45+ Best Famous French Pastries and Desserts

Here is a professional guide to the best French pastries! This is my comprehensive list of the most famous French desserts, along with recipes and tutorials on how to make them yourself. I made sure to include all the classics and update the list regularly, too.

Katalin's Key Take On French Pastries

As a professional baker, I am passionate about French patisserie! I have traveled to France many times, and I always taste local desserts at the best places (Fou de Patisserie is one my favorites) and try sweet pastries from superstar pastry chefs like Pierre Hermes and Cedric Grolet. Here at Spatula Desserts, I've recreated all my favorite French desserts, and I make sure the recipes are easy to follow, complete with all my pro tips.

French patisserie is a unique science and can be quite uncompromising. But that’s why we love it! Because when you get it right, it feels like such an achievement. Baking French pastries like puff pastry and pate sablee requires precision and an understanding of both the ingredients and the baking environment.

Oven temperature is key, as always, so use an oven thermometer. However, kitchen temperature is often critical too, especially for things like puff pastry. And buy the best quality, high-fat, European-style butter you can find! Aim for at least 82% fat content (check the label). French pastry chefs will use what is known as ‘dry butter’ because it has a fat content of 84-85% (and, therefore, less water content), and even this tiny increase makes a difference.

My best advice overall is to use good French pastry recipes, like the ones I've gathered here, and stick to the instructions without making any guesswork, swaps, or tweaks. I also offer several online baking classes for particularly tricky recipes, which can help you get to grips with them.

The most famous French pastries and desserts

1. Profiteroles

Undoubtedly, proper profiteroles are one of the most classic French desserts you can find. Dainty choux buns filled with a crème diplomat and dipped in a glossy chocolate ganache. Surely, it's the definition of decadence! I really love making choux pastry, and I'll give you all my pro tips so you can get the perfect profiteroles every time.

2. Cream Puffs

Who doesn’t love the sight of a cream puff? A crispy choux bun filled with creamy Chantilly cream and dusted with powdered sugar epitomizes French elegance and simplicity.

3. Chouquettes

Try baking chouquettes, dainty little French sugar puffs made with choux pastry and sugar pearls. They taste delicious on their own as a sweet snack or served in a bowl with coffee.

4. Chocolate Chip Brioche Bread

If you have never made your own homemade brioche, this is your sign to try. It's a yeasted dough, so you need some extra time, but it is undoubtedly well worth the effort! It's pillowy, soft, buttery, and rich, and this version is studded with chocolate chips for extra goodness. Indeed, you'll finish it all in one sitting.

5. Chocolate Mousse Cups

A smooth, silky, and decadent chocolate mousse will please anyone. Mousse is a French classic, and this easy recipe means you can try it at home. Trust me, it is so much better than store-bought versions! All you need are a few basic pantry staples, and it comes together super fast.

6. Strawberry Mousse

Fresh and fruity, yet creamy and decadent. That's strawberry mousse! You'll love making this easy French recipe. And you'll enjoy eating it even more. Follow the simple instructions, and you will create a delicious French dessert filled with berry flavor in no time.

7. Beignets

Beignets are pillowy soft French donuts that make the most delicious sweet snack. A yeasted dough fried until golden brown on the outside and fluffy and warm on the inside. Dust Beignets with powdered sugar to make them pretty as a picture and even more irresistible. I seriously recommend trying to make these delightful French treats!

8. Chocolate Brioche

Honestly, I don't think French pastries get much better than this. Rich and buttery brioche dough swirled with a creamy chocolate filling makes the most irresistible dessert ever. Or, why not bake it as a sweet breakfast for a special treat! Dust with cinnamon to give it a hint of spice for the holiday season.

9. Croquembouche

A croquembouche is a showstopper! You'll see croquembouche in the windows of French bakeries, and it's easy to see why it's a famous French dessert. First, bake French pastry dough puffs and fill with crème diplomate. Then, I piled it all into a pyramid and wrapped it in a delicate cobweb of spun sugar caramel.

10. Mille Feuille

Mille feuille (or "thousand leaves") is a famous French dessert made from layers of puff pastry and pastry cream. To make homemade mille-feuille, bake the puff pastry under weights so it remains compact and crisp, and doesn't puff up too high. Afterward, the crispy layers of Mille Feuille are stacked with crème pâtissière or crème mousseline. And finally, topped with powdered sugar, whipped cream, or fruit.

11. Crème brûlée

Crème brûlée, which translates to "burnt cream," is one of my favorite French desserts. It is a rich cream custard baked in a water bath with sugar sprinkled on top, which is torched (or brûléed) until it melts to form a hard, crunchy top layer.

12. Eclair

Eclairs are famous French pastries made from choux pastry dough, such as profiteroles or cream puffs. For the choux pastry, you will need only a few simple ingredients, including water, flour, milk, and eggs. The eclairs are baked and then filled with various creams, e.g., crème diplomate, and afterward glazed in melted chocolate ganache. They are so indulgent!

