U comme Un Macaron

 Here's a presie you can give yourself this holiday.

From me to you.

 Course you'll need to be in Paris ahem...

 If you are right now you can sashay into any patisserie no matter how couture or grandiose and ask for just ONE macaron.

 It's true.

Here's living proof.
I went to many patisseries to test this out.

 What knocks me out is all these patisseries have special mini sized bags to hold that ONE macaron. Is that not amazing or what? Could this happen in New York? Not on your life.

 Frowns and serious looking down the nose is all you will get. But sweet little ONE macaron bags plus pretty booklets listing flavors with pictures? Not happening. Ya gotta buy a box of them..

 Extra points go to witty top dog patissiere, Pierre Herme, who knows you may crush your ONE macaron in transit. Broken macarons beautifully shot on the cover of his flavor chart/ livret explicatif. Pretty terrific no?

 With your ONE macaron you get a little bag + a signature napkin + a booklet. What's not to love? The French adore their peche mignon/quilty pleasures. Why not make an afternoon snack as delightful as possible?

 Here's an ancient cousin of the macaron Parisian - the old fashioned meringue cookie - just sugar + egg whites.

No resistance to such a pretty pink bag from Fossier. Besides it had the word 'macaron' on it...

 So there it is PBers. No need to feel intimidated waltzing into any darn fancy-shmancy pastry shop in Paris. It's perfectly OK to buy just one macaron. That's my gift to you this holiday season.

Who knew?

Or perhaps you'd rather DYI and make as many macarons as you like? Jill Colonna has a 2nd edition out of her FAB Mad About Macarons. It includes a troubleshooting section, a glossary of UK-US terms, and another new section with US ingredient stockists. By the way it may not say it's the 2nd edition on Amazon but it is. Jill says so.

Have a wonderful weekend and Holiday PBers!

xxcg

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Bag-a-holic?

artwork after Germaine Bouret

 Are you a bag-a-holic?

 Would it be sac-a-holic in French?

 This is my all time favorite quelle ordinaire boulangerie sac/bag. I will leave this to the Smithsonian Institute if they're lucky.

 I bet you've seen this tres common baguette bag. But did you save it? For a few years?

 If you did, welcome to the club.

 The French are mad for silhouettes along with lolly pops/sucettes. I've said it many times.

Here's another charming example, if not a boulangerie sac. I picked up this scrap in Montmorillon. It looks related to the baguette bag does it not?

A small digression to wrapping paper svp/please. But isn't this darling?

I may have picked this up in Nancy and a meat pie/tourte Lorrain may have been wrapped up in it. I forget. But isn't this auspicious and impressive? No idea what it says...
Mystery solved.
This is from a boulangerie after all, referring to the 6 laws of Antoine Augustin (born in 1737) for making bread:
Les bles/wheat, le sel/salt, la levure/the yeast, l'hydration/water, la fermentation/fermentation, and le petrissage/kneading.

I know this wrapping paper held a bit of fromage from the Paris by Mouth tour of Montmartre. So many souvenirs...

Back to boulangerie bags. What an interesting nature morte/still life. Croissants and brioche plus your mandolin. But of course!

Guess what lurks within this little sac? More tomorrow.

So spill the beans.

Do you have a collection of boulangerie paper bags hanging about?

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