Millefeuille in France is sold in abundance in stores in frozen form, like, say, dumplings in Russia. True, the most delicious mille feuilles can be tasted in restaurants. For example, in the famous Cafe de la Paix (15 €) or in the Hugo & Victor confectionery, where any mille-feuille, at the request of the guest, will be prepared in 15 minutes.

Macaron

Crispy on top, soft on the inside – these little colorful almond cakes with a creamy filling have captured the hearts of sweet tooths around the world. Today, more than 500 different types are already known, but French confectioners never tire of coming up with new, most incredible flavors: violet, mint, grenadine, lily of the valley, gingerbread - it seems there is no limit to imagination!

The famous Parisian confectionery Laduree is most famous for its macarons. You can - the cakes are packaged in beautiful multi-colored boxes. A package with 6 macarons costs 17 €, and with 24 – 54 €.

Macarons are so popular in France that more than 15 thousand pastries are sold in Paris every day. Meanwhile, they were brought to the country by Italian chefs in the 18th century. Back then it was a single cookie made from almond flour. Only in the 20th century, the Frenchman Pierre Defontaine, the grandson of the owner of Laduree, began to glue the halves together using cream.

Tarte Tatin

French apple upside down pie is quite easy to make. First, apples with sugar are placed on the bottom of the mold, filled with dough, and after cooking, turned over. As the hot pie cools, a delicious caramel apple crust forms on the top.

For the first time such a dessert in France was accidentally prepared at the end of the 19th century by Stéphanie Tatin, a simple hotel owner from Lamotte-Beuvron. Today it is a specialty of the local Hotel Tatin, and the recipe for the pie has spread throughout the world. Tarts are baked not only with various fruits, but even with vegetables: onions, eggplants, tomatoes.

Tarte Tatin is included in the menu of many cafes and restaurants in Paris; the cost per serving is on average 8-9 €.

There are so many delicious and interesting desserts in France that you can list them endlessly. Those with a sweet tooth will definitely like:

• blanc-manger;
• canelé;
• clafoutis;
• shodo (chaudeau);
• soufflé;
• crêpes Suzette;
• petits fours.

French recipes have been perfected over thousands of years and have become real standards of confectionery art. The simplest buns, pancakes and pies in the hands of skilled craftsmen in the country become role models. And if you want to get to know France better, start with its desserts.

France is a whole world of artists, fashion designers and chefs, a country of emotions, beauty and romance. And French desserts are the embodiment of all the best in France. Having tried French sweets at least once, you become a connoisseur and admirer of all French cuisine for the rest of your life. But one life is not enough even for a quick acquaintance with the huge variety of French dishes and their regional varieties. Most of them can only be prepared in their homeland, because the products used by French chefs and pastry chefs cannot be found in our stores... However, some French desserts can be successfully prepared in any part of the world. “Culinary Eden” will introduce you to them.

Mousse

Let's start with the lowest calorie dessert. Mousse can be prepared using any juice, wine, chocolate, or coffee. The main thing is to fix its foamy consistency. For example, like this:

Ingredients:
4 apples,
200 ml water,
100 g sugar,
2 tbsp. lemon juice,
2 tbsp. corn starch.

Preparation:
Finely chop the apples, place in a thick-walled pan, add sugar and add water. Cook over low heat until softened, then add starch, stir thoroughly, pour in lemon juice and leave to cool. Beat the mixture in a blender, place in bowls and keep in the refrigerator until serving.

Shodo

This ancient French dessert surprises with its simplicity and sophistication. You just need a little bit: yolks, sugar and wine. All ingredients are whipped in a water bath until a smooth structure is obtained. It turns out to be a kind of alcoholic eggnog that French brides prepared for their grooms. By the way, in the “Book of Tasty and Healthy Food,” eggnog is prepared with wine, like French Chaudo.

One of Pushkin’s favorite dishes, delicate jelly made from cow’s or almond milk. Today, blancmange is often prepared with gelatin - this makes the dish solemn and festive. But we recommend that you first try blancmange according to the original recipe, the way Alexander Sergeevich loved it.

Ingredients:
1 liter of milk,
0.5 l cream,
1 cup crushed nuts (hazelnuts, almonds, walnuts, cashews),
3 tbsp. rice flour,
sugar, spices (nutmeg, vanilla, lemon zest) - to taste.

