Almond cream or frangipane

(Found inTexts)
Light and delicious, it is used in a lot of desserts like tarts, cakes and pies (epiphany galette).
January 23^th 2022449 K 25 45 min.

Sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée)

(Found inTexts)
Sweetcrust pastry is one of the basic pastry of French patisserie, used in many tart and cakes recipes, but it can also be rolled out and cut into biscuits, delicious with tea or coffee. This recipe is given for those who have a mixer (Kenwood, KitchenAid or other), but it can also be done with your...
July 1^st 2019476 K 24.4 35 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 3^rd 20201.69 M 304.0 7 days 15 min.

How to roll out pastry for a tart

(Found inTextsStages)
Rolling out pastry from a block and lining a tart mould or tin is not as straighforward as all that. To help you to succeed every time, here is a very simple tip. It will to change your opinion of tarts...
October 13^th 2010294 K4.6 25 min.

How to glaze a tart

(Found inTextsStages)
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 15^th 2016444 K4.4 7 min.

How to bake blind

(Found inTextsStages)
This method allows you to cook a tart case, and then fill with a preparation which may or may not need further cooking (fruit, chocolate, crème patissière , etc...).
May 6^th 2017913 K5 1 hour 40 min.

How to make chocolate chips

(Found inTexts)
These chocolate chips, very fine, are perfect for decorating a dessert, but they can also be incorporated in a preparation like mint ice-cream for example.
February 21^th 2011272 K3.8 5 min.

Shortcrust pastry (pâte brisée)

(Found inTexts)
This is for sweet or savoury tarts, quiches or pies. The difference between this and sweetcrust pastry (pâte sablée) is in the very small amount of sugar and the absence of ground almonds.
December 29^th 2019378 K 24 35 min.

Express sauerkraut

(Found inTexts)
Sauerkraut (choucroute in French) is a traditional Alsatian recipe. It consists of fermented cabbage slowly cooked with white wine, potatoes and a variety of salted pork meats. This is a simplified and fairly quick version.
February 21^th 2011357 K 13.9 2 hours 25 min.

When to add salt to cooking water?

(Found inTexts)
Is it better to salt cooking water, for vegetables for example, at the beginning when it is cold or when it boils? I always heard that one should salt "after", when water is boiling, because if it is salted "before" it will take longer to boil. True or false? Let's try the experiment...
July 25^th 2017143 K4 15 min.

Pistachio cream

(Found inTexts)
Very similar to almond cream, pistachio cream is ideal for filling or topping all kinds of cakes and tarts. Just like almond cream, it swells during cooking.
October 4^th 2012298 K 64.1 35 min.

Cherry and pistachio tarts

(Found inTextsStages)
A shortcrust pastry case baked with pistachio cream, then topped with Griottine cherries.
July 4^th 2010179 K 25 1 hour 20 min.

Apple amandine tarts from Brélès

(Found inTexts)
Amandines are small sweetcrust pastry tarts filled with fruit and topped with almond cream. Here's a rather more sophisticated version made with stewed apple, rice pudding and almond cream.
March 1^st 2012182 K3.7 1 hour 10 min.

Tomato tatin

(Found inTexts)
A savoury shortcrust pastry with Parmesan is used to cover tomatoes cooked in two stages, first in the pan, then in the oven. As for a classic tart tatin, the whole thing is then turned upside down.
December 5^th 2010142 K4.8 2 hours 35 min.

Lime (or lemon) curd

(Found inTexts)
Lime curd is a delicious conserve and variation on the traditional lemon curd, made with limes, eggs and butter. It's the perfect filling for either large or small tarts.
July 10^th 2011157 K5 55 min.

Little lime tarts

(Found inTextsStages)
With this very quick recipe, you can make little tarts that are nothing like those you find in the shops.
October 10^th 2021124 K4.3 40 min.

Apple semelles (flat apple tarts)

(Found inTexts)
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.
October 28^th 2011152 K4.3 1 hour 5 min.

Langoustine and leek tarts

(Found inTexts)
Small puff pastry cases filled with a layer of chopped leeks, fried langoustines (also known as scampi or Dublin Bay prawns), topped with hollandaise sauce.
May 13^th 2012107 K4.2 1 hour 30 min.

Cheese tart

(Found inTextsStages)
This is a very simple recipe for a "Pontarlier" style cheese tart that allows you to prepare a number at the same time. They freeze very well, so you can easily stock up for later.
February 3^rd 201388 K4.2 5 hours 10 min.

Crusty cockle tart

(Found inTexts)
A small puff pastry tart case filled with cockles in a cream and egg-yolk sauce ("a la poulette" in French).
March 17^th 2013103 K4.3 2 hours 55 min.

