Recipes: 88 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.
278K 24.5 3 hours 8 min. January 6th 2021
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.
512K 44.2 14 hours 27 min. September 16th 2020
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.
740K 313.7 36 min. January 27th 2017
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.
611K 24.4 2 hours 34 min. June 26th 2019
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).
329K4.1 3 hours 9 min. October 24th 2017
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...
1.7M 304.0 7 days 15 min. April 3rd 2020
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.
343K3.9 3 hours 26 min. October 24th 2017
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.
1.2M 23.8 6 hours 26 min. May 23th 2017
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.
378K4 6 hours 26 min. October 13th 2010
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...
439K4.4 7 min. February 15th 2016
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...
1.1M 364.7 5 hours 6 min. October 24th 2017
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.
896K 34.3 7 hours December 30th 2019
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".
490K 25 3 hours 59 min. June 15th 2020
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, ...).
297K4.3 2 min. October 17th 2018
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.
268K3.8 2 hours 26 min. September 10th 2018
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.
434K 234.3 1 hour 10 min. July 13th 2022
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.
324K4.6 1 hour 42 min. October 13th 2010
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.
315K4.6 58 min. October 13th 2010
Pages: 13 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.166K 44.1 August 29th 2023
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...723K 413.6 June 3rd 2024
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.204K 44.2 August 29th 2023
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...1.2M3.6 June 3rd 2024
My best addresses...
My good addresses, favourite suppliers, ingredients, products and equipment.297K4.0 August 29th 2023
Finishing touches
Construction of a Fayol bread oven: finishing touches and accessories.71K4.4 August 29th 2023
Slashing loaves
Cutting the top of the loaf so that it rises better during baking: slashing.280K 43.6 August 29th 2023
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.144K 24.1 February 23th 2024
Blog articles: 35 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? .121K 14.1 February 7th 2017
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...15K 34.7 March 24th 2018
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...16K4.4 May 1st 2018
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.27K4.2 June 9th 2019
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.9,1624.9 November 16th 2020
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...7,0214.9 March 27th 2021
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...55K4.5 June 14th 2013
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...51K4.8 June 16th 2021
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...87K 23.9 June 16th 2021
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...56K4.0 January 30th 2015
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...137K4.5 June 16th 2021
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.268K 23.7 June 23th 2021
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...40K 24.6 February 8th 2018
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...13K5 October 10th 2018
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.27K4.2 January 23th 2019
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.9,3235 February 16th 2019
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...69K4.3 March 15th 2019
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?11K4.7 May 31th 2019
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...11K4.9 March 18th 2020
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,...12K5 October 2nd 2020
Lexicon: 2 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.
776K
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...
776K
Bread dough at the right temperature
(Found inTexts)For bread dough to rise well, it should be left in a warm place, protected from draughts. Bakers use a special room, for this called a "chambre de pousse" (growing room). Difficult to do this at home...Instead I use my kitchen oven (off) where I put a small light bulb of 15-20 watts. This light bulb...
776K
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...
776K
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...
776K
"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...
776K
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.
776K
Griottine cherries
(Found inTexts)The griottines cherries are small red cherries, pitted and kept in a Kirsch syrup.
776K
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.
776K