Wintertime means lots of lovely hot food and I particularly like poaching fruits which I have bottled that summer. Here are two of the fruits I bottled for use in the winter.

1 Poached Winter Fruits

I make up a red wine ‘jus’ using a good red wine, some water, caster sugar, vanilla pod and essence, cinnamon, black pepper, bay leaves, cloves, lemon with the skin on and a couple of slices of orange. For the fruits I use the fruits I have bottled that summer including quince, pears, apples and plums. Poaching the fruit is very quick and easy and can be done in under 10 minutes. You can serve poached winter fruits either hot or cold so it is a great dessert for both the summer and winter time.

2 Peaches Poached in White wine

You can use either uncooked but very ripe peaches for this dessert, but I prefer to use ones I have bottled. I add caster sugar, half a lemon, a vanilla pod and some sprigs of spearmint and I poach the fruit in a good quality dry white wine. This is a lovely dessert which I like to serve with a good dollop of crème fraiche on the top of it.

I adore fruit desserts, whether a clafoutis or a fruit tart with crème fraiche is simply a delicious way to round off a good meal. Do you have a favorite French dessert that uses seasonal fruit and do you enjoy preparing the dessert for your family and friends?

Whenever I prepare a special meal either for the family or friend who come over for dinner, then there are a three French desserts that I do enjoy making because I know everyone really loves them.

1  Crème  Brulée

This is a classic French dessert which you will find on most menus in French restaurants all over the world. If well prepared it is light and rich as well as being very moreish. The best part is torching the crème brulée just before serving it.

2 Crème Caramel

Crème caramel has got to be one of the best French desserts ever and I like to make a large crème caramel instead of individual smaller ones which are normally served as desserts in restaurants. My grandmother would often make this for us as children and I loved the brown syrupy sauce that she poured over the caramel just before serving it to us after a meal. I love crème caramel as a dessert all the year round but in winter I like to add a little Calvados to the sauce.

3 French Chocolate Truffles

If you love chocolate, then this is the dessert for you. It is rich, creamy and extremely chocolaty and although the dessert does take a little time to prepare, it is definitely worth the effort. I like to serve the chocolate truffles at room temperature covered in crème fraiche and if I am having a dinner party I serve a sweet chilled white wine with the dessert.

Do you have a favorite French dessert that you enjoy eating at a restaurant and have you ever tried to make any of the three above? If you have never had French chocolate truffles, I highly recommend that you do, they are simply gorgeous.

These gorgeoulsy rich and creamy puff pastry cakes are just too morish and whenever I get the opportunity I do love to either make them or buy them readymade and serve as a dessert when either family or friends come over for dinner. Here are three of my very favorites:

1 Raspberry Millefeuille

Raspberries are such a lovely soft fruit and they go so well with millefeuille pastry topped with icing sugar and filled with crème fraiche. I like to add toasted almonds to the this pastry because the combination of tastes is so good.

2 Summer Fruit Millefeuille

This is a superb dessert to make that finishes off a dinner party perfectly. I like to use raspberries, strawberries, redcurrants and I do make my own puff pastry although I do occasionally use the ready made sort you can buy. I add lemon juice to the fruits and vanilla extract and then I top it all with a good dusting of icing sugar. Served chilled with crème fraiche, it is simply scrumptious.

3 Lemon Millefeuille

This is truly a very light and lemony cake which is so easy to prepare. The cake does come out rather flat looking, but the flavor is absolutely exquisite and I really like to serve this with lots of crème fraiche on top of it.

Do you like me have a passion for French cakes and pastries and have you ever tried to make any of them? Puff pastry is easy to make but the sort you buy is very good too, so making French pastries is less time consuming if you choose to use the ready-made sort.

Here are my all-time favorite French ‘gateaux’ which I do often make at home.

1 Basque Cake

This is a truly delicious rustic cake which is a speciality from the Basque region of France known as the Pyrénées-Atlantiques. It is made out of a very rich sweet shortcrust pastry with pate sablee and almond flavored confectioners’ custard. I love this cake with crème fraiche served for dessert after a meal.

2 Kouglof

This is a lovely French cake which is a speciality from the region of Alsace. It is made with raisins and almonds and is shaped like a globe which is where its name comes from. This is truly delicious with a cup of ‘grand crème‘ coffee.

 3 Saint Tropez Pie

As the name suggests this lovely rich brioche layer cake comes from the Cote d’Azur. The cake has two fillings being French pastry cream and also butter cream. I particularly love this cake in the afternoon with a lovely cup of coffee.

