Sucre'

Needed a Sunday pick-me-up

Stopped by Sucre. 

Laze about with an Americano and some Macs.

I got the coffee, chocolate, and a blackcurrant macarons.  Just taste better when someone else makes them.  Enjoy them with coffee is nice and really make you feel like you're enjoying life on the side as traffic whiz by. 

Bringing its Louisiana charm, the Mac stand on its own.  The gelato is also flavor packed.  Definitely worth sneaking over here to hide away from the world, one coffee at a time. 

Sucre 

5404 Kirby Dr

Houston, TX 77005

https://shopsucre.com/blogs/news/sucre-houston

 

Baby got Mac

Out of the blue, decided to do some baking.

Got a tube of Gianduioso - the description is Hazelnut Chocolate, so I immediately have to get it, because that's Nutella in a tube - DUH!

This time, I put some edible dried flowers on top.  I think it would've been better if the filling was fruity based instead of chocolate based.

Ah well, either way, we're doing this... p.s. look at that beautiful pied.

Leone Gianduiotto - made out of Italy, taste very close to Nutella, but taste nuttier.  Mainly because it's made with gianduja cream which already blended in the hazelnut.   All natural ingredients.

Anyway, just putting them aside to enjoy later.

 

My French Croissant

Heard about French Wine Tasting in the Village area and went to explore.  This is made by Valerie from My French Croissant.

Of course what greeted me when I walked in were the beautiful eclair.  This is their chocolate mousse eclair.  It's nice and rich and definitely good quality chocolate.  It's not the same milk chocolate that you taste in your regular bakery.

Then she has a deal that's $20 for 6 macarons.  Of course, twist my arm there.  L to R: got Lemon Yuzu, Mango, and Blackcurrant.

Look at the beautiful pied.  So lovely, not crunchy and nice and soft as you bit into them.  The blackcurrant is a tad sweeter than I'd like.  The Mango is definitely my favorite, lucky that I got the last 2.  The Lemon Yuzu has a little zing but not over empowering.  

Valerie put a little table at the French Country Wines, and every Saturday they have open wine tasting.  Sometimes they even have the wine maker here to host them.  The wine selection is from all over France, pretty wide in terms of selections.  Then Valerie has her little table as a stop on your way out.  It's a pretty good deal.

My French Croissant

https://www.myfrenchcroissant.com/

follow their Instagram for up-to-date pop ups.

https://www.instagram.com/myfrenchcroissant/

 

Macaron by Patisse

Stopped by Patisse to grab some Macs. 

Haven't had theirs in quite some time.  I forgot how good the quality is.  I got Cookies & Cream, Rose, Lavender, and Fig & Cheese.  The Cookies & Cream was great as always.  Rose I forgot that it does taste like a mouthful of petals despite the fact that I love that flavor.  The lavender, though also flower, taste was much more mild.  The Fig and Cheese was a surprise (again) for me.  I had forgotten how good that tasted with fig, and the cheese was very complementary to the fruit.  It was not too sweet or savory, worked out very nicely.

I forgot how soft they are when you bite into them.  Which is nice because a lot of the shops that sell defrosted ones crack almost immediately.  The trick to that is truly defrost for a bit and let it rest instead of trying to serve them immediately. 

Macaron by Patisse

2033 W. Gray

Houston, TX 77019

713-965-7359

https://www.macaronbypatisse.com

 

Street Treats by Lauren Kay

I was at a market in the Heights and saw the cutest Macs.

Totally adorable and I've attempted to do it before but not with much success.

So I totally admire those who does it well.

I'm not going to lie, I got them because they're cute and well executed, didn't have much regard to the taste. But to my surprised, the texture and taste was spot on.

I got the Pooh & Piglet, and you see the pied is done well.  The filling, I felt that they can use more, but the flavor was good.  It was mango, very suitable for summer.

You can catch them on their Instagram and see where they're participating at a market.  They do customized cookies and cake pop and full fledge cakes too. 

Street Treat by Lauren Kay

https://www.instagram.com/streettreats.lk/

 

Maison Burdisso

It's been a while since I had Maison Burdisso's macarons.

So, when I saw them at the farmer's market recently, I was none too happy to line up.  No joke though, I was there about 40 mins after the market had started and they were already sold out on few of their rotating seasonal flavors. 

