List of recipes from category Desserts: 80 recipes (lactose free)

Tiramisu balls

For this astonishingly quick and easy recipe, you form balls from sponge-cookie powder, mascarpone and coffee, and roll them in cocoa. The tiramisu taste is guaranteed.

Coconut "croute à thé"

Here's a coconut version of the classic French "croute à thé" cake. The double coconut flavour comes from the sweetcrust pastry as well as the filling.

Santiago Cake

Santiago cake (or Torta de Santiago) has a lovely moist texture. It is made with almonds and lemon and contains no butter or flour. This Spanish speciality from Galicia is still often decorated with the cross of St James.

Apple Pie

This classic of family cooking is quite simple: just a puff pastry "shell" sealing in lightly sweetened slices of apple. During cooking, the fruit softens to resemble stewed apple. Serve warm, if possible, to enjoy at its best.

Angevin plum pâté

The Angevin pie, as its name does not indicate it, is a dessert, a kind of plum pie made with a shortcrust pastry. It is a dessert from the old days, which has crossed the ages while remaining in Anjou (the famous "Loire valley" in France).

Dijonnaise pear cake

This moist cake with a pear-dijonnaise centre is made with a "moelleux" batter. The pears are cooked first in blackcurrant-flavoured crème de cassis.

Pistachio cake

Here's a loaf-style cake made with a classic batter, flavoured with pistachio (of course), and with a crunchy "macaronade" topping.

Cochelin d'Evreux

This cochelin, from the town of Evreux in Normandy, is a sort of giant apple turnover, flavoured with vanilla. It is served in slices, like a cake.

Soft chocolate-orange cake

If you like the combination of chocolate and citrus fruit, you'll love this very simple, very moist cake, with its deliciously pronounced chocolate and orange flavors.

Stuffed prunes

Stuffed prunes are a sweetmeat made with halved dried prunes sandwiched together around a morsel of marzipan flavoured with Armagnac.

Chocolate orangettes for Erika

Orangettes are candied citrus peels (oranges or grapefruit) cut into sticks and coated in chocolate. This delicious confection blends the slightly tangy flavors of candied peels with the sweetness of chocolate.

Chocolate mendiants

Mendiants are made with a thin layer of chocolate, stuck with toasted nuts, dried and candied fruit.

Calissons

Calissons are a sweet from Provence - Aix-en-Provence is famous for them - made with almonds and candied fruit, covered with royal icing. This is a slightly simplified version, which is every bit as good.

Nougat

Nougat is a sweet made with honey and almonds that has changed very little since ancient times. The nougat we know today is the Montelimar variety, in which egg whites are added to the basic recipe for a lighter texture. Here is a simplified version.

Quince paste

This traditional French "pâte de fruit" (fruit paste or leather) has a distinctive, firm consistency and is full of flavour, with the characteristic tang of quince. The preparation is rather long, but the result is well worth all the effort.

Fruit paste : Blackcurrant

If you like the taste of blackcurrant, this recipe is for you, the very pronounced taste of blackcurrant and its small acidity, in a delicious treat.

Candied grapefruit peel

Not really a dessert, more a kind of sweet. After soakiing, strips of grapefruit skin are cooked very slowly to conservethem in sugar. It's a real treat with coffee at the end of a meal.

Apple paste

Apple paste, like most other fruit pastes, is a simple mixture of apple juice, sugar and a gelling agent - pectin here.

Rhubarb mousse

This delicious mousse is the perfect summer dessert: a delicate combination of stewed rhubarb and Italian meringue.

Stewed apple (compote)

Here is a very basic but delicious recipe, and the pitfalls to avoid.

Like MaronSui's

Perhaps you've heard of "MaronSui's", those chestnut mousses you find in shops? Here's a much better homemade version, easy enough to make.

Tiramisu

Classic italian recipe (the name means "pull me up" or more poetically, "take me up to the sky"). It's similar to a charlotte in its structure: layers of flavoured biscuits between layers of smooth cream.

Strawberry brunoise in a dessert-wine sabayon

This is a very simple recipe, but the result is absolutely delicious (as long as it's strawberry season, of course): morsels of really ripe strawberries in a sabayon made with sweet white wine.

Mojito peaches

A simple fruit salad of white peaches bathed in mojito flavours: lime, rum and mint (with a delicate hint of vanilla).

Minted Melon

It is tempting to call this a melon Mojito: little balls of ripe melon in a light Mojito-flavoured syrup with mint, rum and lime.

Soft fruits in sabayon

This recipe is made by briefly cooking an assortment of soft fruits (raspberries, blackcurrants, blackberries, blueberries, currants...) with a little sugar to glaze them. They are served in a small dish, covered with a delicious sabayon which can be lightly "burned" on surface.

Fresh fruit in sabayon

Fresh grapefruit and / or pears, covered with a sabayon and a pinch of citrus crunch.