Preparation:
Dissolve flour in a glass of cold milk. Boil the rest of the milk and cream, add the nuts and gradually pour in the mixture of milk and flour, stirring constantly. Add sugar, spices and cook over low heat until thickened, without boiling. You can add berries, fruits, cocoa, rum, liqueur, and mint to the finished dessert.

This dessert is perfection itself, as its name clearly indicates (parfait - impeccable). Its composition differs little from blancmange, and freezing makes it perfect. There are recipes for gelatin parfaits, but they cannot be called completely perfect. Let's prepare French parfait for real:

Ingredients:
140 g heavy cream,
50 g milk,
8 g natural ground coffee,
2 yolks,
1 tbsp. Sahara.

Preparation:
Pour coffee into milk, boil and leave to cool. Grind the yolks with sugar, gradually pour coffee milk into them, simmer over low heat until thickened. When the mixture has cooled, fold it into the whipped cream, pour into molds or bowls and freeze. Serve with fruits, berries, chocolate, caramel, liqueur.

This French dessert is also prepared by beating eggs with various flavorings, but unlike shodo and parfait, it can be sweet (from cottage cheese, jam, bananas, chocolate) or savory (from cheese, vegetables, mushrooms, meat). A distinctive feature of the soufflé is that it must be eaten immediately after preparation, as it falls off after 15-20 minutes. It is believed that only the most talented confectioners can prepare soufflé at home. In fact, it just requires precision, patience and the best ingredients. Let's prepare, for example, a chocolate soufflé:

Ingredients:
50 ml heavy cream,
100 g dark chocolate with cocoa content greater than 70%,
10 g butter,
2 eggs,
1 tbsp. Sahara,
a few drops of lemon juice.

Preparation:
Prepare ceramic soufflé molds in advance: grease the entire inner surface with butter and sprinkle with sugar. The indicated quantity is enough for 2 molds with a volume of about 200 ml. Preheat the oven to 190°C, carefully separate the whites from the yolks.

Melt the chocolate in a water bath, add butter and cream, stirring constantly. When the chocolate has melted, turn off the flame and beat the yolks into the mixture. Separately, beat the whites with lemon juice, then add sugar and continue beating until stiff peaks form. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate mixture and pour the mixture into the molds, leaving about a quarter of the volume empty. (At this stage, the soufflé can be refrigerated for 3-4 days, which allows you to prepare it for the holiday in advance.) Bake the soufflé for about 15 minutes at 190°C until it rises above the pan. Serve in ramekins.

This French dessert is very similar to its predecessors - parfait and soufflé. The difference is that before serving it is set on fire with a special torch to obtain a caramel crust. No torch? It doesn’t matter, caramel also turns out well in a top-heated oven.

Ingredients:
8 yolks,
0.3 cups sugar or powdered sugar,
2 cups heavy cream (30%),
1 tsp vanilla extract or vanillin on the tip of a knife,
3 tbsp. sugar for caramel.

Preparation:
Preheat the oven to 160°C. Mix the yolks and sugar until the sugar is completely dissolved and a light mass is obtained, add cream and vanilla and mix thoroughly. Pour the cream into 6 molds, place them in a baking tray filled with water and place in a preheated oven for 50-60 minutes. The edges should harden, but the middle should remain liquid. Remove the molds from the oven and cool directly on the baking sheet. (The cream can sit at this stage for 2 hours to 2 days.) Before serving, sprinkle each serving with sugar and place in a top-heat oven for a few minutes.

This amazing dish is simultaneously reminiscent of a pie, an omelet and filled pancakes. Classic clafoutis is prepared exclusively with cherries, and for all other fillings the French came up with the word “Flaugnarde”. Once upon a time, clafoutis cherries were not pitted to preserve their juiciness and amazing aroma during baking. If you want, prepare both options - with and without seeds - and compare the result.

Ingredients:
700 g cherries,
4 eggs,
100 g flour,
150 g sugar,
400 ml milk,
2 tbsp. butter,
1 tbsp. amaretto or cherry liqueur,
salt to taste.

