French pastries are the most interesting thing on blogs. Desserts of French cuisine French sweet pastries

France is famous not only for its delicious gourmet dishes, but also for its wonderful baked goods. There are a great many recipes for bread and pies in France - with a variety of fillings, sweet and simple, or without them at all. For those who are familiar with French cuisine first-hand, words such as quiche, brioche, profiteroles, croissants and onion pie are not empty sounds at all.


In any French city, even a very small one, the bakery is the most important store. The country's unspoken laws dictate that people eat only the freshest bread and bakery products every day. No real French breakfast is complete without baked goods with a crispy, crispy crust. Some may view the process of kneading dough as a boring task, but this cannot be said about bakers from the land of Cézanne and Maupassant. Creating baked goods for them is a fascinating creativity that brings joy, it is an expression of love for people and their work.

Quiche

The short word means an open pie made from chopped dough. And it is even more correct to call it quiche Laurent, that is, a pie from Lorraine. In this province, there has been a tradition of preparing such pies from the products left over after lunch, and therefore the filling of the quiche, in principle, can be anything - mushroom, meat, vegetable, fish, fruit. Many people prefer to cook it with smoked fish, bacon or smoked poultry.

The difference between quiche and other baked goods is that the filling is filled with a specially prepared mixture of eggs, milk and cheese, and only then it is sent to the oven. The quiche is served hot, garnished with a green salad.

Quiche Laurent with green onions and eggs

Ingredients: flour 200 g, salted butter 100 g
egg 1 piece, ice water 2-3 tbsp. l.

For filling: green onions 300-400 g, eggs 4 pcs.
Salt, pepper to taste, butter 50 g

Preparation: Replace the dough with flour, chopped butter, eggs and ice water. Roll out, place in a mold, cool for 20-30 minutes. Pour a load into the mold (cover the dough in the mold with food paper and add any large legumes, such as beans) and bake for 15 minutes at 200C. Remove the pan from the oven, remove the weight.

Chop the onion and fry in butter until soft (1-2 minutes). Remove the pan from the heat. Add raw eggs to the onion, salt, mix, pour into the pan.
Bake the pie in the oven at 200-220°C until done (15~20 minutes).

Profiteroles

And this name can be translated from French as “profitable”, “useful”. Ladies striving for an ideal figure and on diets are unlikely to find benefit in profiteroles, but gourmets and seekers of a good mood will.

Previously, this was what they called a small monetary reward in France. Now for the whole world, profiteroles are small round-shaped choux pastry products. They usually do not exceed four centimeters in diameter.

Fillings for profiteroles are made from mushrooms, meat, and custard. As dessert they are served with various sweet sauces. In addition, they can serve as an addition to various soups or broth.

Profiteroles with cream cheese and salmon

Ingredients: For profiteroles: 150 g butter,
200 ml water, 1/4 tsp. salt, 4 eggs, 120 g flour

For filling: 200 g lightly salted or smoked salmon
200 g cream cheese, 4-5 sprigs of dill

Preparation: Place oil and salt in a saucepan. Add water. Place on the fire and keep until the butter melts. Remove from heat and stir in flour. Return to the burner and keep on heat, stirring constantly, until the dough becomes homogeneous and begins to pull away from the sides of the pan. Remove from the stove. Add eggs to the dough one at a time, mixing thoroughly after each.

Transfer the dough into a pastry bag and place small buns on a parchment-lined baking sheet. If you don't have a syringe, you can put the dough on a baking sheet using a spoon. Place the baking sheet in an oven preheated to 200 degrees and bake the profiteroles until golden brown, about 20 minutes. Remove from the oven and cool at room temperature.

Let's prepare the filling. Cut the fish into small pieces. Mash the cheese with a fork with finely chopped dill. Add fish and mix. Cut off the top of each bun and fill it with filling. Decorate with canned corn and red pepper, it will turn out bright and beautiful. Cover with cut tops and serve.

Briochi

Brioche dough is traditionally kneaded with brewer's yeast and butter. To form the dough into brioche, it is divided into small pieces, formed into balls and then pressed together in groups of four or six.

The French pastry chef Brioche once noticed that butter dough placed in a cold place then rises very quickly in volume if it is squeezed into a narrow baking dish and placed in the oven. And the famous artist and brioche fan Edouard Manet immortalized the brioche on his canvases.

Orange brioche

Ingredients: 450 g premium flour with high gluten content (“bread”) + for kneading
2 packets of instant dry yeast (7 g each)
1 tsp. salt, 2 tbsp. l. fine sugar
zest of 1 orange, 125 g butter (cut into small pieces)
4 tbsp. l. milk, 4 eggs
sunflower oil for lubrication
12 small squares dark chocolate
beaten egg for brushing

Preparation: Sift the flour into a large bowl and stir in the yeast, salt, sugar and orange zest. Cut the butter into pieces and place in a saucepan with milk. Heat over low heat until the butter completely melts. Beat the eggs, then add the melted butter and milk. The oil mixture should be warm, but not boiling. Pour the egg-milk mixture into the dry ingredients. Beat or knead with a spoon until smooth, then knead into a soft dough with your hands.

On a floured board, knead the dough until elastic (5 minutes). Transfer to a large oiled bowl, cover with cling film and leave in a warm place for 1-2 hours until doubled in volume. Knead the dough and knead it.

