This pear and almond tart or amandine aux poires is also known as Tarte Bourdaloue and was created around 1850 by a Parisian patissier on Rue Bourdaloue – hence the name!  It can be made with fresh pears (ideally poached first) or you can use tinned pears which work perfectly.

Ingredients :

• 1 shortbread pastry
• 100g softened butter
• 100g sugar
• 100g ground almonds
• 2 eggs
• A few drops of almond essence
• Sliced almonds (optional)
• Apricot jelly to glaze*

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 200°C
2. Roll out chilled dough and line tin, place in freezer for 15 minutes
3. Bake the pastry for 10 minutes a 200°C, once removed from the oven lower the temperature to 180°C
4. Cream the butter and sugar
5. Add eggs and almond essence and mix well
6. Mix in the ground almonds
7. Spread the mixture evenly over the pastry base
8. Slice the pear halves in thin slices, place them on the almond mixture
9. Sprinkle the tart with almond slices
10. Bake in oven for 30 minutes

*Glaze : You can heat a few spoons of apricot jelly and brush the top of your tart once it has cooled down to give it a nice shiny look!

This speciality is made with minced meat and hard-boiled eggs. It is known as as a Pâté Berrichon or as a Pâté de Paques (Easter pie) because it is often eaten as Easter. It gets it’s name from the Berry region, which ceased to exist after the French revolution.. Today the departments of L’Indre et le Cher make up most of what was formally the Berry province.

It can be eaten hot or cold but it really is delicious served cold with a green salad.

Ingredients :

• 2 sheets of puff pastry
• 300g sausage meat
• 200g minced veal
• 6 eggs (4 hard-boiled eggs, 1 egg for the pâté, 1 egg yolk for the pastry)
• 50g breadcrumbs
• Parsley
• Salt and pepper
• 1 shallot
• Nutmeg
• Optional : A tablespoon of cognac or of a sweet wine

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Hard boil 4 of the eggs, remove shells
3. Finely chop the shallot and the parsely
4. Mix the meat with the shallot, parsely, one egg (beaten), the breadcrumbs and the alcohol (if using)
5. Season with salt, pepper and nutmeg
6. Pace one sheet of puff pastry and a baking tray covered with parchement paper
7. PLace half of the meat filling down the middle of the pastry
8. Slice the hard boiled eggs in half and place them on the meat face down
9. Cover the eggs with the remaining meat filling
10. Using the remaining puff pastry cover the meat and press down to seal the pastry
11. Brush the pastry with the yolk of the remaining egg
12. Make 2 large incisions in the pastry to allow the steam to escape while cooking
13. Cook in oven at 180°C for 20 minutes and then lower the temp to 150°C and cook for a further 30 minutes

A ficelle picarde is a savoury crepe, from, yep you’ve guessed it, the Picardie region. This a great way to use your crepe batter when everyone has had their fill of sweet crepes ! There are a lot of similar recipes in France that use a béchamel sauce but the real Ficelle Picarde doesn’t. I discovered this recipe when living in Picardie 🙂

Ingredients :

• 6 crepes (pancakes), you’ll find the recipe here
• 6 slices of ham
• 500g button mushrooms
• 400g shallots
• 25g crème fraîche
• 3 tablespoons wine (if you do not wish to use wine you can use some chicken stock instead)
• 50g grated emmenthal (or any hard cheese)
• Salt & pepper

Methods : 

1. Make a duxelles* – clean and chop the mushrooms and the shallots very finely
2. Melt the butter in the pan, add the shallots and sauté for 5 minutes until soft
3. Add the mushrooms and cook over allow to cook for at least 20 minutes until all the liquid has evaporated
4. Pour in the white wine and continue to reduce until the liquid evaporates again
5. Remove from heat and add 2 tablespoons of the crème fraîche
6. Season with salt & pepper
7. Put a slice of ham on each crepe and then place 2 tablespoons of the duxelles mixture down the middle of the crepe
8. Roll the crepe and place in an oven proof dish
9. Repeat with the over crepes and place them all side by side in the dish
10. Spoon the remaining crème fraîche over the crepes and top with the grated cheese
11. Bake for 10-15 minutes at 200°C 
12. Serve hot with a green salad

*Duxelles is a very finely chopped mixture of mushrooms and shallots that are sautéed in butter and reduced to a paste. Famous chef François Pierre La Varenne, chef for the Marquis d’Uxelles created this preparation in his honour in the seventeenth century.

