French croissants

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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 26^th 2019614 K 24.4 2 hours 35 min.

Chocolate rolls (petits pains)

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Here is a recipe for "real" chocolate petits pains, i.e. with a milk bread dough (not croissants dough) and with a stick of chocolate inside.
October 30^th 2021432 K4.6 5 hours 30 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 17^th 2018300 K4.3 2 min.

Brioche Tatin

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For this filled brioche, the apples are cooked separately, as for a tart tatin (caramelized), then sandwiched between two circles of brioche dough.
September 10^th 201873 K3.7 3 hours 25 min.

Nantes Tourton

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The "tourton Nantais" is a sweet loaf from Nantes, somewhere between bread and brioche, but without egg and only a small amount of butter.
September 12^th 201876 K4.3 7 hours 35 min.

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.
November 22^th 201553 K4.1 20 min.

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.
September 10^th 201848 K4.5 2 hours 55 min.

Flaky brownie brioche

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This beautiful brioche contains the typical ingredients you'd expect in a brownie: chocolate, butter, brown sugar and pecan nuts. But these are not just thrown into the mixture; the brioche is layered with them to create a delicious culinary bridge between Europe's viennoiseries and the all-American...
September 12^th 201847 K4.1 16 hours 45 min.

Cramique

(Found inTexts)
Cramique is a kind of brioche from Belgium and northern France, made with raisins and pearl (or nib) sugar. It is traditionally served sliced with butter and jam.
September 12^th 201882 K 13 hours 55 min.

Brioche royale

(Found inTexts)
Brioche royale is a very rich brioche, made with candied fruit, toasted hazelnuts and chocolate chips. Just before baking, it is topped with "macaronade": a macaroon-style mixture of ground almonds and sugar with egg white. This creates a crust when baked and gives the brioche its elegant finish.
May 5^th 201955 K2 16 hours 50 min.

Raisin breads (pains aux raisins)

(Found inTexts)
Raisin breads (pains aux raisins) are one of the three viennoiseries found in all good French bakeries, along with croissants and pains au chocolat. It is a delicate roll of yeast-based flaky dough (the dough of croissants) filled with custard and raisins.
November 27^th 202220 K 2 hours 45 min.

Flaky chocolate brioche

(Found inStages)
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...
November 6^th 202079 K4.5 16 hours 15 min.

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 3^rd 2024726 K 413.6

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 22^th 2024226 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 25^th 2024145 K 24.1

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.
August 29^th 2023169 K 44.1

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 2017122 K 14.1

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 23^th 2021270 K 23.7

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 24^th 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 1^st 201817 K4.4

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 10^th 201814 K5

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 9^th 201928 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 16^th 20209,3934.9

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 27^th 20217,2734.9

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 20219,6294.9

Your oven in "proofer" mode

In the bakery, proofing is a crucial stage in the process of making light, plump breads and pastries. During proofing, the yeast ferments the sugars present in the dough, releasing carbon dioxide which forms bubbles. This process allows the dough to swell and aerate, guaranteeing a soft, light...
September 27^th 20245665