What did I get?  I got the Baked Apple but ate it on the way home.  It supposedly had a tad of alcohol in it, but couldn't taste it.

Then I got pistachios, always a crowd favorite.  And a Chocolate, that's a kid favorite.  Soft as ever, perfect 'feet', the filing was the right temperament, and stay neat and tiny.  Definitely need more of them.  When they say they're Parisian Macarons, they were not exaggerating.  Living up to every letter of that claim.

Maison Burdisso

http://www.maisonburdisso.com/

 

 

Tout Suite

Went to Tout Suite for some coffee & macarons.

But first, Coffee.  I got a cafe latte with almond milk.  It was light and easy going for the morning.

I love the wide array of flavors they have on hand.  Also their heart shaped Macs too. There are Dark Chocolate, Strawberry, Vanilla.  I also pistachio and lavender too.  By the way, the Strawberry one also has little fruit hidden in the filling. 

Of course I have to get a Ca The Sua Da to go. They used to have these bottled and I so miss that.  I have to drink this right away?  Aww shucks... but of course.  It is the good o'l Vietnamese coffee with the condensed milk.  Instead of having it brew while you wait... these are pre-made and they just pour over iced.  But it tasted just as good. 

Not pictured - they also have chocolate bombs in heart shape for sale, which I got a few of them as gifts.  Not to mention their yummy display of Viennoiserie.  

Tout Suite

2001 Commerce St

Houston, TX 77002

713-227-8688

https://toutsuitehtx.com/

 

Specialty macarons

I offered for my friend's birthday/going away to make some macs.

Honestly, it's a skill check to make sure I haven't lost the touch.

Here, for instance, I can stand to do better at the batter and the piping.

That said, they pied beautifully here...

... no complaint here...

... or here.

Going back to the piping thing... here's why.  When they're not flat, as they're supposed to, when you put the cookie together, it makes it difficult to 'lay down', and became a rolly polly.

This is even worse... it pied too high.

So, the final flavors are: Thai Tea (brown), Panda (Green), and Durian (yellow).

There's a sheen to them because they're thawing and the humidity is really not a mac's friend.

For the filling, I was debating what would work, and decided to go with a buttercream.  Thinking was that if we use the buttercream for cupcake frosting, it should hold the filling fine.  Not as good and ideal as ganache, but ever since I lost my touch on white chocolate ganache, I haven't been able to make a decent one.  While I can always do a milk chocolate one, some times, it's just not the same.

For the Buttercream frosting recipe, I tried a few and it's quite simple.  

Need: 1/2 c unsalted butter at room temperature (that's 1 stick usually)

1.5tsp of whatever flavor you're doing... I have pandan and durian.  

(The Thai Tea was already came in a spread format)

1.5c of confectioner's sugar 

(you don't have to do that much, try out the taste vs. sugar ratio) 

Food coloring if needed.  (lucky for me, neither really needed any)

Instructions: Cream the room temperature butter till fluffy, then add in the sugar until fully corporate and then add the flavor(s) and beat them together.

Then beat in the milk and then the food coloring (as desire).

Overall, they don't stand well when you put them in the fridge and harden.  That's a problem because the key to a decent mac is that you can freeze and unfreeze when you're ready to serve.  When you take it out, it started to shape shift, that's an issue because your cookie can runaway or run around from you.  So, play around with the consistency too. 

Results came out ok by my standard.  Sweet for some friends, awesome for some Brit Ex-Pats, and gained a 3 year old fan even on the durian flavor.  I can't complaint.

Bouchee

Since I was over at the H Bar for happy hour, thought I walk around this very posh hotel.

And came up to their patisserie.

Look at the colorful macarons.... LOVE!

They have other stuff too...

Like the pan aux raisin.  They definitely put enough butter in there, I can attest to that.

Here's the macs: (clockwise -top left) Salted Caramel, Pistachio, Passion Fruit/Mango, Strawberry Lemonade, Chocolate, Pistachio.  They're pretty good and fresh quality, which is surprisingly since the shelf is full and each cost $3.50 each and they're not moving them out quickly.

The whole place is very cute and great for enjoying breakfast or cup of coffee.  If they serve high tea here, it'll be just perfect for the setting.  Again, keep in mind, there are limited self-parking here at Post Oak Hotel, so you'l have to valet and pay for that fee.  Which means, your macarons are one of the most expensive in town.