Preparation:
Pour 100 g of sugar over the cherries. Mix the remaining 50 g of sugar with flour and salt, add eggs, half the milk and butter and mix until smooth. Add the remaining milk and leave the dough for 20-30 minutes, then add the liqueur. Preheat the oven to 200ºC, grease the baking dish with the remaining butter and sprinkle with sugar. Drain the juice from the cherries, place them in a mold and fill with dough. Bake the clafoutis for 15 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180ºC and bake for another 20-25 minutes.

The name of these miniature cakes promises benefits and benefits (profiterole, profit). Not surprisingly, just a few balls of choux pastry with sweet or savory filling - and your hunger will be gone. We will tell you how to prepare sweet profiteroles with simple butter cream.

Ingredients:
For the test:
100 g butter,
1 cup flour,
1 glass of water,
4 eggs,
a pinch of salt.

For cream:
200 g butter,
100 g condensed milk.

Preparation:
Salt the water, add oil, bring to a boil, add flour and immediately turn off the heat. Quickly knead the dough until it sticks to the sides of the pan. Beat the eggs into the dough one at a time, beating with a mixer after each addition. The dough is ready. Place it in two spoons on a baking sheet, greased or lined with paper, forming balls. Leave large gaps between them - the balls will grow 2-3 times. Place the profiteroles in an oven preheated to 200ºC for 10 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 180ºC and bake for another 15-20 minutes until golden brown.

Wait until the profiteroles have cooled, and at this time prepare the cream: beat the softened butter until white, gradually add condensed milk, without stopping whisking. The cream should be airy and homogeneous. Fill the profiteroles with cream using a pastry syringe and store in the refrigerator.

They are prepared according to the same recipe, but placed on a baking sheet in the form of tongues and filled with whipped cream or custard.

Croquembouche- This is a celebratory dessert, which in France is usually prepared for a wedding table. Essentially, this is a mountain of profiteroles held together with cream or caramel. Croquembouche can be decorated with anything: fruits, berries, nuts, chocolate, caramel threads, marzipan, candied flowers - your imagination is unlimited.

Everyone knows that the word “meringue” means “kiss.” But that’s what they called it in Switzerland, and the French, who know a lot about kisses, don’t associate them with desserts. They have another word for sweets made from proteins and sugar - meringues. The meringue (or meringue) recipe is simple and complex at the same time. Judge for yourself:

Ingredients:
4 squirrels,
200 g sugar,
a pinch of salt.

Preparation:
Place the cooled egg whites in a large cup, add salt and start beating, gradually adding sugar and increasing the power of the mixer. You should get a dense, homogeneous foam. Place it in a pastry bag and place it in pyramids on a baking sheet greased or lined with baking paper. Place the meringues in an oven preheated to 200ºC for 5-7 minutes, then reduce the temperature to 100ºC and bake for another 40-50 minutes. Do not open the oven until the oven is fully cooked, which can be determined by the golden brown color of the tops.

You can make a lot of pastries and cakes based on meringue, but for some reason this simple French dessert remains unnoticed. Let's restore justice and prepare him. Moreover, you don’t need to bake anything; the tender and airy meringue islands are poached in milk.

Ingredients:
For islands:
3 squirrels,
4 tbsp. Sahara.

For cream:
3 yolks,
60 g sugar,
0.5 l milk,
Vanilla or vanillin to taste.

Preparation:
Beat the egg whites and sugar with a mixer until they form sharp peaks. For protein resistance, you can add a little citric acid and then gradually introduce sugar. Heat the milk and vanilla to a temperature that your hand can withstand, remove from the heat and spoon a portion of the protein into it. After 2 minutes, turn them over to the other side and hold for another 2 minutes. The islands are ready. Place them on a paper towel and place them in the refrigerator.

Let's move on to making the sea: beat the yolks and sugar and gradually, without stopping whisking, add the milk in which the islands were prepared. Place the cream over low heat and stir constantly with a wooden spoon until thickened. Do not let it boil! Cool the finished cream, put it in the refrigerator, and then pour into bowls or bowls, lay out the islands, decorate with nuts or chocolate and serve.

