Yeast-based flaky dough (for croissants)

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This yeast-based flaky dough (or croissant dough) is where puff pastry meets a yeast dough (such as brioche dough). This means that not only will we get flaky layers, but the dough will also swell and rise. The method is along the same lines as for a feuilletage: the basic dough is first kneaded, then layered with butter and folded over several times (in "turns") to give it its flakiness. This is a highly technical dough and quite tricky to make well at home by hand, with a rolling pin. But...

Stuffed prunes

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

Brioche feuilletée (flaky brioche)

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For brioche feuilletée (or flaky brioche), the brioche dough is treated like puff pastry, with layers of butter incorporated by repeated turning and rolling. Coarse sugar crystals add a sweet crunchiness. Needless to say, this is very rich and quite irresistible.

Crackers

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These crisp savoury biscuits are ideal for dipping into a sauce as an aperitif snack. It is quite easy to make your own crackers at home and they are much healthier and even more delicious than the commercial kind.

Benoîton

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This curious name (explained below) applies to a small bread fingers made with a blend of wheat and rye flour, enriched with raisins and almonds.

Flamiche

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Flamiche is a savoury tart from the Picardy region of northeasten France. It is a cousin of quiche lorraine, but the pastry is characteristically made with lard and the filling has neither bacon nor eggs. This version contains a mixture of endives and leeks (white part only).

Buckwheat almond biscuits

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In this sweet biscuit recipe, some of the normal wheat flour is replaced with buckwheat flour and ground almonds. This gives them a very distinctive flavour.

Nougat

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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.

Pistachio shortbread biscuits

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These melt-in-the-mouth biscuits are "double pistachio", as they contain both pistachio paste and toasted chopped pistachios.

Galette de Fougerolles

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This Galette de Fougerolles is a flattish cake filled with a hazelnut buttercream and topped just before baking with a "craquelin" (sweet cracker) crust, studded with griottine cherries.

Citrus crunch

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These are fine crumbs of candied citrus peel. It can be used to sprinkle a dessert or other preparation to add both crunch and the flavour of the chosen citrus fruit. It is easy to prepare well in advance, and will keep in an airtight jar. This recipe is given for clementines, but can be made with all citrus fruits: lemon, lime, orange, grapefruit...

Valay-Brest

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A Valay-Brest is a mini eclair, filled with apple-flavoured confectioner's custard and topped with a rectangle of walnut nougatine.

How to make ravioli

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In theory, making ravioli is fairly simple: just roll out wide bands of thin fresh pasta dough and encase small pieces of pre-prepared filling between two sheets of pasta. In practice, it's a bit trickier than that and having the right equipment is important. This recipe shows you how to make beautiful ravioli step by step.

Craquelin (sweet cracker dough)

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This sweet cracker dough ("craquelin" in French) is a very simple mixture: equal parts of flour, butter and light brown sugar. It is simlilar to a shortbread dough and can be rolled out very thinly and cut into any shape as desired. Craquelin is mostly used (though not exclusively) on top of choux pastry (pâte à choux) to give a more attractive and regular result, with eclairs, for example, and gives them a delicious crisp crust on the top. This is very much the current trend in French...

Autumn apple and plum crumble pie

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This crumble with a difference captures real autumn flavours: apples, plums and hazelnuts. For a change, the crumble topping is pressed into a thin crust, more like a pie.

Flaky chocolate brioche

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This is a rather special brioche: the dough is first layered with butter to make it flaky, then this is rolled around a chocolate filling. The recipe is quite long, but you will be astonished at the result. It is both light (in flaky layers) and rich (with its chocolate filling). As you can see below, it can also be twisted.

Nachos

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Nachos (or tortilla chips) are small Tex-Mex snack triangles, often served with guacamole. Authentic nachos are made from tortillas, cut into triangles and fried, but here is a lighter, oven-baked version. The recipe is very simple, though the cutting out is a bit of work, and I've given you 2 methods for this.

Nougatine

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Nougatine is a delicious nut toffee: caramel mixed with toasted flaked almonds. Not a dessert in itself, it is often used to decorate cakes and pastries. But those who enjoy good things are sure to want to eat it on its own!

Sesame cookies

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These soft little cookies have a double whammy of sesame flavour from toasted seeds combined with a little sesame oil.

Chestnut and hazelnut biscuits

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Here's a really simple recipe for little nutty biscuits, combining hazelnuts with a double dose of chestnut flavour: flour and purée (crème de marrons).

Ice-cream and sorbets

Making homemade ice cream may seem complex, but with the right methods and a few tricks, you can achieve a creamy texture and incomparable flavors. On this page, we'll be revealing the secrets of successful homemade ice cream, guiding you step by step through the various stages of preparation. ...
August 12^th 2024477 K4.0

Let's try to solve a thorny problem: How much dough will I need when I make my next pie? You're planning to make a pie, you're going to use your favourite mould or circle, but how much pastry will you need to fill it completely with a well spread pastry, without being too thin, or on the contrary...
March 20^th 202069 K4.3

Very often in pastry making, you have to roll out a pastry before using it for a pie or another dessert. At home, of course, you get out your rolling pin and simply roll it out. Is there a way to get an evenly rolled out dough? That's what we will see in this article.
May 10^th 202312 K4.9

When you look at a bakery from the outside, you naturally think that in the bakery, the bakers make the bread, and in the laboratory, the pastry chefs make the cakes. It's very often like that, with each of these professions having quite different ways of working, but sometimes there's also one...
November 23^th 20253,195

When you bake at home—especially when making pie crusts—you’ve probably noticed that it’s quite difficult to work with the dough when it’s hot. It gets soft, is hard to roll out, and breaks or crumples very easily. And this doesn’t just happen when it’s hot—even in a comfortable...
August 26^th 20261,0315

Abaisse

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Pastry that has been rolled out with a rolling pin, usually in a circle.
16 K4.1

Rolling pin

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A rolling pin is a rigid cylinder which is used for rolling out all kinds of dough.
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Pastry shims or rulers

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Pastry shims are 25 cm (10") long strips of varying thickness, often 3, 5 and 10 mm, which allow you to roll out dough (shortbread, shortcrust, etc.) to exactly the right thickness, limiting the action of the rolling pin.
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