Discover with me the delicious French Pastries through the different French region.
Here we are for our first week of the French regional pastries.
As France is a food country, I think it’s a great idea to explore our beautiful country, thanks to the specialty of each region. Paris is of course the capital of the country and well-known for the gastronomy, but a lot of areas also hid delicious treasures.
This week will focus on Auvergne Rhône-Alpes region.
Find here a little map with the localization. East part bordered by Switzerland and Italy.
There is plenty of pastries in each region, I will present you around four ones for each!
Le gâteau de Savoie
This dessert was created during the 14th century in the city of Chambéry in the Savoie region.
At this time, the sovereign asked his chef to bake a cake light as a feather, to seduce the Luxembourg sovereign, who was guested at his court.
So, the chef invented for this event the Gâteau de Savoie composed of eggs, sugar, and flour.
He whisked really carefully the egg yolks and the sugar to light the mix and then, decided to whisk as well the egg whites before combining everything.
The result is this delicious cake, incredibly light.
Now, some bakers add some orange blossom water, lemon zest or vanilla to bring some flavor.
Find here my recipe of this traditional and delicious dessert.
Praluline
This delicious brioche with praline flavor was invented in 1955 by Auguste Pralus.
It’s basically a brioche, with inside crushed praline. A praline is composed of almonds coated with sugar. Here, colored sugar, to obtain this nice pink color.
I was used to tasting some regular praline brioche baked in almost every bakery here in France, but the official Praluline is just insane. I tasted it for the first time during a weekend in Lyon last December, and I totally recommend you to go for one if you could.
Blueberry tart (Tarte aux myrtilles)
The blueberry tart usually comes from mountains region where the blueberries growth easily. It’s a seasonal dessert.
It’s a perfect combination between sweet and sour.
It’s usually composed of a sweet shortcrust pastry (pâte sablée), almond cream with some blueberries inside and on the top, more blueberries. You could also replace the almond cream by a simple vanilla pastry cream and place your blueberries on the top.
I really like this delicious tart. Have you ever tried it?
Chestnut cream (Crème de marrons)
It’s not really a dessert but, I really like chestnut cream in pastry.
Raw just to spread some on homemade crêpes, or incorporate in a recipe it’s for me an ingredient to try ay least once!
The chestnut cream was invented in 1885 by accident (like many dessert!). The baker, Clément Faugier who baked candied chestnut wanted to avoid to waste the pieces of chestnut while it was baking.
It’s how he created the chestnut cream!
YOUR FREE EBOOK!
- 14 free pages full of advices to master the art of French tarts.
- Our « Foolproof » pie crust recipe
- 5 delicious tart recipes to use it
- A delicious salty version: The French Quiche
