A delightful and creamy buttercream, white in color and really delicious, a recipe of French pastry master Pierre Hermé
About this recipe
I tried a lot of buttercream recipes, and I have to say this one from Pierre Hermé is my favorite one, by far.
I use it for my wedding cakes (when the white color is not an option) as well as other recipes (Paris Brest, or Ispahan for instance).
I like the color (stays white, ideal for wedding cakes), its taste and its texture
In fact, I am giving here Pierre Hermé's original recipe, along with a couple tricks I learned
Source of the recipe
This is a recipe I got in Pierre Hermé's book "Best Of Pierre Hermé"
The dog and myself, we just love reading Pierre's books
This book is short and ... sweet.... All recipes are really fabulous. Among them : the famous Ispahan, macarons Mogador and the Vanilla tart
Getting Ready
1. Before you start the recipe, make sure the 4 egg whites are at room temperature (30 minutes to 1 hour)
2. The Butter (2 Cups or 450 g) must be soft : Let the Butter warm to room temperature (30 minutes to 1 hour)
3. In this picture, the Butter (2 Cups or 450 g) is too hot and therefore too liquide ! The cream will fail. If your Butter (2 Cups or 450 g) is too liquid, wait that it cools down to become creamier
Cream base
4. For the cream base, beat the 4 Egg Yolks and the Sugar (3 Tablespoons or 45 g)
5. Bring to a boil the Milk (½ Cup or 90 g)
6. Pour the Milk onto the bowl with the Yolks/Sugar mix and stir
7. Transfer the bowl to the saucepan
8. Cook, while whisking fast to avoid the yolks to cook too fast
9. Boil to 185 °F / 84 °C, and remove from the heat
10. Transfer to another bowl
Whipping
11. Transfer the cream to a mixing bowl, and whisk
Adding the butter
12. While beating the mixture with the whisk, slowly add the Butter (2 Cups or 450 g) a couple tablespoons at a time
13. Almost stops your heart seeing the quantity of Butter (2 Cups or 450 g), but that's what makes buttercream so tasty !
14. Just continue to add butter and the cream will smooth out, continue beating to get a light texture
15. The cream holds to the whisk
Flavor
Add in the flavor ( vanilla, rose extract, etc... ) and briefly give it another whisk
The Italian Meringue
16. Place the Water (⅓ Cup or 75 g) in a small saucepan, add the Sugar (1 Cup or 250 g) and bring to a boil
17. Wash down the sides of the pan with a brush dipped in cold water to prevent crystallization
18. While the syrup is cooking, start beating the Egg Whites (4), on medium speed
19. After 5 minutes, increase the speed and wait another 5 minutes
20. Wait until the syrup temperature reaches 225 °F / 110 °C
21. When the syrup temperature reaches 225 °F / 110 °C, beat the egg whites on maximum speed
22. Boil the syrup to 245 °F / 118 °C and remove from the heat
23. Pour the syrup in slowly
24. Try to pour between the whisk and the side of the bowl, not on the whisk !
25. Beat until completely cool : touch the bowl to make sure it is not hot anymore before proceeding
26. The meringue holds to the whisk, otherwise you must continue beating 5 minutes
27. Here's your Italian meringue !
How much meringue?
In the original recipe
● Pierre Hermé takes only 175 g ( 6 oz ) of this meringue
My choice
● My choice is to use the whole amount of the meringue, the result will be a lighter cream, with a brighter color. Trust me, the result will be just great...
Mixing
Hermé mentions that the cream and the meringue should be mixed using a rubber spatula.
I just combine them in the mixing bowl and whisk them together using the stand mixer
28. Put the batter back to the mixing bowl
29. Beat on high speed, not more than 8 seconds
The result is a delightful, light cream, that can be used right away
To use it later, keep refrigerated
I just took a petits fours class from S Treand . His butter cream is good but a bit yellow for frosting cake. I will try it.
Like all recipes you posted. Thanks!
Just wonder if you have a recipe to glaze a cake. I saw some of them in pink or orange and
very shiny. It looks stunning.
DeeDee
There are several recipes for buttercream.
I think this one is the best, as it stays white, ideal for wedding cakes.
Most pastry chefs in france use Yolks which makes the buttercream more "yellow", the reason being that the recipe starts with a "Crème Anglaise" which always calls for Egg Yolks, then the butter is added. I think this version is better because you add the remaining whites, whipped, which gives a better cream (white) that is fluffier
And you are right, Stéphane Tréand's pastries are just exceptional !
For the glazing, I have several recipes for those glazings, including one from Christophe Felder and another one from Bachour, that I will post soon online
Thanks so much Francois.
Looking forward to your new post for colour glazings
DeeDee
Thank you so much for this recipe, Francois! Is this more stable than the Swiss Meringue? I tried making the buttercream with only egg yolks, and while I was mixing it, it looked super stable. But as I piped it, it slowly melted. I hope this recipe will fix the problem as I really love how it tastes!
Hi Marielle. Depends on what you are trying to do :
For frosting and decorations, the [k[24478*Swiss Meringue Buttercream]k] (recipe in French [k[k[24478*HERE]k]k]) is better and holds at room temperature
For a cream used inside desserts (like the [k[15155*Ispahan]k]), this Hermés recipe is great in taste ! However it is too soft to be used at room temperature, It is piped inside desserts, and then placed in the fridge where it will harden.
