Macarons (the original French macaroons)

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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,...
1.6M 714.6 2 hours 38 min. October 3^rd 2019

You should not leave egg yolks in contact with sugar

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You should not leave egg yolks in contact with sugar for too long without beating them, because this contact "cooks" egg yolks and you will get small lumps of hard egg in your mixture.
118K5 February 21^th 2011

How to dust

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"Dusting" in cooking is sprinkling a very fine layer of something in powder form. Icing sugar or cocoa powder on cakes for example. As this is not very easy to do evenly, here is a way to do it.
145K5 2 min. October 13^th 2010

Liège waffles

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Liège waffles have a very distinctive texture: quite dense with the crunch of sugar crystals. They also have a characteristic form: round and fairly small. Then there's that special flavour that comes with the delicious light caramel crust.
252K5 1 hour 55 min. July 12^th 2011

Poached eggs

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Poached eggs are cooked, without the shell, in barely simmering (nearly boiling) water. White should be firm and yolk soft, that's the difficulty. This recipe teaches you how to succeed with three important points.
305K5 2 hours 40 min. January 8^th 2013

Apple and Blackcurrant Brioche Pies

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These brioche pies look like muffins with their "mushroom" tops. They are filled with quartered apples and a little blackcurrant jelly.
47K4.5 2 hours 55 min. September 10^th 2018

Mini apricot and pistachio brioches

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These mini brioches are made with dried apricots and have double pistachio flavour: in the dough itself, which is tinged green, and with dry-roasted pistachios added whole.
51K4.1 18 min. November 22^th 2015

Ali Baba bread

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This bread is so-called because its magical sesame flavour is non-negotiable! The triple dose comes from tahini (sesame paste), sesame oil added to the dough before kneading, and toasted sesame seeds both in the dough and on top of the loaves. The texture is soft, rather like ciabatta, but with a...
40K5 4 hours 23 min. December 10^th 2017

Armagnac marzipan

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Almost the same as plain marzipan, but this almond paste is flavoured with a hint of Armagnac or Cognac.
42K4.8 9 min. September 12^th 2018

Special Cheese and Walnut Sticks

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These crusty mini-baguetttes are generously dotted with diced Comté cheese, toasted walnuts and fried bacon bits. They are ideal for slicing and serving as an aperitif snack.
70K5 3 hours 51 min. October 24^th 2017

Cretan Bread

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This Cretan (or Cretan-style) bread has a soft dough, enriched with olive oil, preserved tomatoes, green olives and cooked onions.
78K4.3 4 hours 26 min. October 24^th 2017

Roscoff loaf

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This speciality bread from Roscoff (a small town in Brittany, northwest France) is enriched with onions, red wine and smoked sausage. What really sets this bread apart is that instead of water, the dough is made with red wine in which the sliced onions are left to soak overnight. The onions are...
61K 13.7 5 hours 16 min. October 24^th 2017

Seeded loaf

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This seeded bread is based on a French baguette dough, with a mix of dry-roasted seeds added (poppy, millet, linseed, sesame...). Delicious on its own, this bread makes excellent toast to go with foie gras, adding an amazing complementary crunch.
147K3.8 4 hours 27 min. October 24^th 2017

Peanut rolls

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Combining soft and crunchy textures, these flavour-packed peanut rolls are delicious just as they are, but they are also ideal for burgers.
76K4.6 4 hours October 24^th 2017

Two-olive ciabatta

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Enjoy the real flavour and scent of the Mediterranean in this ciabatta made with two olives (green and black).
112K4.3 4 hours 12 min. October 24^th 2017

Pistachio confectioner's custard

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This is very similar to the classic confectioner's custard (crème pâtissière, or french pastry cream), but its marked pistachio taste brings a distinctive flavour to a whole range of desserts.
196K4.7 31 min. November 21^th 2018

Pannacotta and blackcurrant crumble

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This is a glass of pannacotta, with a layer of blackcurrent coulis, and a crunchy almond crumble scatterd on top.
238K3.8 1 hour 22 min. February 21^th 2011

Pitta bread

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This Lebanese speciality is made as a flat round pocket, which can be filled with all manner of things.
515K 14.5 2 hours 55 min. February 21^th 2011

Four quarters

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It's "the simpliest cake in the world", called four quarters, because it's made with 1/4 eggs, 1/4 sugar, 1/4 flour and 1/4 butter.
311K3.7 1 hour 15 min. February 21^th 2011

Poitevin twist

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This short baguette, from the Poitou region of western France is soft-textured, made with walnuts, walnut oil and goat's cheese. As the name suggests, the bread is twisted, rather than slashed, just before it goes into the oven.
54K 3 hours 19 min. December 19^th 2018

Making your own bread

In praise of home-made bread, so much better.
564K 63.9 August 29^th 2023

chives

Chives grow in clumps, and the leaves used as a herb have an extraodinary taste. It's an essential for adding to salads, and everything else that can be eaten cold, because it doesn't like long cooking during which it loses most of its flavour.
76K3.8 August 29^th 2023

How to avoid lumps

You've probably come across this unpleasant phenomenon where, when you try to incorporate an ingredient (usually a solid or powder) into a preparation (usually a liquid), the mixture doesn't mix properly and you end up with little "balls" or little lumps of the solid part that refuse to mix with the...
14K4.8 October 9^th 2020

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 23^th 2021

Egg yolks and caster sugar

We often come across recipes where we need to mix egg yolks with caster sugar. This would appear to be a very ordinary and simple thing to do but, be warned, these two ingredients can behave oddly together.
73K 24.4 February 15^th 2018

Creams in pastry

In this post, I propose you to make a small tour of the different creams in pastry. If you like to make them at home, you have already noticed the many creams that exist for the different desserts: Chantilly, custard, diplomat, Bavarian, etc. etc. Each one more delicious than the other, they...
8,6954.5 March 12^th 2022

Tranché, dissociated, failed, in short... missed!

When preparing a sauce or a cream, there's always a (small) risk that the creamy preparation you're working on will suddenly separate into two parts of different textures: a liquid part, for example, and a more or less solid part, or even become lumpy. It's terribly frustrating, but we'll see...
6,1055 June 19^th 2023