This dish proves that even stupid cooking mistakes can lead to very interesting results. Stephanie Tatin either dropped the finished apple pie, or forgot to put the first layer of dough, or forgot the caramel apples on the stove and, to hide the burnt smell, covered them with dough and put them in the oven. Be that as it may, it turned out to be an open upside-down pie. Prepared simply:

Ingredients:
For filling:
1.5 kg of hard apples,
150 g butter,
100 g sugar.

For the test:
1 cup flour,
100 g butter,
1 tbsp. Sahara,
a pinch of salt.

Preparation:
Let's start with the filling. In a cast iron skillet, melt the butter, add the sugar and cook over low heat until browned and smelling caramel. Don't stir! Peel the apples, cut into thin slices, place in dense rows in the caramel and continue to simmer over low heat until the apples soften.

Leave the caramel to cool while you prepare the dough. Mix flour with sugar and salt. Finely chop the butter and rub into the flour to form fine crumbs. Add 2-3 tablespoons of cold water to form an elastic dough. Roll out a circle with a diameter slightly larger than the shape, cover the apples with it and tuck the edges. Bake the pie for 20 minutes at 200ºC. When the cake has cooled slightly, cover the pan with a plate, turn it over and remove the pan.

Remember that French desserts are extremely high in calories, and getting carried away with them is dangerous. This is the French paradox - despite the fact that everything is so tasty, rich in fat and sugar, the French, and especially French women, remain slim and elegant. What's the mystery? Scientists have not yet reached a consensus. Perhaps in small portions and the ability to enjoy the taste, or perhaps in exclusively natural products and a balanced diet. If you want to eat French desserts more often and without harming your figure, have a very small spoon, buy only the best and freshest products and make vegetables the basis of your daily diet.

French desserts are probably the best thing about French dishes. If you try French desserts at least once, you will remain a connoisseur of all French cuisine for the rest of your life.

But even if you always eat only French food, life is not enough to try everything. Moreover, some of the confectionery products can be prepared directly in France, since our country does not have the necessary products.

Everything made in France is made with love, and so are the desserts. These dishes can be prepared to impress your loved one. You can also stand at the stove together and create a masterpiece together.

The main desserts of the French village are Clafoutis - these are desserts with berries. Fresh berries contain a wide variety of vitamins and minerals. Although it would be stupid to constantly offer raspberries, blackberries or blueberries. Thus, it is possible to prepare various dishes from these berries. The French, for example, came up with the idea of ​​preparing clafoutis, which are very simple in their execution and in essence. This dish is a rustic dish and is something between a pie and a sweet casserole. Examples of French dessert are also chocolate truffles, creme brulee, profiteroles and others.

Ingredients:

• fresh raspberries – 0.5 kg
• granulated sugar – 5 tbsp.
• wheat flour – 100 g
• salt - a pinch
• chicken eggs – 4 pcs.
• milk – 2 cups
• melted butter - 1 tbsp.
• ice cream sundae – several scoops

First you need to add three tablespoons of sugar to fresh raspberries. If you don't have fresh raspberries, you can use frozen ones. Prepare a deep bowl and mix flour, two tablespoons of sugar and a pinch of salt in it. Beat the eggs thoroughly and add to the flour. You also need to add milk and butter, but the butter should be melted before use. Mix everything in a bowl until smooth, cover with a towel and leave for a while at room temperature.

At this time, drain the juice from the raspberries. Ah, place the berries on the bottom of the mold, just grease the mold with butter before doing this.

Then you need to fill the raspberries with dough. Preheat the oven to 200 degrees and place the pan with the pie to bake for about 20 minutes. Then reduce the temperature in the oven to 180 degrees and bake for another 20 minutes until golden brown. This pie should be served with a scoop of ice cream.

French chocolate dessert

Ingredients:

• heavy cream – 300 ml
• vanilla - 1 pod
• dark dark chocolate – 250 g
• chocolate – 200 g
• cocoa powder - as needed

First of all, pour the cream into a saucepan, add the cut vanilla pod and put on fire. When the cream boils, remove it from the heat and remove the vanilla pod. Leave the cream to cool.

At this time, you need to melt 250 dark chocolate in a water bath. and put it in the refrigerator to harden. When the mixture hardens, you need to roll into small balls. Then melt another 200 grams of chocolate and carefully dip each ball, and then immediately roll it in cocoa powder.

Place the finished candies in the refrigerator to harden for a while.