Remove from bowl and divide in half. Return one half to the bowl, cover with film and place in a cool place. Knead the working half of the dough for a minute and divide into 6 parts. Cut a small piece from each part.

Forming and baking brioche

Place the silicone brioche mold on a baking sheet. Flatten one piece of dough into a circle and place a piece of chocolate in the center. Roll the dough around the chocolate, pinching the open ends inward, to form a ball. Place seam side down in pan and shape the remaining 5 large pieces of dough in the same way. Using your finger or the handle of a wooden spoon, make a hole in the center of the dough circles. Roll small pieces of dough into balls.

Place the dough balls in the center of the circles in the pan, pressing them down lightly. Cover with oiled cling film and place in a warm place - the dough will fluff up and double in size. Remove the cling film and brush the top of the brioche with egg.
Preheat the oven to 220°C, bake for 15 minutes, until golden brown. Turn the brioche out onto a wire rack to cool. Wash the pan, shape the remaining dough into pieces, let rise and bake the second batch of brioche.

Croissants

Small confectionery products made in the shape of a crescent and baked from puff pastry or yeast dough with the addition of butter are now called croissants by the whole world with the help of the French. This is even more than just baked goods - it is a national symbol.

There is an interesting story connected with the origin of the croissant. They say that the French borrowed this recipe from the Austrians; it is no coincidence that croissants are also called Viennese pastries. And the legend says that the creator of the croissant is a certain baker who lived in Vienna in the 17th century. During the siege of the city by the Turks in 1683, the baker accidentally heard the enemies trying to dig a tunnel and get into the city. The baker was not taken aback and ran to wake up the townspeople and the guards. The attempt to capture Vienna was successfully stopped, and the baker was asked what reward he would like to receive for his vigilance. And he chose for himself the exclusive right to produce bagels in the shape of a crescent (a symbol of Islam) - in memory of the significant event.

French croissants

Ingredients: dry yeast - 10 g, milk - 50 ml,
flour - 550 g, butter - 35 g, starch - 50 g,
water - 150 ml, for greasing the dough 325 g butter,
egg yolk for the same purpose, and 7 tsp. Sahara.

First of all, the flour is sifted and mixed with baking powder, then a little salt is added, yeast, sugar and the mixture is mixed well. Then milk is poured in a small stream, and softened butter and water are added to the dough. After kneading the dough, cover it with cling film and allow time to rise to double in size. When the dough has risen, press it slightly and put it in the refrigerator for 1.5 hours.

We take out the dough again and, placing it on the table, sprinkle flour on top. Then we divide the dough into three equal parts, first in our minds, and then in practice. Lubricate two of these parts with butter, and leave one as is. Then we begin to tuck one part under the other, as a result you should get something like a book. They begin tucking from the non-greased part. When the dough has been turned, it is again placed in the refrigerator for one hour to harden.

After an hour, the dough is taken out again and the whole process is repeated, then the dough is put back in the refrigerator for half an hour. This procedure is performed at least three times.

After the dough is completely ready, it is rolled out on the table to a thin layer, a circle is made from this layer and divided into 8 equal parts, each of them is rolled into a croissant. The croissants are left for some time to make them more fluffy. Then they are greased with egg yolk and placed on a baking sheet previously coated with butter. Croissants are placed in the oven when the temperature reaches 220 degrees and cooked until they are covered with a golden brown crust.

Macaroni

French almond pastry macaron (fr. macaron) is a delicate and very exquisite delicacy in the form of two thin meringue cookies and a layer of chocolate, ganache or butter cream filling.

History says that macaroni, despite its incredible popularity among the French, was first created around 1533 in Italy by the chef of Catherine de Medici, who was reputed to have a great sweet tooth. Later, having become the wife of the French king, she transported her little “Italian” weakness to France.

Regardless of who first invented these cookies, they began to spread in France towards the end of the 18th century thanks to two Benedictine nuns who baked and sold them solely for the purpose of earning their own food. Taking advantage of the growing demand for macaroni, Parisian street vendors began to sell them en masse, following the nuns.

Macarons acquired their modern appearance only at the beginning of the 20th century, when Pierre Defontaine, the grandson of the founder of the famous Ladurée confectionery, was visited by a culinary muse, and he combined two cookies into one using ganache cream. The cookies were transformed into a cake called ‘le macaron parisien’ (Parisian macaroni). This delicacy immediately became a “bestseller” of the Ladurée confectionery chain.

Sweet and sour Macaroni

Sweet and sour Macaroni is a special treat. They are good served with tea, as a main dessert, or simply as an afternoon snack.

Ingredients: egg whites (5 pieces); about 210 g of powdered sugar;
almonds, ground in a coffee grinder,
You should get about 125 g of almond powder; sugar 35 g;
½ spoon of salt and a whole tablespoon of freshly squeezed lemon juice;
Also, to make the dessert brighter, you need to purchase yellow food coloring (liquid), twenty drops of such coloring will be enough;

For the filling (ganache) you need to prepare: egg yolks - a couple,
starch – 40 g, butter – 30 g, lemon – steam, granulated sugar – 40 g.
Mix sugar and almond powder in one container. Sift the dry mass.

Beat the whites vigorously into an airy foam, slowly combining with salt and lemon juice, then gradually adding granulated sugar to form a homogeneous elastic mass. Add food coloring drop by drop. Then pour the dry powder mixture into the liquid mass. Gently mix everything together until smooth.