Clafoutis is a baked dessert made with fruit, usually black cherries,  arranged in a buttered dish and covered with a thick batter.

It comes from the Limousin region of France, and while black cherries are traditional, there are numerous variations using other fruits, including plums, which is what I used as they are plentiful at the moment.

Ingredients :

• 600g plums (or whatever fruit you are using)
• 20g butter
• 4 eggs
• 100g brown sugar
• 50g flour
• 10g baking powder
• 250ml pouring cream

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Wash and remove the stone from the plums, then chop in quarters
3. Use the 20g of butter to grease your dish
4. Beat the 4 eggs together and add sugar
5. Sieve in the flour and baking powder and mix well
6. Add in the pouring cream
7. Place the plums on the bottom of the oven dish and cover with the batter
8. PLace in oven and bake for 40 minutes at 180°C

French crepes are thin and delicate pancakes and can be filled with anything you like – nutella, jam, cream, sugar, fruit … 

This recipe can be used immediately after making it. It doesn’t contain sugar because it really is sweet enough when you add your toppings! (This batter can also be used for savoury recipes – coming soon!)

For 600ml of batter (double the ingredients for 1.2 litres)

Ingredients :

• 160g plain flour
• 2 eggs
• A good pinch of salt
• 2 tablespoons of vegetable oil (or melted butter)
• 330ml of milk

Method :

1. In a large bowl, beat eggs and milk together with an electric mixer
2.  Beat in flour and salt until smooth; stir in oil (or butter if using)
3. Heat a lightly frying pan
4. When hot use a ladle to pour the batter onto the pan
5. Tip and rotate pan to spread batter as thinly as possible
6. Brown on both sides and serve

You can add flavours to your crepe mixture such as  a few drops of orange blossom water (my favourite!), rum or orange rind etc

Ok so first things first. This isn’t a french recipe, its Belgian and comes from the Belgian town of Liège. Anyone who has visited Belgium will know that it’s not just famous for its beer and “moules-frites” (mussels and chips) but also for its unbelievably delicious waffles or gaufres !

The main difference between these gaufres and regular waffles is that they are made with a yeast raised dough, not a batter, so rather tan being light and spongy they are dense and rich.

I had been meaning to make these for ages and then finally got around to it today. Funnily enough the Tour de France is going to Liege today so it seems kind of fitting 🙂

Ingredients :

• 20cl lukewarm milk
• 1 sachet of active dry yeast
• 2 large eggs
• 500g plain flour
• 70g brown sugar
• A good pinch of salt
• 1 sachet of vanilla sugar (11g)
• 300g of butter at room temperature
• 150g pearl sugar

Method :

1. In a bowl mix the milk with the dry yeast using a whisk
2. Add in the flour, followed by the eggs, the brown sugar, the salt and the vanilla sugar
3. Mix it all roughly together with the whisk
4. Then either use a mixer with a dough hook or your hands and mix well
5. Chop the softened butter into cubes and add to the dough
6. Again mix either with the mixer or your hands until the dough is smooth and elastic
7. Cover the bowl with plastic film and leave the dough aside for at least 30 minutes
8. Mix in the pearl sugar
9. Form balls of dough
10. Heat your waffle iron and use as per instructions – placing a small round ball of dough in the centre of the waffle plate
11. Cook for 3 minutes approx but keep an eye on them as they can cook a lot quicker!

Enjoy! Sprinkle with icing sugar or another topping of your choice – nutella, whipped cream, ice-cream, salted-butter caramel sauce …..

They can make a really lovely dessert with some vanilla ice-cream and chocolate sauce.

Or cake aux abricots in french! Apricots are plentiful this time of year and this is an easy way to use them to make a cake thats perfect as an afternoon snack.