Looks like for what you need, the [k[24478*Swiss Meringue Buttercream]k] would be better, I will translate the recipe in English soon.
Thank you for replying, Francois! Yes, I actually have been using Swiss Meringue Buttercream, buy when I tried French buttercream, I was hooked! Taste wise, it was much better! Do you think there is a way to make the French buttercream stable? I really think it is possible if we keep experimenting. Coz it’s such a great buttercream just to be used as filling!
Yes I agree the taste is superior, though not as easy to use as the [k[24478*Swiss Meringue Buttercream]k].
So if you really want to use it for frosting, it's possible ! My teacher (a MOF) was using it as well. To stabilize it, just place it in the fridge after making it, and stir it every 5 minutes until it is "firm enough". Of course, if you wait too long, it will harden. So check it every 5 minutes in the fridge and take it out of the fridge once it has the right consistency.
Hi Francois, thanks for the tasty recipe! I tried to fill macarons with this buttercream, and though it was very tasty, it didn't hold much in room temperature. And that's in relatively cold weather... I wonder whether I did something wrong, or is there a better buttercream you recommend to use for macarons in room temperature in cold weather? Thanks!
Hey Zak, this buttercream doesn't hold long at room temperature I agree. That's why I almost never use buttercream to fill my macarons.
I am still behind translating my macarons recipes in English, but you can have a look HERE at the fillings and creams that I use, they hold at room temperature longer
Thank you for your quick response! Thanks to good Google Translate I was able to read the macarons recipes, and found out that the ganache recipes are different between flavours. What I like in the buttercream recipe is that it is a good base and I can easily change its flavour to whatever I want. Do you have any idea what good base I can use with macarons that is very flexible in terms of flavours? Thanks again..
Depends on the ganache used. For fruit, we used a pectin based ganache called confit'. In a nutshell, a sugar/pectin mix is added to boiling fruit puree, brought to a boil, and then cooled down.
For other ganaches, we use a cream/white or black chocolate mix
There are other ways to come up with a thick paste (pistachio paste, gelatin, butter, etc... ”.
Each are different and depend on the flavor. Browse them all
Hello, I want to make a opera cake with this recipe of butter cream, It is posble to frizzed the cake? for how long??
Yes, I've seen professionals freezing their cakes.
Not more than 2 weeks probably ?
Hi and thank you for this recipe! I made and it tastes amazing, but I think it seems it may have curdled a little bit and looked a bit more on the yellow side, did I make a mistake somewhere?
Never had this issue, honestly.
Unless anything a bit acid was in your saucepan or ingredients. It's also possible that you beat your cream too long. The cream must be whipped but not too long, otherwise it will curdle and will become butter-y.
You just want to whip them lightly, not stiff !
HI! I was wondering whether you would be so kind as to give me a piece of advice?
I am looking for a recipe for a buttercream (lemon preferably) that I can use for macarons that can be frozen and when defrosted would still hold shape. Many thanks for your help!
This one should work as Hermé uses it for his Vanilla buttercream macarons
Helllo Francois, thank you so much for sharing your baking talent and knowledge. In your second recipe for Italian meringue, Im a bit confused. At the very end you state to but the batter back and whip it with the meringue? I see there are two different mixtures in the bowl, but no additional recipe of ingredients. I’m assuming it is a pastry cream? Can you please clarify. Thank you, Bee.
Yes, there are 2 different mixtures to be folded together.
We start with the "cream" (a 'crème anglaise" with the soft butter)
Then we make an "italian meringue" separately
and then we fold them together, which becomes the buttercream
makes sense ?
Hi -i see the Swiss meringue buttercream recommended for room temp-i am making a naked wedding cake for niece-but how do i get recipe in English please -thanks so much
I’d like to make a not too sweet icing including pistachio paste that will hold and last well outside of the fridge. Can you help???!!
I have a recipe, HERE.
Basically you add the pistachio paste at the end, folding it into the buttercream
Hi Francois,
Thanks for the recipe! I am thinking making a wedding cake with raspberry butter cream cake filling and covering with white color butter cream. Can you give me some advice which butter cream I should use and how long can they stay at room temperature regarding to the safety issue. I have been searching on internet but little is found. Do you have any book you can recommend for me to go to? Thanks a lot!!!
At room temperature, this buttercream may not hold too long... Its main quality is the solidity in the cake, but not at room temperature.
I recommended instead a Whipped Ganache, please consider these recipes : HERE
Hi Francois! thank you so much for this recipe, i’m trying to make a coffee filling cake, seminaked cake, is this cream gonna work on room temperature? thank you!
Well you can use it to pipe at room temperature, but it needs to be stored in the fridge for safety reasons
This is a great new technique for me- love this! How much of the FLAVOR can I add? Can I add up to 3 TBS/46g of cooled espresso? Spritis, like Gran marnier?
You may add any flavor. The only thing to recommend is to add a small quantity, and something not liquidy, a gel texture -or- a powder is the best way to not modify the texture