 4 Tarte au Sucre

I first tasted this cake when I was visiting northern France and I must say that I found it delicious. It is a very simple cake but it tastes really too good. I often make tarte au sucre at home and all my family really enjoy it with crème fraiche to which I add vanilla essence.

I love to stop work in the afternoons and sit down to relax for 15 minutes or so. This is when I really do enjoy a cup of coffee and one of the cakes I mentioned above. Do you have a favorite French cake that you enjoy making?

This lovely Yule cake really does finish off a festive meal wonderfully and it looks as good as it tastes. It is one of the only cakes which is made without flour but there is plenty of delicious chocolate and thick fresh cream in it.

The ingredients you need are as follows:

1/4 cup (50 grams) plus 2 tablespoons (28 grams) granulated white sugar

6 large eggs, separated

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

4 ounces (112 grams) dark chocolate, chopped in small pieces

3/4 teaspoon cream of tartar

Chocolate Whipped Cream:

1 cup (240 ml) thick whipping cream

1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla extract

3 tablespoon (40 grams) granulated white sugar

1 1/2 tablespoons unsweetened coco powder

How to prepare your Bûche de Noël

 Preheat your oven to 350 degrees F (180 C) then butter a baking tray and line it with parchment paper and butter and flour this too. Separate the white of the eggs from the yolks and place in different bowls. Melt the chocolate in a heat proof bowl which has been placed over a saucepan of boiling water and once melted remove and leave to cool.

Place the egg yolks in a mixing bowl with a ¼ cup of sugar and mix until light and fluffy. Add the vanilla and then add the cooled melted chocolate and gently stir it into the mix. Next whisk up the egg whites until you can make soft peaks, add the cream of tartar and beat at medium to high speed with an electric mixer. Gradually beat in the rest of the sugar until stiff peaks form.

Very carefully fold a little amount of the egg white into the egg yolk mixture with a rubber spatula. Fold in the rest of the whites. Spread this batter evenly onto the baking tray and bake it until the cake is puffed up which usually takes 15 minutes or so. Remove from oven and leave to cool on a wire rack.

 How to make the chocolate whipped cream

 Place the whipping cream in a large bowl, add the vanilla extract, sugar and cocoa powder and stir. Cover the bowl and leave in the fridge for an hour. Once cooled beat the mixture until stiff then layer the cooled cake with the mixture. Peel off the parchment paper as you then roll the sponge to avoid it cracking. Sprinkle the cake with confectioners’ sugar just before serving.

Have you got a favorite Yule cake recipe that you like to prepare for Christmas?

The lightness of éclairs can be put down to the type of pastry that is used to make them. Choux pastry is ultra light and airy which is why when you bite into éclair it seems to dissolve in your mouth. There are other delicious French cakes which are also made with choux pastry and I have listed a few of them below.

1 Chouquettes

These are small puffs of choux pastry that are topped with big pieces of sugar. French children adore these little balls of pastry and often have them as snacks during the day. They are sold by the weight and kids often buy a bag of them.

2 Profiterole

Of course profiteroles are almost as famous as the éclair outside of France. These delicious puff balls are filled with ice cream and then rich chocolate sauce is poured all over them. They are very rich and if you have them for a dessert in a French restaurant the usual serving is four profiteroles and lots of sauce.

3 Croquembouche

This is truly a work of art when it comes to choux pastry cakes. It consists of a mountain of filled choux pastry puffs which are held together with caramel and then decorated even more with sugared icing. Croquembouche are traditionally made to celebrate weddings or christenings. They look absolutely amazing.

Do you have a favorite French cake that is made with choux pastry? Have you ever tried to make choux pastry yourself? I love to try new ideas in the kitchen and have experimented with all sorts of fillings for choux pastry I have made. I would love to hear about yours.

Here are three of my favorite dishes from Haute Savoie:

1 Pâtes à la Mode Savoyarde

If you like pasta then you will love this dish. It is very simple but incredibly tasty. I love to prepare this dish with fresh pasta because it soaks up the flavor of the onions, garlic and the stock so well. Once the pasta is cooked it is then mixed with all the ingredients and left to slowly simmer until the stock has evaporated. It is a filling, full of flavor dish that goes so well with hot crusty bread. I love to grate cheese all over the piping hot pasta just before serving it. If you find a bottle of Gamay, this is the perfect wine to accompany ‘Pâtes à la Mode Savoyarde’.

2 Grillade de Cervelas au Fromage

This wonderful dish has all sorts of cheeses in it, including Beaufort, Raclette and Emmental added to saveloy sausages (cervelas) and green peppers. Once the ingredients have been cooked in a frying pan they are then wrapped in foil and placed on a barbeque for 5 to 10 minutes and then served piping hot making it a delightful meal to have in the summertime.

