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!

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.

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

Chocolate mousse – an extremely easy dessert to make with only two ingredients! It’s quick, easy and tastes divine.

It is one of the most popular desserts in France which was made around Renaissance period. There are a lot of variants on this recipe, some recipes include butter or cream and some add a dash of liquor (Cointreau or Grand marnier for example) so it means that you can be creative 🙂

Ingredients :

• 200g good quality dark chocolate (the better the chocolate the better the mousse obviously!)
• 6 fresh free-range eggs (they won’t be cooked)

Method :

1. Melt the chocolate using a bain-marie*
2. Separate the egg yolks from the egg whites
3. Beat the egg whites (with a pinch of salt until stiff)
4. Slowly add the melted chocolate to the egg yolks beating all the time
5. Gently fold the egg whites into the chocolate
6. Pour into a bowl or preferably, individual ramequin dishes and place in the fridge for at least 2 hours

*A bain-marie a sort of double-boiler used to melt ingredients for cooking. Here it means placing the bowl with the chocolate into a second bigger recipient containing water over heat to melt it.

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 :

1. Bring a large pan of water to the boil and cook the rice in it for 3 minutes.
2. Strain the rice
3. Cut the vanilla pod lengthways and scrape out the seeds.
4. Heat the litre of milk with the vanilla pod and the seeds
5. When the milk come to the boil add the rice cook over a low/medium heat for 25 minutes stirring occasionally
6. After 25 minutes add the sugar, mix well and continue cooking for another 5 minutes
7. Remove vanilla pods, pour into pudding bowls and allow to cool

January wouldn’t be January in France without a Galette des Rois or two (or ten!). They are eaten throughout the month of January, until they finally disappear once February arrives only to resurface again near the end of December the following year.

A lof of people believe they are called the kings cake to celebrate the Wise Kings arrival at the stable on January 6th but apparently the actual reason goes back to a roman celebration. At the time, to celebrate the winter solstice, families would have a ‘raffle’ to pick a king who would be King of the household for the day. Even the servants could take part and if they won, could end up bossing their employer around for the day.

The Galette des Rois below with puff pastry and almond filling is common all over the north of France, but in the south of France their ‘galette’ is a completely different cake made with a ring of brioche and candied fruit.

The ‘fève’ is a small trinket (the french word fève actually means a broad bean which is what used to be put in the cake), usually a small porcelain figurine. We’ve had minions and star wars characters this year 🙂

In France the tradition is that the youngest member of the household goes under the kitchen table while the ‘galette’ is being cut and calls out the names of those present as each slice is served up. Whoever finds the fève is the king – or queen!

Ingredients :

• 400g ready-made puff pastry (of course you can make your own but it’s the only pastry I don’t make myself!)
• 100 g ground almonds
• 75 g caster sugar
• 1 egg
• 50g of softened butter
• A few drops of almond essence
• 1 egg yolk
• 1 “fève” !

Method :

1. Roll out half the pastry into a circle and prick with a fork
2. In a bowl mix all the ingredients together – the ground almonds, sugar, softened butter, egg and almond essence
3. Spread the mixture over the pastry and place the fève on it
4. Brush the edges of the pastry with water, then cover with the second half of the pastry, pressing the edges to seal
5. Using a fork or knife to create a design on top
6. Brush with the beaten egg yolk
7. Bake in oven for 30 minutes until nice and golden

Chocolate and pears go so well together, the dark chocolate and sweet moist pears make a lovely combination. I have already posted a pear and chocolate loaf , ideal with afternoon tea, this is more of a dessert which is perfect served with a scoop of ice-cream.

At this time of the year you can use fresh pears, making sure they are nice and ripe. You can always use a tin of pears too though!

Ingredients :

• 200 g dark chocolat (70%)
• 150 g butter
• 120 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 130 g self-raising flour
• 4 pears

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Melt the butter and chocolat together in a bain-marie (put ingredients in bowl and place bowl in saucepan of water over a low heat)
3. Mix in the sugar
4. Separate the eggs into whites and yolks and add the yolks to the mixture
5. Fold in the flour
6. Beat the egg whites (with a pinch of salt) until stiff and gently fold them into the rest of the ingredients
7. Peel and core pears and slice in half
8. Grease and flour tin, place the pear halves on the bottom and cover with chocolate cake mixture
9. Bake in oven at 180°C for 40 minutes
10. Remove from tin immediately and place on rack to cool

Chocolate Pear Cake

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Tarte Tatin is a well known french apple tart. Research shows that it is called after two sisters, Stéphanie and Caroline Tatin who ran a hotel, Hotel Tatin, in Sologne (region about 100km south of Paris).

The most well known story is that one of the sisters dropped the tart after taking it out of the oven and it fell upside down, but she decided to pick it up and serve it anyway with the apples on top and the pastry on the bottom. Apparently on the sisters menu the tart was called a Tarte Solognote after the region they were living in but when the tart became well known and made it to Paris the name was changed to Tarte Tatin after the sisters.

Ingredients :

• 1 short cut pastry – recipe here (add a tablespoon of sugar to the recipe for a sweet pastry)
• 4-6 apples
• 100g sugar
• 50g soft brown sugar
• 50g butter
•  Juice of 1 lemon

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Peel and cut apples into quarters and sprinkle the juice of half a lemon over them
3. Take 100g of the sugar and add in an even layer to a heavy-bottomed saucepan or an oven proof dish suitable for the tart
4. Heat the sugar over a moderate heat.
5. Use a silicone spatula or a wooden spoon to move the liquefied sugar from the edges of the saucepan to the center.
6. Carefully watch the sugar until it reaches exactly the right amber color
7. Add half the juice to the caramel
8. If your pan isn’t oven proof and not suitable to use for the tart pour the caramel into the tart dish (otherwise use the same dish)
9. Place the apples on the caramel (rounded side down), trying to completely cover the base. Add any remaining apples on top of the base layer
10. Cube the  50g of butter and place on apples
11. Sprinkle the soft brown sugar over the apples
12. Cover the apples with the short-cut pastry taking care to press down around the sides of the pan
13. Sprinkle some sugar over the pastry (this will help prevent the pastry from getting too wet from the apples)
14. Bake for 30 minutes at 180°C
15. Remove from oven and using a plate turn the tart upside down but leave in tin/pan for a good 10 minutes before removing (this will avoid any apples sticking to the pan)
16. Serve warm with some ice-cream

The tarte tatin before cooking

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