Pierre Herme' is universally acknowledged as the king of French pastry with shops in Tokyo, Paris and London. He is the best, and has even been described as a couturier of pastry. This is a man at the top of his art and there is no question his macarons are in a league of its own. Macarons are the aristocrats of pastry; these brightly coloured, mini meringues, daintily sandwiched together with gooey fillings, have become a holy grail for cookery fanatics and there are even food blogs dedicated to them. Now for the first time, all the macaron recipes from this most celebrated French patissier are published in English. The French language edition has been one of the most sought after cookbooks of recent years. And just like Pierre Herme''s famous macarons, it would be difficult for any macaron book to surpass this one. There are 200 pages of recipes and beautiful food photography, and because making macarons is mostly about technique, rather than just a standard recipe, readers will appreciate the 32-step-by-step photo-illustrated instructions for making shells and fillings. All the classics are here like dark chocolate, praline, coffee, and pistachio, but others feature the more unusual macarons that Herme' is justly famous for: Isfahan is one, with lychee, rose and raspberry, Arabesque with apricot and pistachio, Satine with passion fruit, orange and cream cheese, Mandarin and pink pepper, black truffles, balsamic vinegar as well as a bright-green macaron filled with fresh mint. Anyone interested in making macarons will find Pierre Herme''s the best book in print. REVIEWS "All my high hopes and expectations for this book have been exceeded. This book, this one, is the macaron bible that we have all waited for...filled with imagination, creativity and wonder."Cooking by the Book.com
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Most Helpful Customer Reviews
97 of 111 people found the following review helpful
By lovemodern
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I have been baking macarons for a few months now. I was excited to see that the Herme book would be available for the English market. First of all you must know that Herme uses the Italian method in making his macarons. No French, no Swiss. I don't particularly like handling boiling sugar, so this was a big disappointment to me. I prefer the French method which requires no soft ball stage boiling of sugar to make a meringue. Temperatures are in metric units, which doesn't bother me, but may bother some people. I have become accustomed to measuring in grams. There is no way around it in this precise art form.
This book is targeted toward those already familiar with baking macarons. It offers no trouble shooting guide. You are on your own if things don't turn out quite like the beautiful pictures in the book. The ingredients used in the recipes can be quite exotic to America. The resource guide in the back of the book provides names and websites of suppliers, but most are in the UK or France. The recipes produce impractical quantities of macarons. 144 shells = 72 macarons? That is 6 dozen macarons per batch! Be prepared to make only 1/2 or 1/3 the recipe. You don't want 6 dozen macarons that you decide you or no one else likes.
It's a beautiful book given its pictures. It can spark your imagination in producing your own recipes. However, this book is not practical for the novice. In addition, it has not been properly translated for use in the US market.
If you are looking for a book to begin your journey into the world of macarons, I recommend Les Petits Macarons by Gordon and McBride.
This book is targeted toward those already familiar with baking macarons. It offers no trouble shooting guide. You are on your own if things don't turn out quite like the beautiful pictures in the book. The ingredients used in the recipes can be quite exotic to America. The resource guide in the back of the book provides names and websites of suppliers, but most are in the UK or France. The recipes produce impractical quantities of macarons. 144 shells = 72 macarons? That is 6 dozen macarons per batch! Be prepared to make only 1/2 or 1/3 the recipe. You don't want 6 dozen macarons that you decide you or no one else likes.
It's a beautiful book given its pictures. It can spark your imagination in producing your own recipes. However, this book is not practical for the novice. In addition, it has not been properly translated for use in the US market.
If you are looking for a book to begin your journey into the world of macarons, I recommend Les Petits Macarons by Gordon and McBride.
20 of 20 people found the following review helpful
By JoAnn
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I bought this book eventhough I know how to make french macarons already. I just want to add it on my collections. I truly love this book, great pictures and really have good filling recipes.
Anyway, I can understand why the others gave it a bad reviews. For you to actually learn how to make proper macarons, either watch a step by step video (has to be very detail), or take a class (which I did). There's some major technique details that you have to learn, and reading a recipe online or books are not going to help. Even when I took the class, I wasted 3 batches when I did it on my own. And if you are seriously wants to learn, invest on a scale. U.S. measurements aren't going to cut it. You need to measure in grams to get an accurate results. And from experience, Italian meringue method is better than French or Swiss meringue method.. And I agree with "Carmen Adorno". This is a very delicate cookie so "Repetition" is the key. I always take orders from my friends because it gives me practice.
