Recipes: 89 results
Epiphany galette
(Found inTexts)Here is the recipe for the very classic but delicious "galette des rois" (Epiphany galette) in puff or flaky pastry (pâte feuilletée) with almond cream or frangipane . You will also see some professional tips to easily handle the dough, and obtain a nice and regular galette.
January 6th 2021282 K 24.5 3 hours 8 min.
Brioche dough
(Found inTexts)It's a soft and rich dough, with butter and eggs which give a smooth and incredibly tasty brioche. This is the basic recipe for brioche dough, used for all other brioche-based recipes on the site.
September 16th 2020518 K 44.2 14 hours 30 min.
Confectioner's custard (Crème pâtissière, or French pastry cream)
(Found inTexts)Quite similar to crème anglaise but much thicker. It is used in many pastries like choux pastry (pâte à choux) or millefeuille.
January 27th 2017747 K 313.7 40 min.
French croissants
(Found inTexts)In this famous and highly technical recipe from a piece of yeast-based flaky dough we are going to cut and shape ("roll") croissants.
June 26th 2019616 K 24.4 2 hours 35 min.
Fougasse with bacon and Comté
(Found inTexts)This is a richer version of the traditional Mediterranean recipe (originaly, it was a simple olive oil bread).
October 24th 2017333 K4.1 3 hours 9 min.
Natural leaven
(Found inTexts)Leaven is a natural raising agent, a fermented mixture of water, flour and the microscopic yeasts which are present in the air. It's a delicate living substance, sensitive to the external environment. The recipe is around 4000 years old and dates back to the Egypt of the Pharaohs, via a beautiful...
April 3rd 20201.69 M 304.0 7 days 15 min.
Sandwich bread
(Found inTexts)Soft and moist, almost like brioche, it can be made in a tin or mould or as a classic long French-style loaf.
October 24th 2017346 K3.9 3 hours 30 min.
Leavened bread
(Found inTextsStages)It might be harder to achieve good results than with traditional yeast bread, but what a flavour! It also keeps better. This recipe is designed for baking bread in a wood-fired oven but, of course, you can use the conventional oven in your kitchen.
May 23th 20171.19 M 23.8 6 hours 30 min.
Special small breads
(Found inTexts)When you are have mastered the basic leavened bread, you certainly ought to try special breads: with nuts, cheese, seeds, etc... Here is a series of recipes, based on traditional leavened bread.
October 13th 2010382 K4 6 hours 30 min.
How to glaze a tart
(Found inTexts)Professional pastrycooks usually say that "a beautiful cake is already half sold", it is one of the reasons why they do not put a tart on sale without glazing it ("abricoter" in Fench), i.e. coating it with a thick apricot syrup. This glaze gives a glossy finish to the tart (see the photographs...
February 15th 2016444 K4.4 7 min.
French baguettes
(Found inTextsComments)This classic of French baking is rather different from the recipe for leavened bread, it's a question of making a good crust and light crumb along the whole length. To succeed, you should know that there are two secrets: water first of all (much more than for normal bread), and the working of the...
October 24th 20171.07 M 364.7 5 hours 6 min.
New leavened bread
(Found inTexts)This new recipe for leavened bread is simple and delicious, but needs rather long resting times. If you'd like more more information about making your own bread, look at this dedicated page.
December 30th 2019903 K 34.3 7 hours
Household cake (Gâteau de ménage)
(Found inTexts)A traditional recipe from Franche-comté, it's a flat round kind of brioche, covered with an egg cream called "Goumeau".
June 15th 2020495 K 25 3 hours 60 min.
How to prepare egg glaze
(Found inTexts)Bakers and pastry chefs use a glaze ("dorure" in French - the same word as for gilding) made with whole full eggs, beaten in a blender. This is used with a brush on pastry that would not naturally brown during cooking (brioche, puff pastry, ...).
October 17th 2018302 K4.3 2 min.
Nanterre brioche
(Found inTexts)This is the classic, but delicious, brioche recipe that you can find in any good baker's. Her unique shape is made from small balls of dough put in a mould.