Classic dessert with mascarpone

Ingredients:

• puff pastry – 250 g
• mascarpone cheese – 500 g
• natural fermented milk yogurt – 2 jars
• powdered sugar – 100 g
• vanilla - as needed
• butter for frying
• strawberries - several pieces

The puff pastry needs to be laid out on the table and rolled out in one direction. Cut out nine identical squares. Melt butter in a frying pan. Sprinkle the dough with sugar and place it in the pan. on both sides until golden brown. Place the finished squares on a paper towel and cool.

To prepare the cream, you need mascarpone, powdered sugar, yogurt and a little vanilla. First you need to put the first cake layer, put strawberries on it, fill it with cream and cover with the second cake layer.

Ingredients:

• apples – 4 pcs.
• water – 200 ml
• granulated sugar – 100 g
• juice from lemons – 2 tbsp.
• corn starch – 2 tbsp.

First you need to peel the apples, cut out the core and cut the pulp into small pieces. Then put the apples in a saucepan, cover with sugar, add water and cook. When the apples are soft, add cornstarch and lemon juice and leave to cool. Beat the whole mass with a blender and place in bowls. Place the apple dessert in the refrigerator to harden before serving.

Nut dessert

Ingredients:

• milk – 1 l
• cream – 0.5 l
• chopped nuts – 1 cup
• rice flour - 3 tbsp.
• granulated sugar - to taste
• vanilla
• lemon zest

First you need to dilute the flour in a glass of cool milk. Combine the rest of the milk with the cream, stir and bring to a boil. As for nuts, you can use various nuts - almonds, walnuts, hazelnuts and any others. Grind the nuts and add to the milk and cream. Then evenly and slowly pour in the milk and flour, stirring constantly.

Then add sugar and all other spices and cook over low heat until thickened, just do not allow it to boil.

Simple French dessert

Ingredients:

• heavy cream – 150 g
• milk – 50 ml
• natural ground coffee – 9 g
• egg yolks – 2 pcs.
• granulated sugar – 1 tbsp.

The milk needs to be poured into a saucepan and set to cook. When the milk and coffee boil, leave it to cool.

Grind the yolks with sugar and add coffee milk to them. Put everything on the fire and cook until thickened.

Whip the cream and add a mixture of coffee milk and yolks to it. Mix everything and put it into molds, and then put it in the freezer to freeze.

Ingredients:

• heavy cream – 50 ml.
• dark chocolate – 100 g
• butter – 15 g
• chicken eggs – 2 pcs.
• granulated sugar – 1 tbsp.
• lemon juice - a few drops

First you need to prepare clay molds and grease them with butter and sprinkle with sugar.

Beat chicken eggs with sugar and mix with dark chocolate melted in a water bath. Whip the cream and add to the previous ingredients. Also add lemon juice and mix everything thoroughly. Place in greased pans and place in a preheated oven. When the soufflé is ready, take it out and eat it immediately, as the soufflé will settle after 15 minutes.

Vanilla dessert

Ingredients:

• yolks – 8 pcs.
• granulated sugar – 0.3 cups
• heavy cream – 2 cups
• vanilla sugar – 1 tsp.
• granulated sugar for caramel – 3 tbsp.

First you need to preheat the oven to 180 degrees. Then combine the yolks with sugar and beat until smooth. Then add heavy cream and vanilla sugar. You can use vanilla extract or vanillin, only on the tip of a knife, as the vanillin will be more concentrated.

Prepare the molds and pour the entire prepared mixture into them. Pour water onto a baking sheet and place the molds in the water. Place the pan in the oven for 50 minutes.

When finished, the dessert will have hard edges and a runny middle. Remove the creme brulee from the oven and cool in the pan. Before serving, sprinkle sugar on top and place in the oven with top heat for a few minutes.

Cherry dessert

Ingredients:

• cherries – 700 g
• chicken eggs – 4 pcs.
• flour – 100 g
• milk – 400 ml.
• granulated sugar – 150 g
• butter – 2 tbsp.
• cherry liqueur – 2 tbsp.
• salt - a pinch

Cherries should be mixed with 100 g of granulated sugar and left for a while. Combine the rest of the sugar with flour and salt. You also need to add 200 ml of milk, eggs and butter, and then mix everything until smooth.