Anyway, I can understand why the others gave it a bad reviews. For you to actually learn how to make proper macarons, either watch a step by step video (has to be very detail), or take a class (which I did). There's some major technique details that you have to learn, and reading a recipe online or books are not going to help. Even when I took the class, I wasted 3 batches when I did it on my own. And if you are seriously wants to learn, invest on a scale. U.S. measurements aren't going to cut it. You need to measure in grams to get an accurate results. And from experience, Italian meringue method is better than French or Swiss meringue method.. And I agree with "Carmen Adorno". This is a very delicate cookie so "Repetition" is the key. I always take orders from my friends because it gives me practice.
24 of 29 people found the following review helpful
By Lauren
Format:Hardcover|Amazon Verified Purchase
I've been working on making "proper" macarons for awhile, and have been eagerly awaiting the English version of this book. The book itself is beautiful and has amazing photographs and recipes ranging from traditional to way out there. I've made a few batches of the basic, plain shells and the result is great IF you already know how to make an Italian Meringue. I have made Italian Meringue many times, and know how to do so fairly well. However, Herme's instructions for doing so make absolutely no sense. I tried it anyway, with terrible results. Luckily I had several "sets" of eggs liquifying in the fridge. When I used my own method (which is well known and relatively simple, just Google) for making the Italian Meringue, the rest of the recipe was easy and produced awesome shells. So, the ingredients are there, but the instructions for making the meringue are ridiculous. Unless someone else's stand mixer and stove (and laws of physics) work differently than mine, I don't understand how this method could possibly work. Anyway, I look forward to trying many of the different flavors and fillings. But, you really need to have some baking experience to recognize the obvious errors and correct for them, or I imagine you would be very frustrated trying to follow the most basic shell recipe in this book. Good luck!
Most Recent Customer Reviews
4.0 out of 5 stars
Great book
Great book with a lots of amazing pictures.
Good idea if you're looking for macrons flavors, but not so much about the technique of making them, which is the most difficult.
Good idea if you're looking for macrons flavors, but not so much about the technique of making them, which is the most difficult.
Published 23 days ago by Lepongemagique
3.0 out of 5 stars
Nice book but based on italian Meringue method only
Nice pictures. But instructions are written such as there are few explanations to the steps needed.. seemed to be telling the readers... Read more
Published 2 months ago by Kim Woo
5.0 out of 5 stars
great
Great quality, product was described as it is and fast shipment, wish to do business with in the future. highly recommended.
Published 3 months ago by zm.7
5.0 out of 5 stars
Great book.
Very easy to follow. Ingredients are pricey, but I used affordable substitutes. Had made 3 of the recipes already. Looking forward tomaking the 4 th.
Published 3 months ago by Grace Downing
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful book
Nice macaroni ideas. I'm already an "italian" method macaron maker like Herme so don't find it hard to understand like some other reviewers. Read more
Published 3 months ago by Anonymous
4.0 out of 5 stars
pretty book but
I cannot vouch for the quality of the recipes on the book as I have yet to bake anything. I give this book four stars because it is poorly edited. Read more
Published 4 months ago by V. Roth
5.0 out of 5 stars
Beautiful Book
I was nervous about the book because of so many complaints about instructions but I wanted the book anyways. It was a pleasant surprise at how easy the instructions were. Read more
Published 4 months ago by N. Noblett
5.0 out of 5 stars
very gd recipes
a lot more better than recipes found on the internet. very detailed instructions and nice photographs. i am happy for getting it
Published 4 months ago by HO YI CHAN
3.0 out of 5 stars
good for PROs. not for noob
this is a nice book, nice picture.
covered alot nice recipe.
however, it 's for professional ! if you are a home baker. this is not for noob.
covered alot nice recipe.
however, it 's for professional ! if you are a home baker. this is not for noob.
Published 5 months ago by na
4.0 out of 5 stars
Good but not Great
It was good, but one thing I didn't expect was the ingredients in the book are way more expensive than I or my job would ever pay for. Read more
Published 6 months ago by SarahLou
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