Clafoutis-style plum financier

The classic French "financier" is normally a little cake, but it can also be made clafoutis-style over fruit in an oven-proof dish.

Blackcurrant sorbet for Edith

If you love the taste of blackcurrants (like Edith), this sorbet is for you...

Strawberry sorbet

The secret of a good strawberry sorbet is to use first class strawberries, very ripe and full of flavour, so do choose them with care. This recipe shows you how to lighten the texture of the sorbet by incorporating air.

Melon with port sorbet

This recipe is a new twist on the classic melon with port: melon balls served on a bed of port sorbet.

Pear sorbet

For a great pear sorbet, choose your fruit carefully: they should be perfectly ripe and full of flavour. You will get good results with williams, but any other variety of your choice will work.

Peach and blackcurrant coupe

A delightful coupe combining mint-flavoured peaches with a scoop of blackcurrant sorbet.

Raspberry sorbet

To make a seriously good raspberry sorbet, the fruit must be of the best quality, of course, but there is another little secret: you need to remove all the seeds to make a really smooth coulis. It is this smooth coulis that makes the sorbet so deliciously velvety.

Clementine sorbet

To capture the delicate flavour of clementines, we need to use not only the juice, but also a little zest to add a delicious hint of bitternes. Here's a simple method using sugar cubes.

Strawberry-mint sorbet

For this strawberry and mint-flavoured sorbet, we will be using an unusual method: blending the strawberries with mint leaves. This mixture is then left overnight for the flavours to mingle before being strained and then churned. This makes a delicious sorbet with its full-on strawberry flavour boosted by a definite mintiness.

Quick bramble jelly

Fruit jelly is jam made with the juice only. All the skin and seeds are strained out, which gives a very smooth texture. Here's a quick recipe which will give you an excellent jelly, and which keeps the full flavour of the blackberries thanks to its very brief cooking.

Blackcurrant jelly

Blackcurrants are full of flavour and make an excellent jelly. In the depths of winter, you'll be glad you made some now.

Windfall apple jelly

This jelly is an excellent way to make use of all those unripe apples that have dropped off the tree. They (or rather, their juice) makes a delicious jelly with a very delicate flavour. As these apples are green and generally tart, we need to use a little more gelling agent than for a normal jelly recipe.

Quick orange marmalade

Just oranges (organic) and sugar in this simplified marmalade recipe.

Quince jelly

This quince jelly, with a very pronounced taste, will delight lovers of this fruit.

Dandelion flower jelly

With dandelion flowers and a hint of lemon, here's how to make a delicate and surprising jelly, which in franche-comté (eastern France) is called "cramaillote", or sometimes "dandelion honey".

Apricot jelly

An apricot jelly is made using only the pulp of the fruit, removing the skin and any fibrous parts, which requires some cooking. The result is a much smoother, more pleasant preparation, a little less tart than a classic jam.

Apricot jam with vanilla

A really flavoursome apricot jam, minimally sweetened, with a hint of vanilla and the discreet crunch of the almond-like kernels.

Jelly-style plum jam

Lots of people make plum jam, but you can also elevate this to a rather elegant jelly, simply by removing the skins. It's not a true jelly (this is normally made with juice), but leans towards that style: light and, above all, delicious.

Granola

Granola is a tasty, crunchy cereal mix with nuts and seeds. Often thought of as an American version of muesli, it is bound with a little maple syrup and toasted in the oven. This is simple to prepare and goes well with lots of other things (dairy, fresh or stewed fruit, etc.) for a delicious breakfast.

Apple crisps

This is a really simple recipe - there's really not much to do, other than wait while the crisps (or chips for Americans) cook gently in the oven.

Apple Strudel

Apple strudel is a traditional pastry from central Europe. It is like a large apple turnover, usually served in slices. Here is a version with apples, walnuts, almonds and rum-soaked raisins.

Succès praliné (praline meringue)

The "succès" (success) is a classic of traditional French patisserie, made with two layers of almond meringue filled with praline butter cream. It's very rich and a little old-fashioned these days, but still has many faithful fans. The original recipe comes from the master chef Gaston Lenôtre, and became one of his most famous cakes, but this version is a little easier to make.

Strawberry and kiwi fruit salad

This is a simple recipe, but quite delicious. The flavours and colours of strawberries and kiwis combine to create a refreshing and colourful summer fruit salad.

Peach and mint salad

Here is a very simple, fresh and delicious recipe; the flavour of mint goes very well with peaches.

Salad of vine peaches and apricots with verbena

A simple fruit salad of apricots and vine peaches, with a delicious verbena syrup.

4 pears salad with vanilla

It's a very easy recipe, everything depends on the choice of differents kinds of pears all fully ripe, to give a delicious contrast in the mouth.

