Pierre Hermé · Since 1997
Ispahan
Two rose macaron shells, a rose cream, fresh raspberries and lychees, a single rose petal on top: Pierre Hermé’s Ispahan is the most copied dessert of the last thirty years and the taste that made flavour the subject of pastry.
Taste profile
Pair it with
A glass of demi-sec champagne rosé, or a jasmine tea.
Hermé created the pairing at Ladurée in 1997 and perfected it in his own house in 2001: the rose, floral and sweet; the lychee, perfumed and juicy; the raspberry, sharp enough to hold the two in check. The form is a large macaron, but the idea is the balance, and it has been reproduced in cakes, croissants, ice creams and by every pastry chef who ever tried a floral dessert.
At the rue Bonaparte the Ispahan is sold as a single large macaron, as a cake and in a croissant version at breakfast; the petal on top carries a drop of glucose to look like dew.
The home version · serves 6
Ingredients
- For the shells: 150 g ground almonds, 150 g icing sugar, 110 g egg whites, 150 g sugar, red colouring
- For the cream: 200 g butter, 100 g sugar, 3 egg yolks, 2 tbsp rose syrup, 1 tsp rose water
- 250 g fresh raspberries
- 12 lychees, drained
- A rose petal
Method
- Make Italian-meringue macaron shells: sift almonds and icing sugar, fold with half the whites; cook sugar to 118 °C, pour onto the other whites whisking, fold together, colour pale pink, pipe two 18 cm discs and bake at 160 °C for 20 minutes.
- Make the rose cream: whisk yolks with hot sugar syrup until cool, beat in soft butter, then the rose syrup and rose water.
- Pipe a ring of cream on one shell, line the edge with raspberries, fill the centre with lychees and cream.
- Top with the second shell, a raspberry, a rose petal and a drop of syrup.
- Rest in the fridge overnight; the shells soften into the cream.
Where to taste it