Bouchee

inside Post Oak Hotel

1600 West Loop South

Houston, TX 77027

346-227-5131

https://www.thepostoakhotel.com/restaurants/bouchee-patisserie/

Thai Tea Macaron

I did end up going to baking a bit.

Going back to my Mac roots... you know, it's one of those you don't use it, you lose it kinda skill.

The macaronnage laying down nice and flat.  Let's sit for 60 mins, which I go do other things...

Sigh of relief, came out of oven with pied!  Hooray!

BUT... why are they so huge??  *scratching head*

I got a jar of Thai Tea spread from a Taiwanese company.  The consistency is like Nutella, so I'd figured I should go try to use it as a filling.  That worked out beautifully.  I know this shot doesn't look appetizing, but the consistency of the spread just make a very good filling.  Of course, that's the absolute lazy way of me to do it this way.  But what is not-shown is my failed white chocolate.  I melted it and added fat, it won't go back to the spread state.  So, this worked out great.

While this took place before I had the Thai Tea Ice Cream.  I would say, this turned out better than I'd expected especially when I'm out of practice.  The cheats are always helpful when they taste good on their own and doesn't need much manipulation.  That said, I did get lazy, and did the ziploc bag piping method, instead of wasting one of my bigger piping bags.  Highly recommend it.

Laduree

Que the angelic music: here is my sanctuary.

Laduree is a MUST every time I'm in NY.  Just to be reminded of what a high quality macaron should be like.

Looking at these just makes my heart skip a beat!

We got there just in time for the end of Summer's promotional box.  Their boxes are just so kitchy and cute.

That small little box comes in 6, there were 3 of us, 2 per person was just perfect.

Left to right: Chocolate, Pistachio, Vanilla, Coffee, Lavender, and Lemon.  I just love their shell is soft, not easily broken, but you can easily feel the decadence of it.  The filling is fresh and you can taste they spare no change on making the cookie.  LOVE!

Besides macarons, they also sell pastries and finger sandwiches.

And by finger sandwiches, they are truly dainty.  We had Ham Pickles (I couldn't taste the pickle on this), Chicken Caesar, Tuna Cucumber, Comte' Cheese, and Smoked Salmon.  I bet if you come here for afternoon tea, this is what you get.  Plus, when you get these at the counter, they come wrapped like a precious candy.  How can you resist?  

Last time we were here, we had lunch in the garden at the Soho location.  This time back at this location, weren't able to sit down for a meal because they were fully booked.  However, if you buy stuff at the counter, they do have a few salon seating the you can enjoy your goodies before heading out.  If you want a sit down meal and guaranteed seating, call ahead and make a reservation. 

Laduree - SOHO

398 W. Broadway

New York, NY 10012

646-392-7868

https://www.laduree.us

So we saw one of the Fashion Bloggers talking about Shoe-fies, that's selfie for your shoes.

That brought us down to L'Appartement Sezane.

It is a clothing store, but by the looks on the outside, they were ready to transport you to Paris.  Indeed, the clothing, shoes, accessory, home goods are from Paris.  And in there, is where you find the famous sign.  It is very pretty and while we were a bit embarrassed for coming in for the mosaic, their clothing is actually pretty nice, in terms of design and quality.  My only thing was that there was a very cute, very versatile shirt, except all the employees seems to be wearing it on that very same day.  So to avoid being view as an enthusiast and be a total fan-girl, I shy away from it.  I did see on their site that they have other version of the shirt, so that may be an option for me.  This is definitely an unique experience.

L'Appartement Sezane

254 Elizabeth St

New York, NY 10012

917-261-6190

http://www.sezane.com/us/nyc

Bite Macaron

Since we were next door at Vietopia, stopped by to grab a quick dessert.

Kids love the macaron, and even though it's pretty much a meringue with almond flour and sugar, my kid just loves it.  

We got the chocolate one and chocolate dipped black currant.  I don't get black currant very easily or frequently, so when I get a chance, I do.   It's just that their ganache filling is so consistent and just very nice after dinner dessert.  Nothing too heavy or over the top.   The chocolate one I have no complaint, it's a good standard and they've done it well.

Bite Macaron

5172B Buffalo Speedway

Houston, TX 77005

713-664-2483

http://www.teambite.com/