11pm, October 13, 2022
Everyone remembers this little childhood drama. At snack time, your grandmother would throw the magic phrase: ” You can get the iron box from the kitchen. “ From the height of your 4 years, you have enthusiastically opened it, baby teeth ready to cast a spell on your favorite cookie. Disaster: the compartment is empty. And the grandmother who saw nothing … Another shot of the cousins, who came earlier, shamelessly devouring your biscuits. Those whose taste comes to mind just by reading these lines.
Whether you are more of an ironic, a Russian cigarette or a spritz, whether you swear by the Paille d’or or the petit-beurre … Each tastes like a dry biscuit rooted in them. For decades, this powerful Proust madeleine has allowed itself to be sanctified by producers, who have flooded supermarket shelves with small cakes with clever slogans and packaging. Now pastry chefs and chefs are back to look at them. ” It was either too domestic or not technical enough for thembelieves Déborah Dupont-Daguet, who has just published The cupcake of our dreams (Before, 19 euros). And the manufacturers offered relatively good quality products. “
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That of “twice cooked”.
However, nothing could be easier than making them at home. With four ingredients, there are a thousand possibilities, without the need for manual skills; just remove some flour, eggs, sugar and butter from the cupboard. “ Depending on how you mix them, depending on the proportions and cooking time, radically different cakes are obtained.says Déborah Dupont-Daguet. We mix, pour onto a plate or into a mold, just cook! “ These are the recipes in his book: spritz (Viennese shortbread), shortbread (Scottish shortbread), langue-de-chat, honey and almond cigars or Zimmet kuch, the Alsatian sweetness of his childhood.
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The characteristic of the biscuit is that it is dry, to be swallowed in a few bites and to be enjoyed with a tea or coffee. Originally, the biscuit is that “which is cooked twice “personified by Biscuits Italian. He is much less harsh and austere than his ancestor, which sailors and soldiers carried in their bags. Later the first sweets such as madeleine or matches were born, and it was in the nineteenth century, with the rise of pastry, that the French LU (inventor of the petit-beurre) or the Belgian Delacre took possession of them. Since then the biscuit is the symbol of the snack, but also of the regional Christmas specialties, the very chic tea time The British or … the palaces.
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The biscuit symbolizes snack time, regional Christmas specialties, tea time
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Each region has its own specialty
Among the chefs, the pioneer of French tea “this is François Perret, who arrived at the Ritz in 2015: ” When I saw the Proust salon, I found it a shame to serve sandwiches and scones tea timeHe explains. We had to wink at the writer’s madeleine … So I pulled the thread of the snack because I miss childhood, but updating these cookies.“ It offers almost 12 cakes with irreproachable raw materials: whipping cream and DOP butter “ 84% fat “, to secure the throat. His specialty remains the trompe-l’oeil with emblematic biscuits, such as the Petit Écolier revisited in Petit Ritz (a large chocolate shortbread filled with gianduja) or a large spritz that is eaten with a spoon …
In France, as with cheeses, each region has its own specialty and its artisan biscuit factory. Palet bretons, crunchy Villaret in Nîmes, shuttles from Marseille… and Nantes petit-beurre, which never goes out of style. The famous Bordier butter or Nantes pastry chef Vincent Guerlais offer their versions. Others are updating family cakes, such as Sarah Amouyal and Emmanuel Murat, founders of Babka Zana. In their café-boutique (Paris 4th), they make crunchy almonds with orange blossom and ghriba, a Tunisian specialty with chickpea flour and cinnamon. Sometimes divisive because crumbly in the mouth, they are soft thanks to their new dosage of flour (70% chickpeas, 30% classic). “ They are perfect with mint tea and can be kept for a long time “Sarah Amouyal explains.
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There are, however, chefs who prefer to shorten nostalgia. Like Alain Ducasse, who has just opened his factory in Paris. “ The chef wanted to reinvent the biscuit factory in another form, with impeccable raw materials and roughness “explains Flora Davies, her pastry chef. Free from sugar (from 8% to 10%), its cakes allow the freshness or acidity of the other ingredients to express themselves. Working with flours (buckwheat, corn, etc.), more or less toasted and sieved, allows you to play with textures, crunchiness and softness. The inclusions, raw or cooked, complete these small masterpieces: whole pistachios, in paste or praline, cocoa grains, candied fruit … Twenty-nine references have been imagined: “Hex “, stirrers and biscuits made at the minute. That fly already giving life to new childhood memories.
