Sarah Bernhardt
A friend of mine on IRC commented on the macarons I made a few weeks ago. He was saying they reminded him of a Swedish almond cookie, the biskvit. I did a little bit of research, and learned that these cookies are more commonly known as Sarah Bernhardts.
These pastries were invented by a Danish pastry chef who wanted to honor the actress. The classic recipe consists of a chewy almond macaroon with a chocolate mousse filling, all dipped in a chocolate glaze. I strayed a little bit from the classic recipe; I used chocolate French buttercream for the filling and tempered chocolate for the coating instead of the glaze that is suggested. Here is my interpretation of the pastry.
Sarah Bernhardts
Almond Macaroon
(makes about 60)
400g almond paste
200g sugar
3 egg whites
Preheat oven to 375°F
Beat almond paste and sugar in an electric mixer
Add egg whites, one at a time, and mix until smooth
Pipe small mounds (about 2cm) on silpat or parchment-lined baking sheet
Bake at 375°F for 10 min or until lightly browned
Let cool on silpat/baking paper
Turn paper over and peel off the back of cookies
French Buttercream
300g sugar
100 ml water
6 egg yolks
600g butter, room temperature
Combine sugar and water in a saucepan and heat to 240°F
While sugar is cooking, place yolks in bowl of mixer and mix at high speed
When sugar reaches 240°F, turn the mixer to low, remove sugar from heat and
Pour in a slow, steady stream into mixer
Continue mixing until mixture turns pale yellow and is cool to the touch, about 10 minutes
Turn mixer to low and add butter in three or four parts
Continue mixing until smooth
Assembly
Flip macaroons over so the flat side is up
Place buttercream in pastry bag with a plain round tip (size of tip is not important)
Pip a small dome of buttercream on each cookie
With a soup spoon, smooth buttercream into a dome
Place in refrigerator for 30 minutes or until buttercream has hardened
Dip each cookie in tempered dark chocolate
Cookies will keep in the refrigerator for about a week or the freezer for a few months.
I have been absent for a while, but now I remesmber why I used tto love this blog.
Thank you, I will try and check back more often. How frequently you update your site?
I have to confess that the buttercream filling was something I had on hand. It was one of the reasons why I chose to make these.
I will definitely try making them again with the mousse filling; these are pretty easy to make.
Oooh, these are one of my favorite things, and yours look delicious! I am partial to that chocolate mousse filling though. I actually had a really good Sarah Bernhardt at Heaven Sent Desserts in North Park – it ws by far the best thing I had there. I haven’t seen them in many other bakeries around town.