Pour the resulting mixture into a pastry bag, using a round nozzle, squeeze out the viscous mixture in small circles onto a baking sheet lined with two layers of parchment. Leave the baking sheet with the dough circles for forty minutes until a characteristic crust forms, which will protect the cakes from cracks. Crust can be considered the state of the dough when it does not stick to the hand when you press the confectionery product. Sometimes it may happen that the crust will take quite a long time to form, then leave the cakes on the baking sheet overnight.

Place the cakes in an oven preheated to 150°. It is better to grease the parchment with oil first. Once after 8 minutes, you can open the oven and turn the baking sheet over so that the cookies bake evenly.

The filling or ganache is prepared as follows:

Starch is diluted in water, about 200 ml + add oil;
put the starch mixture on the fire and bring to a boil, and then cool;
turn the lemons into a zest mass in a blender, combine with sugar and egg yolks, use a mixer to mix everything together with the starch mixture until a thick cream is obtained; Spread the resulting lemon curd onto one half of the cake and cover with the other half;
It's ideal to refrigerate the cookies for a few hours!

Another variety of French Macaroni is raspberry. To prepare the filling, professionals use “Fraises tagada” candies in the filling recipe. These desserts are the most popular in France, selling 1 billion a year. The candies taste like light marshmallows; the candies are sprinkled with sugar on top. You can bake pasta with coconut, as well as with other fillings.

For brighter colors, purchase various food colors, this will surprise your guests and family. For the filling you can use any berries from which purees, fruits and creams are obtained. You can add fruit and cream liqueurs to the ganache, use different types of chocolate and coffee. Vanilla, mint, banana, blueberry or exotic Macaroni will definitely become your signature dish, and you will be known as a creative and original housewife.

French baguette

When foreigners are asked to explain what a French bread is, the famous French baguette immediately comes to mind. Translated from French, this crispy, airy product means “rod, stick.” A classic baguette weighs 250 grams and is, indeed, shaped like a stick. Its characteristic feature is a crispy crust on the outside and a soft core.

The time of appearance of this type of bread is considered to be the 20s. At this time, a law was passed in France according to which bakers had no right to start work before 4 o'clock in the morning. In this regard, bakers had to look for ways to quickly bake bread. That's why the baguette has become so popular, requiring much less time to rise and bake than regular bread.

It is more convenient not to cut the baguette, but to break it with your hands. The peculiarity of this type of white bread is that it becomes stale by the end of the day. The next day, the French soak it in broth or coffee.

French baguette in the oven

Ingredients: dry yeast – 10 g; sugar – 2 teaspoons;
salt – 2 teaspoons; warm water – 400 ml; flour – 500 g;
butter – 1 tbsp. spoon

Preparation: How to bake a French baguette?
Pour some warm water into a saucepan, add sugar, yeast and a few tablespoons of flour. Mix everything, cover with a towel and leave for 15 minutes until a white foam forms. Then add the remaining water to the dough, add flour and salt. Add melted butter and knead elastic dough. Remember that the less you knead the dough, the more porous your baguette will be.


Next, we form real French baguettes: long and narrow loaves with several oblique parallel cuts. Place them on a baking sheet sprinkled with flour, cover with a towel and leave to rise in a warm place for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 200°C and place a container of water on the bottom of the oven to generate steam. Bake the baguettes for 10 minutes. Then remove the container and continue baking the bread for another 15 minutes until golden brown. You can serve sliced ​​or with filling.

France is known throughout the world not only for its exquisite gourmet dishes, but also for its delicious baked goods. French pastries amaze with their diversity and are the pinnacle of the country's culinary art. It’s rare that anyone can resist the wonderful aroma and delicate taste of fresh confectionery.

Croissant

Croissants have long been a gastronomic symbol of France. They can be filled with jam, chocolate, custard. We suggest you bake croissants with almond filling.

Divide the dough into small balls, pinch off a small piece from each ball, roll it up and stick it on top. Place the buns on a parchment-lined baking sheet and let rise for an hour. Preheat the oven to 180-200 degrees. Bake the brioche until golden brown, about 15-20 minutes.

Profiteroles

Profiteroles

Small profiteroles are made from choux pastry. They are hollow inside, so they can be filled with anything - sweet cream, ice cream or even salad.

We will need:

  • flour – 250 g,
  • eggs – 7-8 pcs.,
  • water – 200 ml,
  • butter – 150 g,
  • sugar – 1 tbsp. spoon,
  • salt – 1 pinch,
  • cream 33% fat – 300 ml,
  • powdered sugar - to taste.

How to cook:

Sift the flour, add sugar. Pour water into a thick-bottomed pan, add salt and cut into pieces of butter. Heat the water and butter until the water boils and the butter has melted. Then add all the flour at once, stirring continuously, and brew the dough. Warm the dough over medium heat for another 1-2 minutes, continuously stirring it with a spatula. Remove the pan from the heat and cool the dough until warm. Start mixing the dough with a mixer, driving eggs into it one at a time. Each egg must be mixed well into the dough.

The dough should not be very thick, since the products will need to be piped through a pastry bag. But you shouldn’t make the dough too thin, otherwise the buns will spread. You can check if the dough is ready by using a spatula to make a groove along the surface of the dough. If the edges begin to float slowly, the dough is ready. Transfer the dough into a piping bag. Grease a baking sheet with oil, place small cakes on the baking sheet at a distance from each other. Bake in a preheated oven at 200 degrees until light brown, about 20-30 minutes. Transfer the finished profiteroles to a wire rack and cool.

