How to achieve this meringue? Aux Merveilleux de Fred [Paris]

On the way to the bakery Eric Kayser to buy one of my favorite bread “le gros Monge”, I started to notice, 2 shops away from Kayser on rue Monge in Paris 5th, a new pastry shop selling some kind meringue desserts. For months, the cakes didn’t tempted me: neither by the presentation nor by the idea of meringue (they are usually very sweet). Yet, I was a bit surprise to see there was always some queue waiting before the store.

Finally I bought a simple meringue just to test and to satisfy my curiosity. There I was surprised! It wasn’t like the meringue we usually see in most bakery in France. This one is light and airy: a hard shell slightly browned and a soft interior! I become instantly a fan!

Returning to the store, I bought 2 individual size Merveilleux this time: one dark chocolate and the other coffee. Both excellent. Merveilleux is actually a classical northern speciality, meringue and whipping cream. But this improved version is extremely light and weighs nothing.

You can see in this video how it’s made.

I tried to find more information about the bakery, Aux Merveilleux de Fred, the chef Frederic Vaucamps, is originated from Lille, north of France. There are already several boutiques in France. Newly opened also in Belgium, London and New York.

If you happened to be around the corner, don’t hesitate to try 1 or 2…simple desserts but quite good.

Anybody who is expert in bakery, do you know how to achieve the meringue with a thin cooked shell, and a soft core. What should be the oven temperature and the time needed? The normal meringue is uniformly hard, and is cooked with very low temperature for hours in the oven.

Thanks.

Aux Merveilleux de Fred
2 Rue Monge
75005 Paris

More shops in Paris:

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Doing some search on web, famous pastry chef Pierre Macaroni has a recipe on Merveilleux (turn on Google translate), with the melting meringue!

I’ll probably try it when I have too much leftover egg white in stock.

More recipes in English:
http://www.siftandwhisk.com/blog/merveilleux/

Were we separated at birth? Fred’s Merveilleux are the only pastry I lust after. Moonlight in your mouth, not too sweet, delicately flavored. I will follow this thread with interest. Maybe even rise to the challenge!

There are 2 types of Merveilleux. One from Belgium: 2 discs of meringue sandwiched the whipped cream, the whole cake is covered with whipped cream and shaved chocolate. The second one from North of France, with cream substituting the whipped cream, at times semi dome or ball shape.

Recently, I saw in le Monde a recipe of famed Belgian chocolate chef Pierre Marcolini, I gave it a try.

Pretty straight forward recipe. The meringue disc was made about 5.5 cm / 2 inch in diameter. Baked at 100ºC / 212ºF for 2 hours. I made it a day before and stored them in an airtight container when they cooled down.

Instead of 2 discs, I used 3 discs. A layer of whipped cream was spread on each disc of meringue.

The whole cake was then covered with whipped cream.

Lastly, shaved dark chocolate were sprinkled on the cake.

Compared to Aux Merveilleux de Fred, this Belgian version of Marcolini, the meringues were totally cooked, where as AMDF’s meringue was much softer in the centre. The chantilly was much softer in the version I made than the pastry cream used in AMDF. I believe the adjustment was made as there is no way you can keep chantilly desserts in shops for hours. The dessert is airy and light, suitable to follow a heavy main course.

It is also a practical way to use up extra egg whites.

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Wow!

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Amazing!

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Husband is addicted to these. Will follow your instructions…but hope they will not replace a return visit. In the meantime, thanks.

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Hope you like it. Recently, I have learned a trick for more even shaved chocolate. Insert a long bamboo skewer from the top to help to hold and move the merveilleux.