September 10th 2018272 K3.8 2 hours 30 min.
French custard tart
(Found inTexts)Custard pie is made with a shortcrust pastry base, and filled with an egg vanilla "custard" mix (prepared beforehand). Filling and pastry cook together in the oven. It's a great classic of the French bakery, found in all good shops.
July 13th 2022438 K 234.3 1 hour 10 min.
Millefeuille
(Found inTexts)Millefeuille is one of the best pastries available, if it is well made, i.e.: 2 layers of light vanilla cream between 3 layers of fine crispy (possibly caramelized) puff pastry.
October 13th 2010327 K4.6 1 hour 45 min.
Butter cream
(Found inTexts)Butter cream is made with egg yolk, sugar syrup and, of course, butter. These days it has fallen rather out of fashion, probably because it's very rich, but it still has its aficionados. Here is the classic plain version, which you can lighten and flavour as you wish.
October 13th 2010320 K4.6 60 min.
Pages: 12 results
The amateur baker
You may have noticed over the pages of this site, I am passionate about everything that is related to the bakery: I love making bread, pastries, maintain my leaven, etc.. This page contains links to all the different parts of the site where we talk about bread: recipes, special pages, etc.October 15th 2024170 K 44.1
Flours
At the most basic level, wheat grain is put through a mill, which produces a white-ish powder flour... Well, actually it's not quite that simple. First of all we need to distinguish between the different grains that can be made into flour: wheat of course, but also rye, barley, buckwheat, etc. So we...June 3rd 2024728 K 413.6
What is this site, and who am I?
The important thing is the content of the site, the recipes and information you can find, but some of you want to know who is behind it all.August 29th 2023210 K 44.2
Making your own bread
You'll find a whole range of bread and pastry recipes on this site, but before you get started, perhaps you'd like to know more about the subject, get some tips and tricks, and find out what the main mistakes beginners make? If so, this page is for you.August 22th 2024565 K 63.9
Bread oven
Building a bread oven was until a few years ago a job for the professionals. But now you can buy a kind of kit which allows you to build your own bred oven without professional masonry know-how. You should know that the kits only provide the main part of oven, the hearth, where you light the fire...October 15th 20241.16 M3.6
My best addresses...
Quite a few of you often ask me where I can find this or that? or is such and such a thing a good buy? or which brand is best for this or that? On this page, I'm going to group together my good addresses for suppliers of this or that product or utensil, and good books on the subjects that interest...August 29th 2023300 K3.9
Foundations
A bread oven is very heavy (over a ton), so you should start by preparing a solid base on which it can be built.August 24th 2024118 K4.1
Roof
Once oven housing is built, it needs protecting from the elements with a roof.August 30th 202479 K3.9
Finishing touches
Is an oven really ever finished? Well there are always ideas for improvements. Here are af few...August 30th 202472 K4.4
Slashing loaves
When it's time to put them in the oven, the dough pieces for future breads or viennoiseries need to be "lamés", i.e. made with a very sharp blade, by making quick incisions at the top, known as "grignes". Let's see how it's done.August 29th 2023282 K 43.6
Basic temperature in bread-making
When making bread, it's very important to keep to the correct temperature, as yeast and sourdough are very sensitive to temperature. The dough must be warm enough for the yeast to develop and make it rise, but not too warm, which would have the opposite effect. To express this ideal dough...August 22th 2024227 K3.7
Soured dough
Underneath this strange name lies a baking secret: when you want to give a bread or pastry dough (without leaven, but with yeast) a certain percentage of fermented dough must be added, i.e. the same dough made the day before, and left to ferment overnight in the refrigerator.August 25th 2024146 K 24.1
Blog articles: 36 results
What is the difference between bakery and patisserie?
