French crepes are thin and delicate pancakes and can be filled with anything you like – nutella, jam, cream, sugar, fruit … … [read more]
Crepes
Flaugnarde aux Pommes
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 :
- Pre-heat oven to 180°C
- Peel and core the apples and slice into circles
- Mix everything together in a bowl in the following order : flour, sugar, oil, milk, cream, salt
- Beat eggs well and add to mixture
- Butter a round oven dish and spread the apple slices around evenly
- Pour the batter over the apples
- Bake in oven for 45 minutes at 180°C
Riz au Lait / Rice Pudding
Riz au lait is a well loved dessert here in France – so popular you can buy it in ready made yoghurt sized cartons in different flavours – vanilla or rhum and raisin for example. My youngest loves this and it’s so easy to make it has become a staple in our household. Its a perfect dessert or after school snack!
Ingredients :
- 180g short-grain rice (almost oval or round in shape)
- 1 litre milk
- 100g sugar
- 1 vanilla pod
Method :
- Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the rice in it for 3 minutes.
- Strain the rice
- Cut the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds.
- Heat the litre of milk with the vanilla pod and the seeds
- When the milk come to the boil add the rice cook over a low/medium heat for 25 minutes stirring occasionally
- After 25 minutes add the sugar, mix well and continue cooking for another 5 minutes
- Remove vanilla pods, pour into pudding bowls and allow to cool
Bayonne ham and Olive Madeleines
Madeleines are one of France’s favourite small cakes. In this recipe I’ve used a madeleine tin to make savoury bites for an aperitif – perfect size to eat with drinks and a little surprising for guests to see madeleines cakes that are actually savoury!
Marble Cake or Gateau Marbré
This is another traditional french cake that is very popular at goûter time and is a real favourite with french kids.
Gratin Dauphinois
Gratin dauphinois is a traditional french dish that may be eaten as a side dish or as a meal in itself. It originates in the south-east of France, in a region that used to be called the Dauphinois – which today is in and around Grenoble.
Endives Au Gratin
I was trying to think of a suitable name in english for this dish but couldn’t so I just stuck to the french one. Endives are mostly called chicory in english but are also called endives too. A gratin means when a dish is topped with a golden crust, often using cheese or breadcrumbs by baking or cooking in the oven with an overhead grill.
Flan
The flan is a firm favourite in France (and especially in this house!) and is similar to what is known as a custard tart in english. I prefer to make it with a short cut pastry but you could make it with a puff pastry.