After this, you need to add the rest of the milk and leave for about 20 minutes, and then add the cherry liqueur. The oven should be preheated to 200 degrees, and the baking dish should be greased with the remaining butter and sprinkled with sugar.

Drain the juice from the cherries and place on the bottom of the mold, and pour the prepared dough on top. Place the pan with the clafoutas in the oven and bake for about 15 minutes. Then reduce the temperature to 180 degrees and bake for about 25 minutes.

Ingredients:

• butter – 100 g
• wheat flour – 100 g
• water – 1oo g
• chicken eggs – 4 pcs.
• salt - a pinch
• butter for cream – 200 g
• condensed milk – 100 g

Pour water into a saucepan, add salt and butter, and then bring everything to a boil. Then add flour and immediately turn off the heat. After this, knead the dough until the dough sticks to the sides of the bowl. Add eggs one at a time and beat constantly with a mixer.

Line a baking sheet with parchment paper and spoon out the dough using two spoons. The dough should form balls. You just need to lay it out so that there is free space between the balls, as the dough will double in size. Place the balls in the oven preheated to 200 degrees for 10 minutes. When the balls are ready, they will turn golden brown.

At this time, you need to prepare the cream. To do this, beat the softened butter until white and add condensed milk in small portions, whisking constantly. Using a pastry syringe, fill the profiteroles with cream.

Light French dessert

Ingredients:

• egg whites – 4 pcs.
• granulated sugar – 200 g
• salt - a pinch

The whites must first be cooled and then beaten with a mixer, gradually adding granulated sugar and increasing the speed of the mixer. After whipping, you should get a dense foam. This foam should be placed in a pastry bag or syringe, and then squeezed onto a baking sheet covered with parchment paper. The oven should be preheated to 200 degrees and bake the meringues for 5 minutes, then reduce the heat to 100 degrees and bake for another 50 minutes without opening the oven.

Dessert with cream

Ingredients:

• egg whites – 3 pcs.
• granulated sugar – 4 tbsp.
• egg yolks – 3 pcs.
• granulated sugar – 60 g
• milk – 500 ml.
• vanillin - to taste

The whites must be thoroughly beaten with sugar until stiff foam. Milk must be mixed with vanilla and put on fire. Heat the milk a little, and then spoon the whipped whites into the warm milk. After two minutes, turn the whites over to the other side and keep them in the milk for a little longer. Then place the balls on a paper towel, cool and put in the refrigerator.

To prepare the cream, you need to beat the yolks with sugar and, without stopping whisking, add milk. Then the cream must be put on low heat, stirring constantly until it thickens. The finished cream should be placed in the refrigerator, and before serving, place egg white balls into the cream.

France is truly deservedly famous for its exquisite cuisine, in which all kinds of desserts occupy a special place of honor. These delicacies simply melt in your mouth, and no celebration would be complete without them. Many sweets, such as the familiar eclairs, creme brulee, and soufflé, are known all over the world. What else can French cuisine please those with a sweet tooth?

Meringue, meringue – Meringue

The name translates from French as “kiss,” and indeed, this light and airy dessert of baked egg whites whipped with added sugar is so tender that it resembles the light touch of a loved one’s lips.

Meringue can be served as an independent dish, or used as decoration for other confectionery products. The method of preparation also differs, for example, the Italian dessert is prepared with boiling sweet sugar syrup, while the Swiss version is supposed to be whipped over a water bath. As a general rule, the finished meringue should be dry and crispy. Usually the sweetness is white if no additional additives or colorings were used during preparation.

Blanc-manger

This dessert looks like a sweet jelly made from regular cow's or almond milk and is served cold. The dessert usually also includes rice flour or starch, as well as spices and sugar. Sometimes additives are used - candied fruits, nuts. The exact history of the origins of blancmange is unknown, but it is assumed that the appearance of the dessert dates back to the early Middle Ages, around the end of the 12th century.


If we translate the name from French, it literally means white food. Indeed, desserts made with milk are usually white.

Mousse

Traditional French mousse is considered an important dish of national cuisine and was always served at every royal meal. To create a dessert, you need a base that will create aroma and taste - this could be, for example, berry juice, fruit puree, chocolate.


