Natural leaven

(Found inTextsStages)
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 20201.70 M 304.0 7 days 15 min.

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.
May 23^th 20171.21 M 23.8 6 hours 30 min.

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...
February 15^th 2016454 K4.4 7 min.

Pâté de campagne

(Found inTexts)
Here is a personal version of the famous country pâté. It's an interesting recipe to prepare in large quantities because it keeps well and freezes easily. The secret of a good pâté is of course the ingredients, but also how it is cooked.
October 3^rd 20192.08 M 23.7 7 hours 55 min.

Walnut paste

(Found inTextsStages)
Very similar to marzipan (almond paste) in method, walnut paste is very tasty.
February 21^th 2011305 K 63.5 15 min.

How to divide a preparation evenly

(Found inTextsStages)
It often happens in cooking: one makes a cream for 6 people in a saucepan, then the recipe says "divide the cream evenly between the glasses", which usually gets done by eye with varying degrees of success. To divide out the preparation more precisely, here's a simple tip just using weighing scales.
June 3^rd 201156 K5 20 min.

Celeriac soup with mustard

(Found inTexts)
This delicious creamy soup is very quick to make.
May 4^th 2012154 K4.6 45 min.

Fish in a salt crust

(Found inTexts)
Fish cooked in a salt crust is simply baked in the oven, surrounded and completely covered by a layer of coarse salt. This allows the fish to cook gently and it should be eaten as soon as the salt crust is opened. In this version, it is stuffed with lemon and herbs. Using a thermometer is the best...
January 29^th 2012169 K3.8 1 hour 8 min.

Royal icing

(Found inTexts)
Royal icing is a mixture of egg white and icing sugar. From its pasty consistency when fresh, it dries to give a lovely white crust.
February 12^th 2012199 K4.7 15 min.

Brioche galette

(Found inTexts)
This galette (flat cake) is made with brioche dough, stuck with little pieces of butter and sprinkled with sugar.
February 23^th 201295 K4.8 2 hours 3 min.

Pear compote

(Found inTexts)
Stewed pears are not as easy to prepare as stewed apples, as they contain more juice and you risk ending up with more of a coulis than a compote. So here are two simple methods to help you succeed.
April 26^th 2012467 K4.3 40 min.

French-style peas

(Found inTexts)
A traditional French recipe, "Petis pois à la Française", with a personal twist, but very easy to prepare. It is an ideal accompaniment for meat, poultry or even a grilled fillet of fish.
July 15^th 2012165 K3.8 30 min.

Pistachio custard tart

(Found inTexts)
Similar in texture to a classic rich French custard tart, this version has the same sweetcrust pastry case, but the filling has a delicious pistachio flavour, rather than the normal vanilla.
July 13^th 2022122 K 24.3 50 min.

How to rehydrate dried mushrooms

(Found inTexts)
Rehydrating dried mushrooms restoes them to something like their fresh texture, ready to use in a recipe. You will see that there is more to it than simply leaving them to soak in water. At the same time, we can also make a delicious mushroom "jus" to use in recipes. Throughout the recipe, I have...
April 5^th 2017351 K4.8 1 hour 10 min.

Oatmeal cake

(Found inTexts)
This cake has the distinctive and delicious flavour of old-fashioned rolled oats, also known as oatmeal. In the basic cake recipe, part of the flour is replaced with oats, which have been toasted, then blended.
September 20^th 2017104 K 24.2 1 hour 8 min.

Pistachio confectioner's custard

(Found inTexts)
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.
November 21^th 2018213 K4.7 35 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 201963 K2 16 hours 50 min.

Spicy mustard cauliflower cheese

(Found inTexts)
This delicious twist on cauliflower cheese is cooked in 3 stages: the cauliflower is steamed on its own before being fried with the spices. It is then topped with cheese and breadcrumbs, and browned in the oven.
May 24^th 202048 K 1 hour 1 min.

Apricot jam with vanilla

(Found inTextsStages)
A really flavoursome apricot jam, minimally sweetened, with a hint of vanilla and the discreet crunch of the almond-like kernels.
July 12^th 202333 K 4 hours 55 min.

Spicy roast cauliflower gratin

(Found inTexts)
The cauliflower in this recipe is cooked two different ways: first oven-roasted with chilli spices, then finished with a creamy gratin topping, made with its own trimmings.
March 20^th 202227 K1 1 hour 25 min.

