Sunday, October 31, 2010

Baked macarons from Tokyo

One of the more peculiar things at the Salon du Chocolat was Sadaharu Aoki’s Tokyo Macaron Yaki. Qu’est-ce que c’est?

I wasn’t entirely sure, but since one of his bakers started cooking them right there, I couldn’t take my eyes off the process.

First, the patissier broke out a batter squirter, and injected dollops of matcha-flavored batter into muffin divets on a stovetop oven.

Then out came the chocolate macarons.

Plunk, plunk, plunk…

After a little cooking time, the squirter came out again, and he started baking the tops.

Voila, he then deftly sandwiched the two…

…and let them cook a little while longer.

That was it. Sadaharu Aoki’s baked macaron.

Of course after having invested the time to watch the full process, I had to sample one for myself.

Warm, melty chocolate cake from a master patisserier? Bien sur…


It’s a wonderfully balanced decadence: not too rich or sweet. Unusual and special.

In fact, I didn’t know it at the time but M. Aoki won the “International Excellence” award at the Salon du Chocolat for the second year in a row.

Will his Tokyo Macaron Yakis be the next Parisian sensation? Time will tell...

6 comments:

Dianne said...

Miam!! how utterly decadent! Your pics are great!
They appear larger than the macarons I buy here - but what an amazing experience to see the whole making of them. incredible!
have a lovely week
~Dianne~

Notes From ABroad said...

They don't use ovens in Japan... they don't bake .. I cannot imagine not having an oven.
My son lived in Japan for 7 years, I think he might like the desserts but personally, I just don't.
But I make up for the lack of respect for their desserts by enjoying every noodle they ever made :)

Lucie said...

This is kind of genius--I think we should all group together and start the trend of macarons baked in mini-cakes. Imagine the possibilities: lemon macarons in poppy seed cakes, fig macarons encased in a financier...thank you Aoki!!

Parisbreakfasts said...

Oh how I wanted to taste one of those, after watching the process.
Unfortunately I was no accompanied by such an adventurous taster as yourself and was physically restrained from buying one.
Aoki seems to have a penchant for 'sandwich' type creations using the macaron as innards.
Two years ago he enrobed macarons in dark chocolate - incredibly rich and I'm not sure it worked but you gotta hand it to him doing something different...

Anonymous said...

My first impression is one of dubiousness...but I would still love to try this!!

Thanks for sharing - I can only look on wistfully from my laptop, being far, far away from Paris!

Anonymous said...

Interesting! I'm glad you captured this.