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Ophélie Barès' secrets for making herb pastries even more accessible
On October 19, 2023, Ophélie Barès published her book devoted to pastry-making with aromatic herbs. An accessible work, with both classic and more original pairings.
Hazelnut and rosemary shortbread, melon-raspberry and verbena tart, basil crème brûlée... Ophélie Barès makes our mouths water with her new book, "Encore! La pâtisserie aux herbes aromatiques", published by Ulmer.
For the pastry chef based in Asnières-sur-Seine, this attraction to herbs "is not a whim thought up specifically for the book, but an obvious choice", she assures us. "I'm from Paris, but even as a child, I spent all my vacations in the countryside. I grew up in an epicurean family, and in my childhood memories, we often ate chicken with thyme or poached peaches with verbena... So it's a very natural thread running through my patisserie", says Ophélie Barès.
Classic and daring pairings
Over the pages, the pastry chef unveils 60 recipes, in which aromatic herbs sublimate both fruit and chocolate. "There aresimple pairings we're all familiar with, such as mint and chocolate, strawberry and basil, or verbena and peach", says Ophélie Barès, who wanted to offer a recipe book accessible to all.
But that hasn't stopped her from having fun with a few more surprising pairings, like these vanilla fritters with a hint of... parsley! "Parsley has a rather aggressive, intense green side, which is very well counterbalanced by the sweetness of vanilla", assures Ophélie Barès.
The pastry chef has also slipped in a few recipes containing less common herbs, such as lovage or hyssop, which she discovered a few years ago while working as a consultant for Jean Sulpice. Ophélie Barès recommends visiting local markets, gardening stores or, as a last resort, specialized websites. The luckiest of us will be able to pick these various herbs directly from our own gardens, and get to work on this herbaceous pastry. On the menu: cakes, cookies, plated desserts, pies and ice creams, as well as a few pastries and drinks that could be a good alternative to alcoholic cocktails, such as mint lemonade, apple juice with red shiso or herb and ginger tonic... It's up to you!
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