13. Paris-Brest

Pastry chef Louis Durand created the Paris-Brest dessert in 1910 to commemorate the Paris–Brest–Paris bicycle race. It is made from choux pastry piped into a circular, ring-shaped design and filled with delicious praline crème mousseline. Bakers decorate Paris-Brest with crunchy flaked almonds and powdered sugar so that each bite has the most delicious texture.

14. Financier

French Financiers are another small bite-sized tea cake, but don't confuse them with madeleines! These French sweets are made with nut flour and browned butter (a "beurre noisette") and baked into dainty rectangles. They can be flavored with spices like cardamom, and are often decorated with chopped nuts as well.

15. Galette

A galette is a flat, free-formed French pastry dessert that is so easy to make. To make a galette, first, make a crisp and buttery pie dough and then top it with ingredients like fresh fruit before forming a crust with the edges. Bake the galette, and in just minutes, you'll have a crispy, buttery, and fruity French dessert.

16. Macaron

Macarons are delightfully pretty cookies made with almond paste and meringue mixed together to form a batter, which is then piped into little rounds and can be filled in various flavors.

17. Choux au craquelin

Choux au craquelin are crispy cream puffs, made from choux pastry (the same as eclairs) and craquelin dough. The craquelin dough melts over the choux pastry as it bakes, forming a crackly, patterned exterior and a delicious, crunchy texture.

18. Galette des Rois - Kings' cake

French families serve Galette des Rois on the Epiphany to mark the end of the Christmas season. Two layers of puff pastry are sandwiched with a frangipane filling and baked. The windows of French patisseries are full of these circular golden-brown desserts in early January, and they are hugely popular!

19. Yule log

Yule log (or "Bûche de Noël") is another festive French dessert served at Christmas. A thin layer of moist sponge cake is spread with filling and then rolled into a log shape. It is sometimes made with chocolate frosting to resemble an actual log, but you can try lots of other flavors, too.

20. Mousse Cake

A light and airy French mousse is traditionally made with whipped egg whites folded into an egg yolk sabayon base, or sometimes made in other ways, such as with a cream cheese base. Mousse is sometimes served in a cup or can be made into a light and airy cake.

21. Brioche

Brioche is a type of French bread made from dough enriched with butter and eggs. It has a tender, moist crumb and a signature golden brown crust. Brioche is a versatile, sweet, and rich bread used in both sweet and savory dishes.

22. Tarte

Have you ever seen dainty fruit tartes in the windows of French patisseries? These classic French desserts are not that hard to make, and they are very beautiful. Tarts are super versatile, and I have an entire range of recipes for them, but the most classic tart is a Pâte sablée shortcrust pastry case filled with silky vanilla custard and topped with fresh fruit decoration.

23. Floating island

Floating Island is a classic French dessert that resembles an island, hence the name! The dessert is essentially a crème Anglaise custard with a poached meringue floating on top, which sounds complicated, but it's a lot easier to make than it sounds.

24. Fraisier cake

Fraise means strawberries in French, which is where fraisier cake gets its name. Fraisier cake is a famous French dessert that looks beautiful and tastes even better. It is made from two layers of moist Genoise sponge, a vanilla-flavored créme mousseline filling, strawberry jelly, strawberry compote, and fresh strawberries.

25. Charlotte cake

Charlotte cake (or "Charlotte aux Fraises") looks so professional but is, in fact, incredibly easy to make! It's a beautiful French cake filled with silky and luxurious Crème mousseline and decorated with fluffy ladyfinger biscuits and fresh strawberries.

26. Clafoutis

Clafoutis is a rustic French dessert that comes from the Limousin region of France. High-end restaurants serve Clafoutis in cities all over the country, even though it is traditionally a basic rural dish. It is crustless and similar to flan with a custard-like creamy texture, and it is so easy to make for a fancy brunch or afternoon dessert.

27. Palmiers

Palmiers are a great example of how something doesn't have to have lots of ingredients to be delicious! Puff pastry and sugar are rolled up into the shape of a palm and baked in the oven. That's it!

28. Rum Baba

29. Madeleine

Madeleines are soft French tea cakes with the most delicious texture. Make these sponge cakes from a Genoise cake batter baked in special madeleine trays shaped like shells. Madeleines are such dainty and cute French cakes and they surely taste great with afternoon tea or even with morning coffee.

30. Mont Blanc

Mont Blanc is a French dessert named after the famous mountain in the Alps, and it certainly looks like a little mountain! To create your own Mont Blanc, bake a crunchy meringue base and top it with chestnut puree and whipped cream. The result is a simply beautiful (and tasty) mini snow-capped mountain.