Whip the cream with powdered sugar until thick. Place the cream into a piping bag fitted with a straw tip. Cut the profiteroles or pierce them with a knife, fill with cream from a pastry bag. Ready profiteroles can be sprinkled with powdered sugar or poured with melted chocolate.

Snails with raisins and custard (Escargot Raisins)

Snails with raisins and custard

These buns are served for breakfast in France. They can be made from either puff pastry or yeast dough. If desired, raisins can be replaced with candied fruits or pieces of dried apricots.

We will need:

For the test:

  • flour – 350 g,
  • milk – 100-150 ml,
  • egg – 1 pc.,
  • butter – 50 g,
  • dry instant yeast - 2 teaspoons,
  • sugar – 50 g,
  • vanilla sugar – 1 sachet,
  • salt – 1 pinch.

For the custard:

  • milk – 500 ml,
  • eggs – 2 pcs.,
  • sugar – 130 g,
  • vanilla sugar - 1 package,
  • corn starch - 2 tbsp. spoons,
  • butter – 50 g,
  • raisins – 150 g.

How to cook:

You can trust kneading the dough for buns to a bread machine or a food processor with a dough mixer attachment. Sift the flour with salt, add the yeast and mix. Add softened butter, egg, warm milk, sugar. Make a soft dough and knead it well. Cover the bowl with the dough and place it in a warm place to rise.

Wash and dry the raisins. Prepare the cream. Pour the milk into a small saucepan, add vanilla sugar, put on fire and bring to almost a boil. In a bowl, mash eggs with sugar, add starch. Pour in a little milk and stir with a whisk until smooth. Pour the resulting mass into a saucepan with milk and heat, stirring, until the cream brews and becomes thick. Pour the finished cream into a container, add butter, stir and cool.

Roll out the dough into a large rectangle, spread the cream on top and sprinkle with raisins. Roll the dough into a roll, cut the roll into small pieces with a sharp knife. Line a baking tray with baking paper, place the roll pieces cut side up, cover with a towel and let rise for 30 minutes. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees, bake the buns until done, about 20 minutes.

Do you know the national cuisines of other countries? will give the answer!

Who doesn't love French pastries, he’s simply never tried real croissants, brioche, beignets and other delicacies... But if you don’t yet have the opportunity to travel around France in order to believe in this culinary fact, why not learn the art of baking yourself!

Having become familiar with the how to make french pastry, you will improve your culinary skills. So catch selected recipes from gourmet cuisine connoisseurs.

Puff pastry

Ingredients

  • 400 g premium flour
  • 350 g butter
  • 250 ml cold water
  • 5 g salt

Preparation

  1. After sifting the flour in a heap, make a well in the middle, slowly pour in water and add a pinch of salt. Knead the dough and form it into a ball, leave it for half an hour in a warm place, covering the bowl with the dough with a towel or napkin.
  2. Remove the butter from the refrigerator and cut it into 3-4 pieces.
  3. Roll out the finished dough into a 25 x 25 square, don’t forget to sprinkle the table with flour first.
  4. Place a layer of butter in the middle and wrap the dough in the form of an envelope.
  5. Then you need to roll out the dough again, lightly sprinkle it with flour and put it in the refrigerator for half an hour.
  6. You need to roll out the dough 4 more times, after each time fold it in thirds and put it in the refrigerator for 15 minutes.

Brise dough

Ingredients

  • 250 g flour
  • 3 tbsp. l. water
  • 150 g butter
  • a pinch of salt

Preparation

  1. Sift the flour twice.
  2. Make a well in the center of the mound of sifted flour and gradually pour water into it, add cold butter grated on a fine grater, salt and knead the dough.
  3. Form the dough into a ball, wrap it in film and place it in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.

Shortbread dough

Ingredients

  • 300 g flour
  • 50 g granulated sugar
  • 125 g butter
  • a pinch of salt
  • 1 egg

Preparation

  1. In a large bowl, thoroughly stir the softened butter and granulated sugar.
  2. Pour flour onto the board, make a well in the center, add egg, salt and sweet butter. Knead the dough, wrap it in film and let it stand in the refrigerator for 30 minutes.
  3. Carefully roll out the finished dough.

Beignet dough

Ingredients

  • 250 g flour
  • 2 eggs
  • 1/4 liter water or milk
  • 2 tbsp. l. vegetable oil
  • a pinch of salt

Preparation

  1. Stir flour and salt in a bowl, make a well in the center and crack 1 egg into it. Mix thoroughly and add the second egg, water or milk, and vegetable oil.
  2. Continue beating until a homogeneous, smooth mass is formed.
  3. If you need to make a sweet dough, add 1 more tbsp. l. granulated sugar.

Biscuit dough

Ingredients

  • 50 g sifted flour
  • 200 g granulated sugar
  • 50 g potato starch
  • 4 eggs
  • 1 packet vanilla sugar
  • a pinch of salt

Preparation

  1. In a bowl, thoroughly mix sugar, salt, and egg yolks. Add flour and starch little by little. Try not to form lumps.
  2. Add the beaten egg whites to the dough and mix everything well again.