Fruit salad

To make a good fruit salad, there are three important points:

1. Choose fruits that go well together (avoid putting soft pears with crunchy apples for example).
2. Remove absolutely all skins and seeds.
3. Bring it all together with a good home made sugar syrup added to the fruit juices.

Here is a recipe which does all of that.

Financiers

This delicious little cake gets its name from its shape, in the form of a gold ingot.

Almonds pyramids

If you are already familiar with coconut pyramids, you might like to try these almonds flavoured pyramids. The recipe is very straightforward, but these little cakes, with their crisp outside and moist centre, are simply delicious.

Piedmont pyramids

If you are already familiar with coconut pyramids, you might like to try these hazelnut-flavoured Piedmont pyramids. The recipe is very straightforward, but these little cakes, with their crisp outside and moist centre, are simply delicious.

Mini palmiers

Palmiers are a traditional French patisserie, consisting of folded puff pastry caramelized with sugar. These small versions are made with the shop-bought puff pastry that comes ready-rolled in a circle.

Raspberry muffins

Delicious when still warm.

Pink Reims biscuits

These biscuits are a speciality of Reims. They have a light texture, rather like finger biscuits, and are traditionally rectangular and coloured pink.

Amiens macaroons

These macaroons, famous since the 16^th century, are small, soft almond-flavoured cakes. This recipe is much easier to make than the one for the classic Parisian macarons.

Blackcurrant-almond muffins

Blackcurrant muffins with a rather special ground almond dough. Blackurrants give a delicious hint of acidity, which goes very well with the almond flavour.

Coconut pyramids

Small coconut cakes, golden, crusty, and soft inside.

Finger biscuits

These small biscuits, that look a bit like savoy biscuits, are delicious alone or with Champagne, but are also the base for charlottes or Tiramisu.

Amaretti

Amaretti are little Italian almond biscuits. They are a bit like meringues, very sweet, and made with ground almonds.

Hazelnut and cherry financiers

In France, these little ingot-shaped cakes are known as "financiers". With their blend of hazelnut and Griottine-cherry flavours, they are sure to delight.

Fillings for macaroons

The macaroons recipe shows how to make these small cakes, and gives the example of a raspberry filling. Here are several other possibilities: Apricot macaroons, Chocolate macaroons, Mint macaroons, Blackcurrant macaroons.

Chocolate thins with toasted nuts

A very thin disc of chocolate, topped with toasted nuts and candied grapefruit peel.

Macarons (the original French macaroons)

This recipe really is "of the moment": the success of these small, highly-coloured cakes, in an infinite variety of flavours, is impressive. It's a recipe which needs some care, in order to produce a result worthy of a professional pastrychef. No problem, I will guide you through the recipe, particularly the tricky parts. This variety of flavours means that I test many alternatives, so don't be surprised if in the pictures the colour of the macarons changes, I used the best photograph available...

Meringues

A very simple recipe but which always impresses.

Piped petits-fours

As the name suggests, these are piped into shape using a forcing bag. These dainty little macaroon-like cakes are made with marzipan and have a soft, moist texture.

Apple semelles (flat apple tarts)

The French semelle is a flat rectangular tart with a base of puff pastry. In this version, a layer of stewed apple is spread on the pastry, then topped with finely-sliced fruit.

Apple and blackcurrant tarts

These little tarts taste every bit as good as they look. The sweetcrust pastry cases are filled with a layer of stewed apple and topped with a blackcurrant crémeux. This offers your guests a delightful element of surprise, as the apple flavour is only discovered as they eat it (but only if you've been secretive, of course).

Little blackcurrant and vineyard peach sablé tarts

Superb little tarts, bursting with summer flavours: a Breton sablé base, a blackcurrant crémeux, and topped with slices of vineyard (or blood) peaches, every bit as delicious as they are colourful..

Express apple tart

A fine apple tart, very quick to make.

Apple and pear tart

Apples and pears are combined in this sophisticated autumn tart. The pears are laid decoratively on top of stewed apple.

Raspberry tart

This gorgeous and delicious rasperry tart is not just any old fruit tart: the base is made with "sablé breton" dough, topped with a raspberry crémeux and a layer of whole fresh raspberries, finished with a glaze. It's a bit more complicated than a normal tart, but the result is well worth the effort.

Breton apple and rhubarb tart

This rhubarb and apple tart is given a Breton twist with a base of traditional, butter-rich, sablé biscuit. This is topped with an apple "crémeux" filling. The finishing touch is a layer of rhubarb, cut on the diagonal and oven-poached in a syrup of its own juice.

Breton strawberry and verbena tart

Strawberries and verbena go well together. In this recipe they are combined as a verbena crémeux with whole fresh strawberries on a Breton sablé base.

Little apple turnovers with almonds and raisins

These are small apple turnovers ("chaussons") of puff pastry, filled with a mixture of caramelised almonds, stewed apple and rum-soaked raisins. To be eaten just as they are...