From macaroons to meringues, to madeleines, France is well-known for its desserts! Just imagine yourself sitting on an ornate, iron wrought chair, sipping coffee in the warm morning sun, surrounded by the bustle of a street in Paris. Here are some fun details about a couple of mouth-watering pastries I found!
1. Mille-Feuille
First off is the mille-feuille! This word translates to “a thousand leaves” in English. The dessert is both crispy and creamy, crumbling in your mouth. It balances being flaky and sophisticated at the same time as being light and not too sweet. The mille-feuille is made of three layers of puff pastry, in between which are two layers of piped pastry cream. On top, there is a layer of icing sugar or fondant. Stripes of melted dark chocolate are often used to decorate the tops of mille-feuilles. It is unknown who invented the mille-feuille. However, in the 1700s, Marie-Antoine Carême (AKA Antonin Carême) perfected the pastry. He was one of the first internationally renowned chefs and the most famous chef of his time. Referred to as “the king of chefs and the chefs of kings,” he frequently served royalty and the rich of Paris.
2. Croquembouche
The croquembouche is a type of “pièce montée,” an edible centrepiece It is often served at weddings or other grand occasions. As you can tell, it is literally a pyramid of cream puffs stacked on top of one another, held together using caramel as a sort of glue. The tower is then freely decorated with a thin net of caramel strands, flowers, ribbons, chocolate, fruits, nuts, etc. The name “croquembouche” translates to “crunch in the mouth,” due to the resounding crunch of the caramel crust when eaten. The inventor of this masterpiece remains anonymous. However, once again, it was Marie-Antoine Carême who perfected this pastry. In fact, he had once studied architecture and used this knowledge to help build his croquembouches.
3. Opera Cake
Opera cake is a classic French pastry. It is made of a layer of joconde biscuit (a light almond-flavoured sponge cake named after the Mona Lisa – in French the Mosa Lisa = La Joconde), a layer of coffee cream, a layer of chocolate ganache, and chocolate icing. It is actually known who invented this pastry: in 1955, Cyriaque Gavillon wanted to create a cake that did not use any flour and whose layers of ingredients were distinguishable. He also wanted anyone to be able to taste all the flavours of the cake in one single bite of any part of it.
4. Paris-Brest
This take on a cream puff is called a Paris-Brest, invented in 1912 by Louis Durand but refined by Philippe Conticini in 2009. He modified the structure of the pastry and added certain ingredients to enrich flavours. The Paris-Brest is made of choux pastry, praline cream (a confection containing nuts and sugar), and pure, raw praline with almonds and hazelnuts.
5. Éclair
Finally, the éclair! “Éclair” means lightning in French. It is so-called due to the fact that it can be eaten rapidly. It is made of choux pastry filled with pastry cream and covered in icing. Chocolate and coffee are some of the more popular flavours. Numerous chefs have made éclairs to break records. For example, a couple of Swiss pastry chefs once made a 503-metre long éclair, breaking the record for the longest éclair in the world.
PS. I actually first learned about a lot of these confections from watching The Great Canadian Baking Show. They really create amazing food, both savoury and sweet, that always looks show-stopping good. If you’re interested in this kind of thing, take a look here.