3 Tarte aux Myrtilles

This is one of my favorite traditional desserts from Haut Savoie which is a wonderful fruit tart. Served with crème fraiche or crème fleurette, it is really scrumptious. Myrtle tart has a light pastry base that makes a lovely dessert to round off a meal.

Do you have a favorite French dessert that you enjoy making? Is there a recipe which you have found that comes from a specific region of France which is just too good to be true, we would love to hear about it.

Each region has their own particular Christmas specialities but there are a few things that all French people enjoy during the festive season and these are the cakes and desserts that are very traditional at this time of the year.

1 La Bûche de Noël

This is an excellent rich cake made with chocolate and chestnuts. It is shaped liked a log and represents the log burned from Christmas Eve to New Year’s Day in Périgord. This actually comes from a pagan Gaul celebration that has endured to the present day.

2 Le Pain Calendeau

This traditional Christmas loaf come from southern France and was in the old days given to the poor people.

3 Galette des Rois

This is a lovely round cake which is baked especially for Epiphany on the 6^th January. The person who finds ‘la fève’ which is a trinket in their slice of cake will be given special privileges. There are various ways of making a ‘galette de Roi’ but the more traditional way is to use ‘frangipane’ which is similar to marzipan and is made out of almond paste.

I remember as a child I would be very excited about the whole Christmas period and my grandmother would treat us all to her wonderful culinary delights. I was particularly fond of her Galettes des Rois because she always put such marvelous little trinkets in the cake, many of which I still have today. Will you be making a Christmas cake this year? Why not indulge yourself and make either a Bûche de Noël or a Galette des Rois and see how your family enjoys them.

One of my favorite dishes was ‘des beignets de fleurs de courgettes’ which translated means fried courgettes flowers. These wonderful ‘beignets’ were crispy on the outside but deliciously soft in the center. We would have this dish as a starter for an evening meal in the summertime much to my delight. The French are very fond of using all sorts of flowers in their traditional and modern cuisine. These beautiful ingredients not only make the dish look so elegant, but add a delicate flavor to them as well. Here are just a few of the many dishes that use flowers as part of their ingredients.

1 Bouchées à la Lavande

Lavender grows tremendously well in the South of France and my grandmother would bake ‘bouchées à la Lavande’ for us on many occasions. These delicately flavoured biscuits on a crème caramel base with a hint of lavender are simply gorgeous.

2 Gâteau aux fleurs de Violettes Fraîches

Imagine a wonderfully light sponge cake which has a delicate hint of wild violets that have been freshly picked in the woods. This lovely French cake is simple to make and the flavour is quite exquisite.

3 Oreillettes

This is a very traditional recipe that comes from the south of France and is prepared during the Carnival of Pézenas. ‘Fleurs d’oranger’ is an ingredient that adds a wonderful orangy taste to this little sweetened beignet which is as light as a feather. If you are fond of doughnuts, you will love ‘oreillettes’ which are similar in texture but much flatter and much lighter.

I love to add edible flowers to a salad, not only do they look so good but the delicate taste they bring to the dish is really quite exceptional. Famous modern day French chefs have introduced flowers into many of their recipes for this reason. Have you ever tried any of them, the sirops or the coulis that go so well with meat or fish dishes and the lovely ones that are drizzled over desserts?

I do not think we ever grow tired of these exquisite cakes and the list below brings back happy memories of my childhood.

1 Le Vacherin

Vacherin is truly a traditional French dessert which is made up a number of meringue rings which can have various flavors such as mocha or almond. The rings are piled one on top of the other which creates a deep well in the center. This is then filled with all sorts of wonderful things. Ice cream, whipped cream, pastry cream and many types of fruit can be used to create a delicious dessert that finishes off a meal so well.

2 Dacquoise aux Fraise des Bois

Layers of meringue with wild strawberries and fresh cream in between each layer, not only makes this dessert wonderful to look at but it is simply delicious too. My grandmother would sprinkle pistachio nut powder all over the finished masterpiece and as children we would devour our helpings with utter relish.

3 Tarte Meringuée au Citron

This not just a gorgeous dessert visually but it is as light as a feather too. The sweetness of the meringue and the tang of the lemon paste, is just too good to be true. My grandmother would add all sorts of seasonal fruits such as strawberries that we had collected from the garden to the lemon curd she had prepared – simply divine.

If you have discovered a gorgeous French dessert or have memories of desserts that you adored when you were a child, it would be lovely to hear about them especially if they were meringue based because I have to admit I am rather partial to meringues in general.