Choux pastry

Preparation

  1. Boil water, oil and salt.
  2. Mix the hot mixture with flour.
  3. Place on low heat again and stir the dough for another minute.
  4. After removing the dough from the heat, cool it slightly, add the eggs and mix thoroughly. The dough should be viscous, not liquid.

Pancake dough

The most famous French desserts: history, recipes and cooking secrets.

It is well known that French cuisine is famous for its abundance of sweet dishes, recipes for which have been created and improved over centuries. Soufflé, croissants, profiteroles, charlotte, brioche, chaudeau, blancmange, clafoutis, mille-feuille, meringue, creme brulee, brioche buns, Tarte Tatin - this is just a small part of the famous French sweets.

The first chocolate desserts appeared in France back in the Middle Ages. Since then, it is this country that has been dictating the fashion for sweet treats to the whole world. France is a real paradise for those with a sweet tooth. In confectionery shops, the eyes simply run wide from the abundance of goodies. In every cafe, restaurant and store you can see a huge assortment of sweets.

You don't have to go to a pastry shop to enjoy the taste of French desserts. You can prepare them at home, from available products, without having any special skills.

We will share with you recipes for the most famous French desserts - we will tell you how to prepare clafoutis, croissants, truffles, creme brulee, parfaits, profiteroles, mille-feuille and macaroons, we will get acquainted with their history and cooking secrets. Let's start with perhaps the most popular French pastry... croissants!

Croissants - a sweet symbol of France

A French breakfast is simply unthinkable without these puff pastry buns. They are traditionally served with coffee or hot chocolate. True, crescent-shaped bagels, which have long become a delicious symbol of France, were not invented by the French. This is an invention of Viennese bakers, according to.


Marie Antoinette of Austria brought the recipe for croissants to France. The baking of Viennese bagels first began in a cafe on Richelieu Street: in 1839, an Austrian bakery was opened there.

The combination of a golden-brown crispy crust with a delicate, melt-in-your-mouth filling - chocolate, cheese, berry jam, butter cream... this dessert is unlikely to leave anyone indifferent.

Recipe: Croissants with chocolate filling

You will need: for the dough - 300 g butter, 200 ml milk, 4 g salt, 50 g corn starch, 2 raw yolks, 10 g dry yeast, 50 g sugar, 500 g wheat flour. For the filling: 10 g butter, 10 ml heavy cream, 50 g dark chocolate. For lubrication: 20 ml milk, 10 g sugar.

Dissolve the yeast in warm water and let stand for 10 minutes. Sift the flour and starch into a bowl, add sugar, salt, yolks, milk, 50 g of melted butter and then the yeast mass. Mix everything well. Knead the dough for 8-10 minutes until it becomes elastic. Roll the dough into a ball, wrap it in cling film and refrigerate for 4 hours. Wrap 250 g of cold butter in cling film and beat well with a rolling pin. Then add 40 g of flour to the butter, place it on parchment paper, form a square using a rolling pin, and put it in the refrigerator for at least 50 minutes. Take the dough out of the refrigerator, make a cross in the middle, stretch the dough into a square and roll it into a layer, put cold butter in the middle, and wrap the dough around the butter and pinch the edges of the seam. Press down on top with a rolling pin, turn the layer over and repeat the procedure. Roll out the dough into a rectangle shape. It is important to remember in which plane you roll it, and the tails without oil need to be cut off on both sides. Fold the dough into 3 layers, wrap in film and place in the refrigerator for 50 minutes. Then form the dough into a rectangle again (roll out in one plane!), roll into 3 layers and let rest in the refrigerator for an hour. Repeat all these steps 4 times, after which it is advisable to leave the dough in the refrigerator overnight. In the morning, you need to roll it out thinly, divide it into strips, and cut out long triangles from them. For the filling, mix melted chocolate (already cooled), softened butter and cream. Make small cuts on the triangles (about 1 cm long), place the filling on each of the cuts and roll into a bagel (in the shape of a crescent). Place the finished products on a baking tray lined with baking paper, cover with cling film and let rise for 40 minutes. After this time, brush the bagels with milk mixed with sugar and place in an oven preheated to 180° for 20-25 minutes.

Clafoutis - in the traditions of the French village

This dessert is simultaneously reminiscent of a pie, a sweet casserole and filled pancakes. Easy to prepare and at the same time elegant, it is ideal for romantic dinners.


Clafoutis comes from the Limousin province. This is a typical village dish. Its name comes from the word “fill”: in the classic recipe, only cherries are added to the pie. But you can prepare this dessert with other fillings - from plums and blueberries to pears and apricots. We will bake clafoutis with raspberries.

Recipe: Raspberry Clafoutis

You will need: 500 g of raspberries, 100 g of flour, a pinch of salt, 2 glasses of milk, 5 tablespoons of sugar, 1 tablespoon of melted butter for the dough and 1 tablespoon of butter for greasing the mold, 4 eggs, 200 g of ice cream.

Heat the oven to 200°. Sprinkle the berries with half the sugar (2.5 tablespoons). Sift the flour into a deep bowl, add the remaining granulated sugar and a pinch of salt. In another bowl, beat the eggs, pour in the milk and melted butter. Add the resulting mixture to the flour, stir until smooth and leave, covered with a towel, for 25-30 minutes at room temperature. Grease the mold with butter. Strain the excess juice from the raspberries and place the berries on the bottom of the mold. Pour the batter over the raspberries and place in a hot oven for 20 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 180° and cook the pie for about 20 minutes until golden brown. Serve the clafoutis with a scoop of ice cream. And if you don’t have this delicacy at hand, read our article. It will turn out much tastier, and most importantly, healthier than store-bought.