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 15^th 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 29^th 2023300 K3.9

Closed fire cooking

For this method, the oven is emptied of embers, cleaned, and door closed until it drops to the cooking temperature of 250°C or 482°F. It's the method used for breads, pies and tarts, cakes, etc.
August 24^th 202452 K4.4

The steam machine

Fogging is an essential element in a bread oven. It's not easy to see, but it's the presence of fog that makes breads golden brown. To get steam on a regular basis, you can put a ramekin full of water in the bottom of the oven, or spray the inside with a sprayer, but this solution requires you to...
August 24^th 202458 K4

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 15^th 2024170 K 44.1

Good fridge management

We all have a fridge at home – it's an indispensible part of the kitchen and so much a part of the furniture that we tend not to pay it much attention. But often, out of habit, we don't use it properly. Here are a few tips to help you get more from your fridge. .
April 19^th 201126 K4.4

Different kinds of pastry and dough

When cooking in general, and particularly in baking, we can make and use many different kinds of pastry and dough. All built on the same "base": flour - a powder to which we add fat, liquid or both to produce the dough which is then cooked. .
November 6^th 2012106 K 14.0

Artichoke stalks

When preparing artichokes for cooking, you may well already know that we often need to remove the first round of leaves, if they are tatty or dirty, as well as the inedible stalk. The operative word here is “remove” , rather than “cut off”.
October 25^th 201649 K4.3

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 7^th 2017123 K 14.1

What can I use for blind baking a pastry case?

When it comes to home-made desserts, tarts are always popular. They can be divided into two basic types: those cooked with their filling, such as an apricot and almond cream tart, and those where the filling is added after baking the pastry case, such as a strawberry tart or chocolate tart. For...
May 2^nd 2017106 K4.5

When should I change my knife?

I already spoke to you in a previous post about knives, those without which nothing is possible (or almost) in the kitchen, so I'm going to come back to them a bit and try to answer the question "When should I change my knife?
November 2^nd 201712 K4.7

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.
February 15^th 201875 K 24.3

Is it really necessary to cream egg yolks?

Let’s try and answer a question that crops up in cookery and patisserie, even if it verges on the existential: do the egg yolks in a custard recipe really need to be beaten until pale, or not?
February 28^th 201839 K4.3

The right weight of pastry for a pie

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 202061 K4.3

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 2^nd 202012 K5

The proper use of a pastry bag

Ever used a pastry bag? Handy, isn't it, but unfortunately not very easy to fill. In fact, to be comfortable with this tool, you'd need 3 or 4 arms, which isn't very common. Does that mean it's a goner? No, of course not. Here are 2 or 3 tips to help you get comfortable with it.
December 5^th 20205,3664.7

Let's rehabilitate spinach

We are currently (as I write this) in the season of fresh spinach, and it is a delicious vegetable that unfortunately has a bad reputation among a lot of people, children and teenagers in particular. I wonder if this lack of appetite isn't due to what I call, probably unfairly, "school food...
May 7^th 20214,7334.8

What happens to the bread when you make it?

This bread that we eat every day, and that our baker makes for us, what happens during its manufacture so that it becomes bread? I will try to answer this question, and to summarize the complex alchemy that takes place.
May 28^th 20219,9994.9

The peak of the apple season

As I write these lines, we are in the middle of the apple season, and it's an apple year, as you may have noticed if you have apple trees around you, they are bursting with fruit! Excellent news for the people in the west of France in particular, but let's have a little thought for those in the...
October 23^th 20215,5535

The two frying pans

Where we see that a non-stick frying pan, if it is very practical in general, sometimes it is not enough.
February 26^th 20227,9744.7

Soup vs. potage

It's true that we're finally coming out of winter as I write these lines, and that we'll all be making, no doubt, a little less soup and potages, but even if it's out of season, it really is a simple and delicious dish, which is one of the always easy answers to "What's for dinner this (Sunday)...
April 9^th 20225,868

The color of the bread crumb

When you go to buy bread, at your baker's, at the time of the choice, if you hesitate of course, you will undoubtedly be very sensitive to the color of the crust, and you will be right. The color of the crust, from golden, to sometimes very dark, deep brown almost black, depending on the maturity...
April 30^th 202215 K4.6

The preservation of bread

Eating fresh bread is always a delight, the crust crumbles deliciously, you take full advantage of the taste of your bread (80% of this taste is in the crust), it is a fleeting moment to enjoy. Who hasn't already eaten the crouton or croutons of his baguette, on the way back from the bakery? ...
June 11^th 202211 K4.7

When I was a kid, I didn't like...

Maybe you've already made this strange observation: when you were a kid, there were things you hated, but as an adult it's almost the opposite? For example, you used to hate spinach or chicory, but now you love it?
November 5^th 20236,8615

It's spinning too fast!

When you need to grate or slice vegetables, you generally use an electric machine that does all the work: a food processor, a mixer with a "slicer" extension or similar. Are these machines really suitable? Generally speaking, yes of course, but there's one criterion that often poses a problem,...
November 12^th 20237,4605