Information on weights and measures in the kitchen

The way ingredients are described in a recipe varies from country to country. This difference, which is quite profound, relates not only to units of measurement, but also to the way in which they are measured: weight or volume. Let's take a look.
August 22^th 2024825 K3.7

Foie gras proportions calculator

Small foie gras calculator, to find the right proportions of spices and alcohol needed according to weight.
December 17^th 2024842 K5

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.
August 29^th 2023217 K 44.2

Making your own bread

You'll find a whole range of bread and pastry recipes on this site, but before you get started, perhaps you'd like to know more about the subject, get some tips and tricks, and find out what the main mistakes beginners make? If so, this page is for you.
August 22^th 2024568 K 63.9

Recipes

A recipe is really quite a simple thing (or should be): a list of ingredients, a method, and that's all there is to it. Unfortunately its not always the case. Sometimes you might get the impression that a recipe, found in a magazine or on a web site, has been concocted especially to make you fail:...
June 3^rd 2024175 K3.6

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 2024148 K 24.1

Polynesian arrow

A Polynesian arrow is an arrow with a tail that is thrown by hand, using a piece of string. The result is a "slingshot" effect that propels the arrow much further than if it were simply thrown by hand.It's a craft to do with children, for example on an afternoon when they're a bit idle...
August 29^th 2023195 K 14.3

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 2024735 K 413.6

A memo of utensil weights

You will no doubt have come across this problem while cooking: after starting a recipe, when you already have some ingredients in a pan and have maybe cooked them, you need to know the weight of the pan's contents so that you can take half out, or add the same weight of sugar, for example.
May 9^th 201125 K4.6

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 202063 K4.3

Butter doesn't make you fat, unless you eat too much of it.

Whenever I'm discussing cooking and recipes, there is one idea which comes up frequently, like this: "Oh no! But that's got butter in it" (I should add, for the sake of accuracy, that this is something I hear more frequently from women, who are almost all concerned with keeping their figure). ...
March 26^th 201240 K4.5

Foie gras without force-feeding: it can be done

I adore foie gras... I willingly admit it, I adore foie gras: the texture, the taste, the festive aspect – I enjoy all of it. I really love eating it, preparing it and, most of all, sharing what I have made with my family over Christmas and New Year. ...but then I begin to have doubts Of...
December 15^th 201446 K4.4

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...
January 30^th 201558 K4.0

5 really useful cooking tips

Cooking is about recipes, of course, but it is also an impressive collection of small gestures, ways of doing things, knowing what to do and what not to do. All these little tips and tricks can be very important: they can affect the way a recipe turns out, simply because you did just the right...
March 29^th 201621 K4.9

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 2017108 K4.5

There is vanilla and vanilla

The vanilla is a delicious taste that can be found in many many dessert recipes, creams (the cream and the cream for example), ice creams, but also cakes and entremets. Whenever you need to add this vanilla note, you have several possible choices because vanilla is commercially available in...
December 14^th 20179,8865

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 201818 K4.4

85 grams of eggs?

Some time ago, I already spoke to you about the difference between baking and pastry-making, I emphasized, among other things, the precision of pastry-making which requires grams, cm, degrees and minutes. That's why, on the one hand, you have baking and cooking, where a certain tolerance is...
November 26^th 201850 K4.6

Brioche for a savoury recipe

When we make brioche, it is generally sweet, that is to say that in the dough there is sugar or honey or dried or candied fruits, or even sometimes the 3 together. It's normal, it's very good, it's a pastry. But you may also need brioche for a savoury dish, like a sausage or a sausage in brioche...
June 30^th 201910 K4.9

The right way to cook potatoes

If you simply boil them (not steam them), or bake them in the oven, at some point you will have to ask yourself the question "are they well cooked?".
March 23^th 202013 K4.7

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 202010 K4.9

A little sugar anyway

I'm coming back to something I've already told you about, but which focused on brioche dough, so I'll try to generalize about these doughs, which are generally sweet, but can also be used in savory recipes.
November 14^th 20204,3645

Thermal inertia or "out of the fire"

When you're cooking, you need a lot of heat to cook, and most of the time it's on the fire, literally if you're on gas, more indirectly if you're not. An expression that comes up quite often is "Off the heat", but what does it really mean?
December 12^th 20207,3354.6

The perfect boiled egg

Making boiled eggs is always a delight and it pleases the young and old alike. This little transgenerational side puts them on the list of "things to do on Sunday evening when you don't know what to do" in many families (including mine)... That said, it's not that simple, you have to pay...
January 30^th 202115 K4.7

Sugar syrups

In cooking, and especially in pastry, we often use sugar syrups, a simple mixture of water and sugar in varying proportions. Here is a presentation of their differences. .
January 17^th 20238,6564.8

Divide and weigh dough into regular pieces

When you prepare dough for cupcakes in a pastry shop or bakery, at some point you're going to have to divide it, i.e. cut it into small pieces, which should all have the same weight. Sounds simple enough, but is it really that simple?
May 30^th 20237,6575

Pastry doughs

To make a classic tart, you'll need a pastry of course, and if you don't use puff pastry (normally reserved for "fine", in french, tarts), you'll have a choice of shortcrust, shortbread, sweetcrust or "à foncer". Let's take a look at the differences between these four.
August 16^th 20245,4194.4