French Buttercream

French buttercream is a pâte à bombe based cream that is very rich because of the fat in the egg yolks. It has a shorter shelf life then regular buttercream, and it really can not be layered very thick because of how sweet it is. Essentially think of a sugar infused stick of butter and that is what the buttercream tastes like.



This formula is adapted from the Michel Suas Book Advanced Bread and Pastry, A Professional Approach, Pg. 63945%     Sugar 7 3/4 oz.
12.5%  Water 2 1/8 oz.
27%     Egg yolks, 4 5/8 oz.
100%   Butter, 1#1 3/8 oz. (add until it emulsifies, might not need all the butter)


MOP:

• Heat sugar and water to a soft ball consistency (make a pâte à  bomb).
• Whip up egg yolks while sugar/water is heating up. You cant over whip the egg yolks because of the fat content in the yolks.
• When sugar reaches a soft ball, add to the eggs (like for Italian meringue). Cool while whipping.
• When the mixture cools to body temperature, add the butter slowly. Add butter until the mixture emulsifies, you might not need all the butter scaled. 
• Add a pinch of salt to aide in flavouring.
• If you choose, you can add a flavour at this time. For instance, for the Opera Cake we added approximately 2 T of Triblit to the buttercream.