Ingredients :

• 6 ripe apricots
• 3 large eggs
• 130g softened butter
• 125g sugar
• 1 sachet vanilla sugar
• 250g flour (I replaced half the flour with cornflour as this gives a lighter texture to the cake but just using flour is good too!)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 large pinch of cinnamon

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Wash and dry the apricots, remove the stone and chop
3. Sieve the flour and the baking powder together
4. Use a fork to mash the softened butter until you get a beurre pommade*
5. Mix in the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the cinammon
6. Add in each egg separately, mixing well each time
7. Fold in the flour
8. Add in the chopped apricots
9. Bake in oven for 45 minutes (keep an eye on the cake, it might take less time)

*A beurre pommade is butter that has been let come to room temperature and then mixed with a fork or spoon until you get a spreadable mixture

Ratatouille is a stewed vegetable dish from Provence and mainly thought to be from Nice which is why it is sometimes referred to as ratatouille niçoise. There are dozens of different recipes and I know that a lot of the ‘purists’ opt for cooking each vegetable separately first and then combining them but I love just flinging it all together as a one pot wonder ! Still tastes lovely !

Ingredients :

• Olive oil
• 1 large onion
• 2 cloves of garlic
• 1 aubergine
• 3 or 4 courgettes
• 5 or 6 tomatoes
• 1 red pepper
• 1 yellow pepper
• 1 green pepper
• Garlic
• Salt and pepper
• 1 laurel leaf
• Thyme

Method :

1. Wash and chop all your vegetables
2. Heat 2 tablespoons of olive oil in a large heavy bottomed pan
3. Fry the onions until soft and then add the peppers and continue frying for another 2-3 minutes
4. Add the chopped aubergine, followed by the courgettes
5. Peel the tomatoes (use a sharp knife to slice a shallow X on the bottom of the tomato and then place in boiling water for 30 seconds before transferring to a bowl of ice-cold water)
6. Add the chopped tomatoes to the pan along with the crushed garlic
7. Add salt, pepper, thyme and a laurel leaf, lower to a low to medium heat and allow to simmer for 20-30 minutes
8. Taste and adjust the seasoning

Ratatouille is delicious served with all sorts of meat and fish or with an omelette. It can be eaten hot or cold and tastes even better the next day. It’s a great way to pack lots of veggies into your meal!

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 210°C
2. Melt the butter in a pan until it browns slightly (this gives a nutty flavour to your madeleines and is known as a ‘beurre-noisette’ in french which translates as ‘hazelnut-butter’)
3. Mix the flour with the baking powder and the ground almonds
4. In a bowl gently beat the eggs with the sugar and the vanilla essence
5. Sieve in the mix of flour, baking powder and ground almonds and mix until the texture is smooth
6. Add in the cooled melted butter and mix well
7. Ideally if you have the time leave the batter in the fridge for 2 hours – this will help them rise and give the traditional ‘bump’ shape!
8. Grease the madeleine pan (this isn’t necessary if you are using silicon pans) and fill each shell to about 2/3
9. Bake in oven at 210°C for 6-8 minutes

*Other possible flavours for your madeleines : the zest of a small lemon or a few drops of orange blossom water

Flaugnarde  or flognarde is a baked French dessert with fruit and a  thick flan-like batter hailing from the Limousin and Auvergne region in France. It is similar to a clafoutis, which is made with black cherries whereas a flaugnarde is made with apples, peaches, pears, plums, prunes etc. It can be served either warm or cold.

Ingredients :

• 100g flour
• 100g sugar
• 1 table spoon oil
• 300ml milk
• 200ml liquid cream (or liquid crème fraîche)
• 5 eggs
• 6 apples
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Peel and core the apples and slice into circles
3. Mix everything together in a bowl in the following order : flour, sugar, oil, milk, cream, salt
4. Beat eggs well and add to mixture
5. Butter a round oven dish and spread the apple slices around evenly
6. Pour the batter over the apples
7. Bake in oven for 45 minutes at 180°C