Want to bake like a professional French pastry chef? Then you need to try these 17 incredible recipes. These desserts are nice and easy to make but taste like they came right out of a French patisserie. Enjoy the taste of France in every bite of these effortless sweets. You are sure to love them all.
Galette
A galette is a flat, free-formed French pastry dessert that is so easy to make. First, make a crisp and buttery pie dough, then top it with ingredients like fresh fruit before forming a crust with the edges. Bake the galette, and in minutes, you will have a crispy, buttery, and fruity French dessert.
Get the recipe: Strawberry Galette
Crème brûlée
Crème brûlée (which translates as "burnt cream") is one of my favorite French desserts. It is a rich cream custard baked in a water bath with sugar sprinkled over the top that is torched (or brûléed) until it melts to form a hard and crunchy top layer. It is made of a few simple ingredients, and many people don´t know how incredibly easy to prepare!
Get the recipe: Crème brûlée
Financiers
French Financiers are small bite-sized tea cakes, kind of like fancy French muffins! 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 they are often decorated with chopped nuts, too.
Get the recipe: Financiers
Charlotte cake
A Charlotte cake (or "Charlotte aux Fraises") looks so professional but is in fact incredibly easy to make! This beautiful French cake is filled with silky and luxurious Crème mousseline and decorated with fluffy ladyfinger biscuits and fresh strawberries.
Get the recipe: Charlotte cake
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.
Get the recipe: Clafoutis
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!
Get the recipe: Palmiers
Fraisier cake
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. It is really much easier to make than any other cake and looks so fantastic!
Get the recipe: Fraisier cake
Mango Mousse Cake
A light and airy French mousse cake is traditionally made with whipped egg whites folded into an egg yolk sabayon base or sometimes made in other ways eg. with a cream cheese base. Mousse is sometimes served in a cup or can be made into a light and airy cake.
Get the recipe: Mango Mousse Cake
Floating island
Floating Island is a classic French dessert that resembles an island, hence the name! The dessert is effectively a Crème Anglaise custard with poached meringue floating on top, which sounds complicated but it is a lot easier to make than it sounds.
Get the recipe: Floating island
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, you bake puff pastry under weights so it remains compacted and crisp and doesn't puff up high. Afterward, the crispy layers of Mille Feuille are stacked with crème pâtissière or crème mousseline.
Get the recipe: Mille feuille
Eclairs
Eclairs are famous French pastries made from choux pastry dough such as profiteroles or cream puffs. For the choux pastry, you will only need a few simple ingredients such as water, flour, milk, and eggs. The eclairs are baked and then filled with a variety of creams eg. crème diplomate and afterward glazed in melted chocolate ganache. They are so indulgent!
Get the recipe: Eclair
Bavarian Cream
Bavarian cream or Crème Bavarois is a classic French dessert made with just six simple ingredients: Milk, sugar, egg, vanilla, gelatin, and heavy cream. This light and creamy treat is super flavorful and perfect for your donuts, cakes, and pastries as a topping or filling. It is so versatile and delicious that you can even enjoy it as a dessert on its own!
Go to the recipe: Bavarian Cream
French Puff Pastry
If you have ever wondered how to make traditional French puff pastry from scratch, this will be your ultimate baking guide! Homemade puff pastry (Pâte Feuilletée in French) might seem like a challenge, but the buttery taste and crisp texture are well worth the effort! I will show you how to make melt-in-the-mouth puff pastry in a relatively easy, straightforward way, so you'll never want to buy store-bought again.
Go to the recipe: French Puff Pastry
Beignets
Popular in French cuisine and a staple in the Louisiana city of New Orleans, these homemade beignets are fun to make and hard to resist! Their light, sweet, and pillowy texture make them the perfect treat to enjoy any time of day: For breakfast, an afternoon snack, or dessert. Top them with sugar, fill them with cream, or dip them in your morning coffee.
Go to the recipe: Beignets
Chocolate Brioche
For chocolate lovers who also enjoy the tender, fluffy texture of brioche bread, this chocolate brioche gives you the best of both worlds! This easy chocolate brioche recipe takes classic brioche bread and fills it with swirls of creamy chocolate and cocoa powder before topping it with melted butter. Enjoy it for breakfast with a cup of coffee or for an after-dinner treat!
Go to the recipe: Chocolate Brioche
More From Spatula Desserts
My guide to the best puff pastry desserts contains the most delicious desserts with trustworthy recipes and tutorials on how you can make them yourself.
Go to the recipes: Puff Pastry Desserts
Best Mediterranean Desserts
These are our Mediterranean desserts to make at home to evoke the feeling of travel. Imagine sunshine and olive groves whilst perusing this list of Mediterranean dessert recipes, and then make your favorite!
Go to the recipes: Mediterranean Desserts
Paris-Brest
Imagine a ring of choux pastry filled with hazelnut praline crème mousseline filling. Certainly, it sounds delicious, one of my favorite French desserts! This classic French Paris-Brest recipe has it all. Crispy pâte à choux, silky, nutty creme mousseline filling, extra praline paste, and roasted hazelnuts make Paris-Brest one of the most impressive European desserts of all! This fancy-looking dish is a great dessert for a dinner party as it feeds a crowd and looks so impressive.
Go to the recipe: Paris-Brest
Napoleon Cake
Napoleon cake is a perfectly moist and deliciously creamy dessert made of crunchy puff pastry and silky pastry cream that can be a great fit for any occasion. This recipe will show you how to make Napoleon cake that is flaky, elegant, and overflowing with homemade goodness.
Go to the recipe: Napoleon Cake
Best No Bake Desserts
When you need to whip up a quick dessert but don’t have access to an oven, this list of the best no-bake desserts will save the day!
This article was originally published as Best French Pastries at Spatula Desserts.
Leave a Reply