Then add ingredients that promote the appearance of foam - proteins, gelatin, agar. To enhance the sweetness, honey, sugar or molasses can be added to the composition. Finally, the mousse is decorated with sprinkles, berries, and whipped cream.

Grillage

From French, grillage translates as “roasting”; this is how this dessert is prepared; it is fried nuts with added sugar.


The ancestor of grilled meats is eastern halva. The dessert itself comes in two types, the first - soft, in addition to the base, may include the addition of fruit and pieces of crushed nuts, and caramel or hard roasted - these are individual nuts that are filled with melted sugar and later it hardens. What’s interesting is that although France is considered the birthplace of this dessert, the largest amount of grilled meats and grilled products are produced in Russia.

Calisson

This traditional dessert is made from almond mass with various additives. The top is covered with white glaze and has a diamond shape. According to the legend about the origin of the calissons, one day the king decided to marry a modest and pious girl, but she was so serious that even the wedding celebration did not make her smile.

She was offered to try an almond dessert, after which she finally smiled and asked her husband what these wonderful sweets were called. From an excess of feelings, the king exclaimed - these are kisses! In French it sounded like “ce sont des calins”, and the name of the dessert came from this phrase.

Canele

The soft tender dough of this dessert is flavored with vanilla and rum, and the sweetness is covered with a crispy caramel crust. The shape of the dessert resembles a small cylinder, approximately 5 cm in height. The authors of the recipe are considered to be nuns from the Monastery of the Annunciation.

In addition, the dessert has a rich past, it even caused a historical conflict between pastry chefs and canoliers - artisans who were engaged only in the production of canelé.

Clafoutis

The dessert resembles a combination of casserole and pie at the same time. Various fruits are first placed in a baking dish, then the sweet egg-based batter is evenly poured over them and baked in the oven. The classic version of the dessert is cherry, and the cherries were taken with pits.

It was believed that this way the juice in the berry was better preserved, and the dessert acquired a slightly bitter aroma of almonds. However, nowadays they use canned pitted cherries, as well as peaches, apples, and pears, which are cut into small cherry-sized pieces.

Creme brulee

This dessert is prepared from yolks, cream and sugar, mixed with milk, and then baked, resulting in an appetizing and crispy caramel crust on the surface. It should be served chilled. It is noteworthy that there is still controversy about the true origin of creme brulee.


The French attribute the authorship of the recipe to the chef François Messialot, but the British are sure that it was they who first prepared creme brulee at Trinity College. It is not yet clear which of the two nations is right, but both of them equally love this dessert, and it is very popular in the world.

Croquembouche

It looks like a cone consisting of profiteroles with filling, held together by sweet sauce or caramel. The top of the croquembouche is usually decorated in every possible way - with almonds, fruits, caramel. It is considered a festive dish, served at Christmas, weddings or baptisms.


The traditional French dessert is so popular that references to it can be found in many TV series, both foreign and Russian, and even in Japanese animated cartoons. The name of the dessert translates to “crisp in the mouth,” and indeed, the caramel crust is sweet and crunchy.

Madeleine

These are biscuit cookies made in the shape of seashells. In addition to the usual ingredients, a little rum is added to the dough. The cookies turn out sweet and crumbly. According to legend, one day the cook in the royal kitchen fell ill, but the guests demanded dessert. One of the maids prepared simple shell cookies, which suddenly created a real sensation, and their recipe spread throughout all the kitchens of Paris.


The cookies were named after that maid - Madeleine. These sweets became even more famous due to the fact that they were mentioned by M. Proust in his world-famous novel, in one of the important plot scenes. One of the philosophers who studied Proust's work also paid attention to the role of these cookies in the plot.

Macaron

They said about this dessert that you can’t eat it, because once you start, it’s impossible to stop. Indeed, these cookies made from proteins, sugar and almonds with a layer of cream have an unforgettable taste. The pasta has a crispy crust on top, and a tender and soft part inside.


The dessert is very popular all over the world; modern chefs have already invented about 500 variations of pasta with a wide variety of, sometimes exotic, tastes and, it seems, they are not going to stop there.

Parfait

The name of the delicate dessert parfait translates as “immaculate.” This delicacy made from whipped cream with sugar and vanilla truly has an exquisite taste and rightfully takes its place among the best desserts of French cuisine.