Chocolate truffles - a royal treat

According to legend, this French dessert was first prepared at the end of the 19th century in the town of Chambery, in the southern Alps. On the eve of the New Year, a chocolatier named Louis Dufour was faced with a catastrophic shortage of cocoa. He decided to replace it with what was at hand - delicate cream and aromatic vanilla. This is how ganache was invented - the basis of the famous truffle.


Today, this delicious dessert, distinguished by its extraordinary tenderness of taste, is considered one of the most exquisite in the chocolate world. It is prepared exclusively by hand and only from the highest quality chocolate: first it is melted in a water bath and then combined with cream.

The shape of the classic truffle is similar to the mushroom of the same name. True, quite unusual variations of it are often found - in the shape of a dome, half a quail egg, etc.

Recipe: Chocolate Truffles

You will need: 50 g softened butter + 0.5 teaspoon for dipping, 150 g dark dark chocolate + 50 g for dipping, 2 tablespoons rum or brandy, 150 g cream 35% fat, 1 tablespoon cocoa powder, 2 tablespoons spoons of crushed unsalted nuts.

Break the chocolate into pieces and grind into flour using a blender. You need to take real, bitter black chocolate, containing at least 60% cocoa liquor. Pour the cream into a saucepan, add butter and, if desired, alcohol. Stirring constantly, heat the mixture in a water bath, and when it boils, immediately remove the saucepan from the heat. While whisking, pour the hot cream mixture into the chocolate chips in a thin stream, beat well, pour into a bowl and let cool, covering with cling film. It is advisable to place the chocolate mixture (after it has cooled) in the refrigerator for a couple of hours (overnight is possible). Sift cocoa powder onto a flat dish. Divide the cooled chocolate mass into 3 parts. Roll the first third into balls (the size of a walnut), roll them in cocoa, place them on a flat dish or in special paper candy molds (it will be prettier this way) and immediately put them in the refrigerator. Form balls from the second third of the chocolate mass in the same way. Melt 50 g of chocolate in a water bath with 50 g of butter. Dip the balls one at a time into hot chocolate, immediately place on a flat plate and put in the refrigerator. Roll the third portion of the chocolate mixture into balls and roll them in nut crumbs. Place in the refrigerator, let them cool, and enjoy!

Creme brulee - a dessert made from “burnt cream”

Delicate creamy cream that melts in your mouth, a crispy caramel crust that comes from “burnt cream”, a subtle aroma of natural vanilla...


This divine dessert is one of the oldest in French cuisine and one of the most famous. It was first mentioned at the end of the 17th century, in an old cookbook. According to one version, creme brulee was invented by the French chef François Messialo especially for the Duke of Orleans. Other sources attribute its authorship to the British: allegedly, creme brulee was first prepared in one of the Cambridge colleges in the same 17th century. There is another version according to which the birthplace of creme brulee is Spain: one of the traditional desserts of Catalan cuisine is prepared in the same way as creme brulee, only milk is used instead of cream.

Recipe: classic creme brulee

You will need: 8 yolks, 2 cups of cream with a fat content of at least 30%, 1 coffee spoon of vanilla sugar or 1 teaspoon of vanilla extract, 0.3 cups of granulated sugar or powdered sugar, 3 tablespoons of coarse sugar for the caramel crust.

Heat the oven to 160°C. Whisk the yolks with granulated sugar until a light mass is obtained and the sugar is completely dissolved, add cream, vanilla and mix the mixture well. Fill the baking tray 1/3 with water. Pour the finished cream into molds, carefully place them on a baking sheet and place in a hot oven for 50-55 minutes - you need to wait until the edges of the dessert harden, but the middle remains liquid. Remove the pan from the oven and wait for the creme brulee to cool (right in the pan). Before serving, sprinkle each serving with coarse sugar and place in a top-heat oven for 2-3 minutes.

Parfait is not a dessert, but perfection itself

In its composition, this dessert resembles blancmange, and its name is translated from French as “immaculate, beautiful.” The parfait is prepared from very cold cream - it is thoroughly whipped, combined with an egg-milk mixture, and seasonal fruits and berries, cocoa, chocolate, vanilla, coffee, nuts, cookies and other products are added to the resulting cream.


In Russia, this famous dessert, which looks like frozen mousse, first appeared on the royal table. As you know, Alexandra and Maria, daughters of Alexander II, were incorrigible sweet tooths. Especially for them, by order of Empress Maria Alexandrovna, the court chefs invented a light and very healthy orange parfait, rich in vitamin C. And we will learn how to make coffee parfait.

Recipe: Coffee Parfait

You will need: 4 yolks, 280 g of heavy cream, 100 g of milk, 16 g of natural coffee, 2 tablespoons of sugar. For decoration - berries, fruits, caramel or chocolate.

Add coffee to the milk, put on fire, boil and let the mixture cool. Grind the yolks with sugar in a thin stream, stirring constantly, pour the cooled coffee milk into them, put on low heat and cook until thick. Remove the pan from the stove and let the milk-egg mixture cool. Whip the cream well and add to the cooled mixture. Pour the finished dessert into bowls and place in the freezer. Serve with nuts, berries, fruit, caramel or chocolate.

