2.2 km for the faster speed today. I'm actually only at 97% of my peak up to a week ago (I allow up to 110%), although that's partially because I just changed the weighting, so there is less difference between 8 km/h and slower speeds than previously. Nevertheless, I plan to take a rest tomorrow and then do some more Meiji Gaien course training running, maybe trying and couple hundred meters at 10 km/h to see whether I can still do that without breaking something.

I went to Frédéric Cassel for the Halloween tart, which was foolish, because specials often aren't available Mondays and Tuesdays, but they had three unfamiliar cakes (or two cakes and some weird thing), so no problem and I can go again next week. I got the Mille-feuille Finger Yuzu this time, which doesn't have side pastry like their other Mille-feuille Finger cakes and I'm really doubting that there were 1000 leaves of pastry in the bottom. Still, it was excellent, very lemony and chocolate rich, since the layers seemed to be solid white chocolate with some yuzu something drawn on it, whipped cream, white chocolate, buttercream, and mille-feuille pastry. These night shoots aren't very flattering to the cake.

On the homemade front, I finished fancy cake recipe number 6, the gateau fraise, although I cheated and didn't refrigerate before eating (it was late and I wasn't that patient) to get the whipped cream to set. This was to demonstrate a biscuit with marzipan 2:3 with flour. It was good. I'll probably make it again in strawberry season, though it didn't bubble up much. Maybe I was supposed to whip it up more after adding the flour, or maybe I can add extra egg yoke to make up for the missing emulsifier, which I can't find at cake supply shops, thought I've asked, bring my recipe with me. Or I'll add a little baking soda/powder. Note that I do not have a "mum" nozzle for my pastry bag, so everything is spooned on.

Also, I made canele, which means I wanted egg whites for macaron shells, which I want for strawberry chocolate ganache I've already made. It's all very complicated. And I haven't found out what I need for fancy cake recipe 7 yet, whatever that is.

Chez Cima: Creme Anjou

Raining, and I don't have a big running budget, so got cake at Isetan. Well, actually I got Creme Anjou (Crème d'Anjou be the correct French), but it's their specialty, I thought, so it seemed fair. I went down to the Meiji Gaien course and did just two laps. On the track, I did 0.9 km at 9 km/h and 1.75 at 8 km/h, but I wasn't good at keep my speed down on the way there and back, but at least it was under 8.5 km/h, I think. Anyway, 8 km/h is my new median/benchmark speed, but my distance is down from two months ago. I'll have to go back to the shortest way to Ginza next time. I'm hoping to do it all running, but I should definitely keep in under 8 km/h and walk part way back again.

The cake (and there really was a tiny bit of sponge cake in the center, though I'm not sure what flavor the red indicated. It was good, and different, but not special. I keep changing how I compute shop rating, but I'm deciding now that one good and two excellent cakes, when I'm choosing the best looking ones, does not an excellent shop make, so both Chez Cima and Demel are going down to "good" status, although maybe someday I'll partition good shops into good and near-excellent shops, and they'l start out in the latter, but I still have 4 greats, 5 near-greats, and 24 excellent ones, so no hurry on that. Cake did not photograph well, with white on white. Might be a settings problem.

Maison Douce: Tarte Caramel Jolaine

Went first to Isetan for cake and got Tarte Caramel Jolaine (?) from visiting patisserie Maison Douce for 540 yen. I didn't deliberately choose the one with coconut shreds to sabotage my rating, just I had caramel on my mind. I did notice that they had an unusual number of cakes especially for Isetan, this one being one of them, which makes me think that their regular clientele supports a simpler selection.

Then I went and ran the Gaien (Outer Garden) Walk for the first time in a while; I am not used to those slopes, but I averaged 8.2 km/h over the 4.2 km before running back 0.6 km to Lawson 100. I only took photos and the end, which is the beginning of the Sotobori (Outer Moat) Walk. Here's an album showing the marker and surrounding view. If I ever get the time and strength, I'll do a Tokyo History and Culture Walking Course blog, but no sign of that happening soon.

The cake was fine, that is, good, and the coconut didn't even bother me. The base was strongly attached to the cardboard base and was difficult to cut even with a metal knife, so I'm not that thrilled with the design of this one, but you have to put something under it to support it, I suppose. That little layer of sponge is not going to do it. The main under-layer is a fruit mix with rum (not that strong), but all I can remember is pineapple. From the photo, I can't really tell---strawberry?

In baking news, my last couple macaron attempts were seriously cracked, so this time, I (i) ran the air conditioner on dehumidify from an hour before putting them out, (ii) touched them to try to learn the different textures as they rest/dry, and (iii) tried two different resting times before baking, 40 and 90 minutes. The latter did the trick (notice bellow that I also got "feet", which is related), but I'm not sure which one actually tastes better, because I like some chewiness, which I got more of, perhaps, with the cracked ones, and I'll choose taste over appearance every time. I might just one to bake them longer for more chewiness, although I should turn them half-way anyway (you can also cover them, to avoid browning, I've been told). Note that most recipes say 20 to 40 minutes of resting before baking, but an acquaintance who took classes told me he's done a couple hours and used a fan for making them in summer in Japan, so they are difficult in this climate, at least with the French method.

90-minute rest

40-minute rest

 Next new thing, I need to make chocolate ganache with fruit puree.

Au Bon Vieux Temps, Zephyr

Cycled to Au Bon Vieux Temps for cake again. This time I got Zephyr, which was 702 yen. The top is chocolate cream with alcohol, which both seem to be a specialties of theirs. The bottom is a steamed/baked mascarpone cheese and brown sugar (had to look up "vergeoise" from the Japanese phonetic French) cheesecake, which was almost nutty in texture. This cake is excellent, so I chose well again. That chocolate stick should be on top, though.

Being greedy, I continued on to Limevert, because I hadn't forgotten that they had a bostock (for 380 yen), but it wasn't really the type I like. I like double-baked, somewhat thick, but this was thin and rum-soaked with lots of sliced almonds (a large amount of almonds slid off even before I got it; it's not very stable ). It was still good.

Didn't do a good job of staying on the best path, so it ended up being 34 km of cycling, which is a couple more than I planned. My leg seems okay, but now my arm isn't too happy, so I may need to limit that.

I should mention sometime that I've had the Venezuelan Noir chocolate from Henri le Roux (I've given up on photographing them), and it was excellent, like their other chocolates. Now I want to get to Tokyo midtown to try the their new Kouign Amann flavor, lime.