This is a question that you may well have asked yourself and which I will attempt to answer. In France the two trades of "boulangerie" (bakery) and "pâtisserie" (patisserie and confectionery) have always been quite distinct, but where exactly do the boundaries lie? .February 7th 2017123 K 14.1
The Holy Grail of French bakers
While browsing through the recipes on this site, you may have noticed that while I adore cooking (everything, in fact, to do with eating and drinking), I am particularly drawn to bakery: bread, viennoiseries and all that goes with them – it’s a real passion of mine; I love making them and I...March 24th 201815 K 34.7
The mock CAP baker's certificate exam
The next instalment in my life as an apprentice baker at the French INBP professional school. I’m now halfway through training and it’s still as exciting as ever, and exhausting – but maybe I’m just getting old, or both… Anyway, a few days ago we had to go through the mock CAP exam. A sort...May 1st 201817 K4.4
The baker always gild twice
I've already told you about gilding, the beaten whole egg that is spread with a brush on anything that needs to brown in the oven: puff pastry, pastries, etc. and that professionals use a lot, I'm going to come back to this to clarify a bit how to do it, and give you a professional tip.June 9th 201929 K4.2
Pastry and bakery dough families
There are many kinds, or families, of pastry and bakery doughs, depending on whether you want to make a tart, a cake, a pie, a brioche, croissants and so on. I'll try to give you a quick overview of all these doughs, how they're classified, and what they're used for.November 16th 20209,5794.9
The "caves" in the bakery and pastry shop
Maybe you've already done this? You want to make a brioche or a cake with fruit inside, you decide to proceed with your usual recipe, but also to add in the dough pieces of fresh and raw fruit, or whole fruit, for example pieces of apples or pears, good idea. When you bake it, everything seems to...March 27th 20217,5984.9
The 3 kinds of meringue
Meringue – what could be simpler? Just beaten egg whites with sugar added. This makes a fairly stiff mixture which can then be cooked in a cool oven to create those lovely, light confections. But in the world of professional patisserie, meringue comes in three different kinds. Even if the...June 14th 201358 K4.5
Raising (or leavening) agents
When we want to make a dough or batter rise when baking, either in patisserie or bread-making, we need to use a raising agent or leavening agent, one of which is called leaven. In the context of baking, a raising agent is simply what "makes something rise". It is a substance which, when added to...June 16th 202152 K4.8
The window-pane test in bread-making
The home bread-makers often ask themselves “Have I kneaded my dough long enough?” . A good question, as dough that is insufficiently kneaded will not rise properly or will fall flat when the top is slashed, which is very frustrating. To know when the dough is ready, one can rely on the length...June 16th 202189 K 23.9
Making the most of seeds: Dry roasting
In cooking, and particularly in baking, there are a lot of seeds we can use, such as linseed, sesame, poppy, etc. Usually, recipes simply say to add them just as they are to the mixture or dough. To make a seeded loaf, for example, prepare a plain bread dough as usual, then, towards the end of...January 30th 201557 K4.0
Steam for baking bread
What does steam have to do with bread-making? This is not only a bakers' secret, it is something you might not think of at all: if you make bread and bake it like a cake, you will end up with bread, but pale and with a thick, hard crust – a long way from the golden-brown crusty loaf you had in...June 16th 2021138 K4.5
A few tips for effective kneading at home
When you have to knead dough for bread or some other recipe, you may well use a food processor or the type of machine known as a stand mixer. The best-known brands are Kenwood and KitchenAid. They are useful tools, but here are a few tips to help you get the best out of them.June 23th 2021272 K 23.7
The golden-brown finish on puff pastry
Let's take a look at the tricky matter of producing puff pastry with an attractive, golden-brown finish. French pastry chefs call this "dorure" (literally, "gilding"). Behind this quirky term there lurks a real problem (and the solution): when using puff pastry (pâte feuilletée) for a pie, or...February 8th 201842 K 24.6
The beautiful story of the croissants
As you may have already noticed, cooking, baking and pastry-making are full of stories or legends, usually very romantic, about this or that product or recipe. This is often the case for named recipes, for example tarte tatin, peach melba, paris-brest and many others, but it also applies to very...October 10th 201814 K5
For well opened (puffed) cakes
It's always nice to have a well puffed up cake after baking, not only will it taste good but it looks great too. Let's see how to get this beautiful shape almost every time.January 23th 201928 K4.2
The first breads of humanity?