Profiteroles - “dessert reward”

These miniature choux pastries with cream are direct descendants of the famous French eclairs. Their name promises benefit and benefit: translated from French, the word “profitrole” means “a profitable acquisition, a small reward.”


Interestingly, French profiteroles exist not only as a dessert. Tiny hollow balls are also filled with savory fillings - vegetables, meat, cheese, mushrooms.

Recipe: profiteroles with butter cream

You will need: for the dough – 100 g butter, 1 glass of water, 4 eggs, 1 glass of flour, 1 pinch of salt. For the cream: 150 g of homemade butter (fat content more than 82%), 150 g of natural boiled condensed milk (from whole milk).

Pour the water into a saucepan, add salt, add butter, place on the stove and bring to a boil. Add the sifted flour into the resulting mixture, stirring constantly with a wooden spatula and turn off the heat. Knead the dough very quickly - it should stick well to the walls of the pan. Let the dough cool slightly. Then add the eggs one at a time: beat in one, mix well, add the second egg, mix again and repeat the same with each egg. Line a baking tray with baking paper, lightly grease with oil and sprinkle with a little water - this will help the dough rise better. Using a pastry syringe, scoop the dough onto the baking sheet, forming into walnut-sized balls. Leave fairly large gaps between the balls - they will increase at least 2 times. Bake the profiteroles for 10 minutes in an oven preheated to 200º, and then reduce the heat to 180º and bake until golden brown - another 15-20 minutes (do not open the oven!). When the profiteroles have cooled, fill them with cream (using a spoon, making cuts with a knife or a pastry syringe): beat the softened butter until white and add boiled condensed milk in portions, without stopping whisking. Ready-made mini-cakes can be sprinkled with powdered sugar or poured with melted chocolate.

Millefeuille - “yarrow of love”

“A thousand sheets” is how the name of this dessert is translated from French. Mille-feuille is, in fact, a cake made from airy puff pastry, in which, between its several layers, a delicate almond cream with fruits and berries is enclosed.


The filling, as a rule, is vanilla cream, but the taste of mille-feuille can be unsweetened, but salty and piquant. For example, this dish can be prepared with cheese and spinach.

Recipe: Strawberry mille-feuille

You will need: 400 g of fresh strawberries, 250 g of ready-made puff pastry, 2 tablespoons of sugar, 50 g of melted butter, a few mint leaves. For the cream: 500 g mascarpone cheese, 400 ml thick natural yogurt, a pinch of vanilla sugar, half a glass of powdered sugar.

Wash the strawberries and dry them on paper towels. Roll out the puff pastry in one direction and use a knife to cut into 10 equal squares. Sprinkle each piece of dough with sugar and fry in a frying pan in melted butter until golden brown on both sides. Cool the finished cakes on paper towels. For the cream, beat mascarpone cheese with yogurt, vanilla and powdered sugar with a mixer. Cut the strawberries into slices. Set aside a few berries to decorate the cake. Now you can start assembling the “yarrow”: place the first cake layer on the bottom of a beautiful plate, brush it with cream, lay out the strawberry pieces, cover with the second cake layer and repeat the same thing until the cake layers are gone. Top with mille-feuille with mint and strawberries.

Macaron cookies - a rainbow of colors and tastes

Even the Italians, who have been competing with the French for culinary supremacy for centuries, call macaron the most delicious cake in the world. Delicate, melting in your mouth, soft on the inside, with a crispy crust, with a lot of shades, these cookies delight both with their appearance and unforgettable taste.


Macaron is made from white almond flour, and it comes in the flavors of cherry, raspberry, black currant, chocolate, coffee, caramel, walnut, sambuca, Sicilian pistachio... The fillings in this cake can be very diverse, from fruit and berry to floral, creamy -chocolate and even exotic. Macaron comes in the flavors of fig, chestnut, mint, coconut, rose petals, lily of the valley, violet, green lemon, etc.

In Paris, the famous macaroons have been served at the royal table since 1682. This traditional French dessert originates from Italy: there, cakes made from almond powder, egg whites, salt and sugar began to be prepared back in the 18th century.

Recipe: pasta with berry, chocolate, nut and lemon fillings

You will need: for cookies – 400 g of powdered sugar (or sugar), 6 egg whites, 250 g of ground almonds, a pinch of salt, 1 drop of dyes of different shades. For the filling: 240 g softened butter, 350 g powdered sugar, 1 tablespoon cream, 1 coffee spoon vanilla sugar, 1 teaspoon cocoa, 1 teaspoon strawberry jam, 1 teaspoon lemon zest, 1 teaspoon ground pistachios.

Separate the whites from the yolks. Beat the whites until fluffy and add powdered sugar to them in portions. Beat until smooth, then add ground almonds, mix gently and divide the resulting mass into 4 parts. Add a drop of dye to each and mix well. Fill a pastry bag with the resulting dough and place the cookies on a baking sheet covered with baking paper. Try to make cookies the same size. Preheat the oven to 170º. After the cookies have stood for at least half an hour and have hardened slightly, place them in the oven. Bake for about a quarter of an hour and then cool on the baking sheet. For the cream, beat the butter with powdered sugar (sugar), add cream and vanilla. Divide the finished filling into 4 equal parts and add different fillings to each: cocoa in the first, jam in the second, ground pistachios in the third, lemon zest in the fourth. When the cookies have cooled, you can start assembling the cakes: layer green cookies with pistachio cream, pink cookies with strawberry cream, yellow cookies with lemon cream, and brown cookies with cocoa cream.