To give it a certain aroma, berries or fruits, chocolate, coffee, and cocoa are added to the composition. Interestingly, in addition to sweet versions of parfait, there are also recipes with vegetables or liver, but in any case, the dish remains fluffy and tender, reminiscent of mousse in consistency.

Profiteroles – Profiterole

Small pastries made from choux pastry usually have a cream filling and can be served either as a separate dessert or as part of a confectionery product, such as croquembouche. There are also unsweetened versions of profiteroles, which are usually served with soups. The name itself can be translated as “small valuable acquisition.”


And, indeed, despite their small size - no more than 4 cm in diameter, profiteroles are highly valued all over the world solely due to their excellent taste.

Petits fours

In fact, this is not just one dessert, but an assortment of tiny cakes. They are usually prepared from the same dough, but they use different fillers and additives, and they also differ in their shape. Petit fours appeared in the Middle Ages, when ovens were huge, took a long time to heat up, which required a lot of firewood, and cooled down slowly.


To use this rationally, they came up with tiny cakes that were quickly baked in a cooling oven and did not require re-ignition.

Christmas log – Bûche de Noël

This Christmas cake is usually baked in the shape of a log and is a type of roll, which makes the cut of the cake roughly resemble the cut of a tree trunk and its ring. The dough for such a cake is sponge cake, and the finished delicacy is decorated with white powdered sugar, which in this case symbolizes snow, and small mushroom figures - they can be made from marzipan.


The shape of this cake originates from pagan traditions, when on the winter holiday of Yule, which fell around the time of Christmas, it was necessary to burn a log in the fireplace. This symbolized the increase in the length of the day, and the arrival of the light season.

Savarin

Savarin looks like a large ring-shaped cake soaked in syrup. The cake can also be covered with jam, soaked in wine or rum, decorated with icing and filled with fruit, as well as other variations in preparation.

Compared to others, this dessert was invented recently - in the 19th century, by the Julien brothers and was considered at that time the best type of confectionery dough. They named their creation in honor of the famous culinary critic, writer and gourmet - J. Brillat-Savorin.

Soufflé

An airy, tender soufflé is a dish for true gourmets. Its base is egg yolks, to which various ingredients can be added, and then whipped whites. The main mixture is usually made with the addition of cottage cheese, chocolate or lemon - it is these components that give the soufflé its exquisite taste.

And whipped whites create airy lightness. Soufflé can be not only a sweet dish, but also mushroom or meat if prepared with bechamel sauce. Many people like this dish, and according to legend, the French King Louis XI required a soufflé for breakfast every morning.

Tarte Tatin

The easiest way to describe this dessert is as an “inside out pie.” To prepare it, apples are separately fried in oil and sugar before baking. There are two versions about the origin of the pie - according to one, when cooking, apples in caramel were placed in the mold, but they forgot to put the dough and, in the end, it ended up on top. Someone claims that the pastry chef simply dropped the finished pie and then collected it as best she could.

Initially, this dessert appeared at the Tatin sisters' hotel, and then the recipe spread to other restaurants, receiving different variations along the way, when other fruits or even vegetables were used instead of filling.

Chaudeau - Chaudeau

The name of this dessert means warm water, it is made in a water bath. The composition includes yolks, grape wine and powdered sugar. All components are thoroughly whipped into foam until it hardens and thickens. It is important that shodo should not be brought to a boil.

Instead of wine, other alcoholic drinks can be used, which significantly changes the taste of the dessert. The dish is considered festive; usually in France, brides prepared it for their wedding and solemnly presented it to their grooms.

Typically, an eclair is an oblong sweet pastry made from choux pastry with a cream filling inside. It can be decorated with sprinkles or icing on top. The creator of the eclair is called M. Careme, but the cake was mentioned before, in English-language literature of the late nineteenth century.

In Germany, eclairs have funny names such as love bone or hare's foot. And translated from French, the word eclair itself means lightning, flash; it was probably named so because the dessert is prepared very quickly, almost with lightning speed.

All these delicacies form the basis of French dessert cuisine. Every self-respecting gourmet should definitely try such sweets; it is simply impossible not to appreciate them; such desserts will bring real taste pleasure.