I have already told you in a previous article the beautiful story of the croissants, but do you know what it is about the bread, who "invented" it, where and when? Well, you can imagine that recent discoveries, in 2018, have profoundly changed the history of bread.February 16th 20199,8035
Salt and yeast
Let's take a look at an old baker's legend: You may have already read that somewhere in a recipe that uses baker's yeast(bread, pastries, leavened doughs in general) it is often specified "Don't put salt in contact with the yeast, you'll kill it (the yeast)"! Well, that's a belief, and there are...March 15th 201969 K4.3
The cake and the raisins
When you bake a cake, like a cake or pound cake, you may have already encountered this thorny problem: How to make sure that the raisins, or the candied fruits, or any other small filling, do not fall to the bottom of the pan during the baking process?May 31th 201911 K4.7
The French baguette and UNESCO
As you may have already read here or there, France has initiated for some time the procedure to try to have the French baguette classified as an intangible world heritage by UNESCO. When you put it like that, it sounds a bit namby-pamby, and it would be tempting to imagine an American (for...March 18th 202011 K4.9
Circles vs. moulds tins
If you like to bake or make quiches, pies etc. you must surely have one or more pie pans at home, in different diameters and perhaps materials. They are indispensable, without them there is no way to make beautiful pies, and they work very well, but you have another option, instead of moulds,...October 2nd 202012 K5
Lexicon: 3 results
Pointage (starting)
(Found inTexts)In bakery, "pointage" (starting), it's the first resting period, just after kneading. The dough, in one piece, is put for resting in a bowl, at ambient temperature, covered to prevent from making crust. During this step, dough is starting fermentation.
824 K
Rising
(Found inTexts)"Pousse" (rising) is the french term used in bakery to describe the resting time during which the dough rises, i.e. swells thanks to the action of the yeast or leaven. During rising, the yeast ferments the sugars present in the dough, producing carbon dioxide which forms bubbles and increases the...
824 K
Utensil: 5 results
Bannetons (bread rising baskets)
(Found inTexts)Once dough is kneaded and worked, it needs to be left to rise in a warm place before baking. Turning the risen uncooked dough onto the peel for transfering to the oven can be a tricky moment, especially if the dough has stuck to the container. To avoid this, bread is traditionally left for its final...
824 K
Bread dough at the right temperature
(Found inTexts)For the dough to rise properly, it needs to be at a temperature of around 25°C, sheltered from draughts. To achieve this, bakers have what they call a "rising chamber", a small closed room at the right temperature. At home, it's hard to afford this luxury, but you can cobble together something...
824 K
Steam machine
(Found inTexts)It's essential to have a lot of steam in the oven during baking to get lovely golden crusty loaves.Bakers have a special steam control on their ovens which injects water at the start of baking. With a wood-fired bread oven a simpler system is needed.I've try several systems and ideas, here is the...
824 K
Ingredient, product: 5 results
yeast
(Found inTexts)Yeast (also called "brewer's yeast" or "baker's yeast") is a living product, made up of microscopic fungi which grow slowly when they are in a warm place.Baker's yeast is for use in breads and viennoiseries. It it is incorporated gently into the dough, then you need to wait for it to work.It should...
824 K
"Quatre-épices" spice blend
(Found inTexts)Quatre-épices (4 spices) is a mix of: black pepper, cloves, nutmeg and cinnamon.Sometimes a fifth spice is added, ginger or chilli. [Translator's note: this mix is rather hotter and less sweet than British "mixed spice", and in France is often used in savoury dishes. If using British style mixed...
824 K
fondant icing
(Found inTexts)Fondant icing is a mixture of sugars and water, in the form of a white paste, fairly hard when cold, but which softens when warmed. It's used for icing the tops of cakes and pastries such as millefeuilles or eclairs. It can be used white or coloured.
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Griottine cherries
(Found inTexts)The griottines cherries are small red cherries, pitted and kept in a Kirsch syrup.
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icing sugar
(Found inTexts)Icing sugar is a very fine powder, it's caster sugar which is just ground very finely. It is widely used in baking and pastry to dust.
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