They have always been distinguished by their sophistication, beauty and unforgettable taste, because they are the result of many years of culinary experiments by famous confectioners and chefs. Let our recipes for famous French desserts open you up to the world of a real culinary fairy tale, in which the main characters are sweet delicacies that will certainly delight both adults and little sweet tooths. Bon appetit!

Another type of classic pastry, made from a very interesting dough.
This was my first time doing this, although I have seen similar recipes.
But when I saw in one of the issues of our gastronomic magazine a recipe from the book Desserts by Pierre Herme (one of the most famous French confectioners in the world) - cookies made from sablé dough on hard-boiled yolks, I was inspired to make it.
Only I baked not cookies, but portioned linzer cakes.
The most delicate dough, surprisingly crumbly and melting in your mouth. Worth repeating!

As soon as this cake is not called - a pie from Linz, and a Linzentart, a Linz cake, and so on.
The history of the recipe is not known, but it is strongly associated with the Austrian city of Linz.

It recently became known exactly when this cake was first described!
In the archives, culinary records were found from 1653 of an Austrian born in Verona, Anna Margherita Sagramosa, née Countess Paradise (today the recipe is kept in the city museum of Linz). The Austrians claim that this is the very first cake ever described.

And mass production of the cake was first started by Johann Konrad Vogel (1796-1883).

Today this cake is the most famous export product of the city of Linz.
The Jindrak confectionery alone sells about 80 thousand Linz cakes during the year.
And of course, every pastry chef has his own “secret” recipe. “There are many recipes for Linz cake,” says Leo Jindrak about his secrets. “There are many invented inventors of Linz cake. Linz cake or not Linz cake is determined not by the ingredients, what should be in the dough "What matters is the appearance, the lattice of dough and the filling of red currant jam."

I agree with Leo Jindrak that there are a great many recipes for this cake.

What do they all have in common:
- a base made of shortbread sablé dough in the form of a basket, which necessarily includes nut (almond) flour, ground spices and, sometimes, cocoa.

A layer of raspberry or red currant (black currant) jam
- dough lattice “overlapping” on top.

Shall we get started?

For 6 mini tart tins, 12cm in diameter:

3 hard-boiled yolks
330 grams butter at room temperature
50 grams of powdered sugar
40 grams almond flour
2 teaspoons ground cinnamon (didn't use)
salt on the tip of a knife
1 tablespoon rum
315 grams white flour

200 grams of jam for filling (I used raspberry)

1 egg for glazing

1. Hard boil the eggs, separate the yolks. Rub the yolks through a sieve. Sift the flour.

2. Beat butter and powdered sugar until fluffy. Add the pureed yolks, beat the butter with the yolks until smooth.

3. Add flour, cinnamon, salt, rum, almond flour and knead the dough very quickly.

4. Divide the dough into 2 parts, flatten each into a disk, wrap in film and put in the refrigerator for at least 4 hours.

The dough turns out very soft, the amount of butter in it is very large in relation to the flour. If the dough is not properly cooled, it will be impossible to work with it.

5. Separate 1/2 of one of the discs and divide the remaining dough into 6 parts. Place in the refrigerator for now.

6. Roll out the remaining piece of dough on a small board, between two sheets of baking paper. Place in the freezer.

7. Distribute the dough between the molds with your hands - the thickness should be the same on the bottom and at the sides. Place in the freezer for 15 minutes.

8. Preheat the oven to 180 C.

9. Remove the baskets from the freezer. Spread jam in them, but so that the layer height is no more than 5-6 millimeters.

It is fundamentally. If there is more jam, it will wet the basket and the cake will spread.

10. Remove the board with the dough from the freezer. Cut the dough into strips 1 centimeter wide. Place strips in a lattice pattern on each basket. Cut off the excess. Run a knife around the circumference of each basket, making fluted edges and securing the ends of the lattice.

11. Beat the egg with milk or sugar syrup, brush the cakes on top and bake for 30-40 minutes, until the cakes are browned on top and the jam in the slots begins to boil.

12. Allow the cakes to cool completely in the pans on a wire rack and only then remove to a plate.

Debriefing.

I did not put baking paper in the baskets because the sablé dough usually comes out without problems.
And this dough is so crumbly that it turned out to be very difficult to take it out. Be sure to line your baking pans with baking paper!

Do not bake one large tart from this dough, you will not be able to cut it beautifully. This dough is only suitable for individual baking or for small “Lintsev” cookies (two disks, one solid, the second cut out, glued with jam).

Do not use this recipe for raw yolks. As an experiment, I also made this dough, but it turned out to be a completely different structure, too “liquid” and it was almost impossible to work with it; I had to constantly return it to the refrigerator and cool it.

UPD
There was a technological error in paragraphs 3 and 4. Corrected.

Very valuable type from Veronica verifica:
It is not at all necessary to boil a whole egg; you can boil only the yolk and use the white for other types of baking.
How to boil a yolk.
1. You can simply carefully place it in boiling water in a strainer (Veronica’s advice).
2. You can first freeze the yolk. As a result of freezing, the yolk irreversibly gels (I previously wrote about this and warned that to prevent gelling, the yolk must be mixed with sugar or salt before freezing). Then the yolk can be thawed and boiled quietly.