31. Crème caramel

Undoubtedly, baked vanilla custard (quite similar to flan) with a layer of caramel sauce sounds good to anyone! This French dessert has a smooth and creamy texture and wobbles a bit like jelly but contains no gelatine! Crème caramel is a very popular French dessert often found on the menus of Parisian-style brasseries worldwide.

32. Opera cake 

Opera cake is an elaborate almond sponge cake with layers of coffee syrup, coffee-flavored French buttercream, and chocolate ganache. It is called opera cake as it apparently resembles the tiered seating of a grand opera house! A French pastry chef called Cyriaque Gavillon created them in the 1950s, and they have been adored ever since. Enjoy them with strong coffee!

33. Canele

Canelés are small French pastries with rich, moist, and custard-like interiors and crispy, caramelized shells. You must bake them in copper molds at a very high temperature to achieve the deep golden color and glossy sheen. The texture of canelé is incredible; I highly recommend you try them!

34. Croissant 

Croissants are famous French breakfast pastries renowned around the world. But schedule several days to make them! It takes time to laminate the dough, but it is well worth it. Roll the enriched puff pastry, then fold and roll again to form the ubiquitous crescent shape. Brush it with an egg wash and bake until golden brown.

35. Kouign-Amann 

Kouign-Amann (pronounced "queen-a-mahn") is a notoriously difficult French pastry to make, but notoriously tasty! This delicious French pastry is originally from Brittany, France. Interestingly, the name translates as "butter cake" in Breton, a Celtic language spoken there. I love learning where the French pastry names come from!

36. Soufflé

Soufflés are made with whipped egg whites that trap air and expand as they bake, causing the soufflé to rise majestically in the oven. The result is a tremendously light and fluffy French dish!

Soufflés can be sweet with melted chocolate or fruit purees. For a savory version, cheese is folded into the egg whites before being poured into a soufflé dish and baked. Make and serve soufflés before they deflate, and you'll be universally adored!

37. Pains d’Amandes

Crisp and aromatic French almond cookies, lightly spiced with cinnamon, taste incredible over the holiday period. I love the crunch.

38. Tarte Tatin

The Tatin sisters invented tarte Tatin at Hôtel Tatin in the 1880s. It is a famous French dessert made from puff pastry and sweet, caramelized apples. It tastes delicious when served warm with vanilla ice cream and a dusting of cinnamon. Make a French tarte Tatin with classic puff pastry, rough puff, or use store-bought puff pastry to save time.

39. Cronut

The cronut is a recent pastry invention, but it's very French! Acclaimed French pastry chef Dominique Ansel invented the cronut at his bakery in New York, causing a sensation. Cronuts went viral! A cronut is a perfect cross between a croissant and a donut, circular morsels of flaky, buttery pastry that are deep-fried, glazed, and filled with pastry cream.

40. Tuile Cigars

If you've ever had an ice cream sundae in France, you'll have likely been served this fancy French pastry as a garnish. Delicate, sweet, and crisp, these rolls of light, crunchy cookies have the most amazing flavor and texture. They taste great on their own but are surely perfect with any dessert.

41. Tuiles Aux Amandes

Take it one step further with an elegant almond tuile, which is very popular and served with coffee in France! The extra nutty taste and crunch are so delicious. What's more, they are really fun to make, too. Curl the almond wafer cookies around a rolling pin while still warm to get the iconic shape.

42. Pain Suisse

Buttery, flaky pain Suisse will definitely become one of your favorite French viennoiseries. A pillowy brioche dough is filled with custard and chocolate chips, brushed with an egg wash, and baked for pull-apart pastry heaven. Undoubtedly, every bite has everything you'll ever need from a pastry!

43. Pot de crème

Kids and grown-ups love a traditional "pot of cream," which is French custard, typically served in a little pot. This chocolate version is super smooth and silky, and is made the authentic French way. Be warned, it’s addictive.

44. Quatre-Quarts (French Pound Cake)

I love the way the French name their desserts. A quatre-quarts cake translates as "four-fourths" because it is made with equal parts flour, sugar, eggs, and butter. The classic flavoring is lemon, and it is unbelievably light and moist! Eat it for dessert, breakfast, or simply as a snack!

45. Crepes Suzette

You may have seen a waiter in a French restaurant wheeling out a trolley containing a mobile stove and cooking ingredients. You watch with interest as they make a classic French crepe and then an orange butter sauce that smells divine!

Suddenly, there is a flash of purple flame, and the whole restaurant gasps. This is Crepe Suzette, flambeed with Grand Marnier (orange liqueur) and served warm with whipped cream. And it is undoubtedly delicious. To make things simpler, you can also use pre-bought crepes. 

46. Pain au chocolat

And once you can make croissant dough, you can also use it to make pain au chocolate! Cut rectangles rather than triangles and roll them around a chocolate baton. Brush with egg wash and bake to become everyone's favorite person at breakfast time. 

Have you tried these recipes?

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