This is, with some adaptations and tweaks, a recipe from Raymond Blanc, the French-British chef. It’s his take on the simple apple tart his mother used to make. In honor of that culinary tradition, I’ve given this a name in honor of the region where he grew up....
While I don’t totally understand the soft matter physics at work, this is easily the best and, importantly, easiest tart base to work with. This is an unsweetened shortcrust pastry. That tends to lend it to savory tarts, but it can also work for a very sweet filling....
This is a great basic brioche recipe I’ve taken from my favorite YouTube channel on baking. There are million different ways to take this dough and turn it into bread. I’ll outline some here in the method below, but this is hardly exhaustive....
I have such a funny relationship with this dish. In France, it has a reputation for being a cliché: the kind of thing people haul out to impress their friends at a dinner party....
I spent years — literally decades — trying to figure out how to consistently bake great madeleines. Then, by pure luck, I found this amazing blog, Je pense donc je cuis, that took a rigorous science-based approach to the cakes....
As a rule, when I work from home during the week I take an hour at lunchtime to walk somewhere and buy lunch. If I’m feeling indulgent, I sometimes like to order a small piece of cake or another dessert-y item....
The galette has an excellent effort-reward ratio. The fancy French name aside, they’re incredibly easy to make and look reasonably impressive if executed well. These quantities make a galette that serves four generously....
This idea comes from the superb YouTube channel Boulangerie Pas à pas. It’s a great way to use what would otherwise get wasted when you need to refresh your levain but don’t have the need to bake anything....
This is a “liquid” levain, which is to say that you’re aiming for a roughly 1:1 ratio of water to flour on each refresh of the culture. If you’re not planning to bake every day — I certainly don’t — it’s easy enough to stash this in the refrigerator and give a quick warm up to room temperature before using....
These come from the excellent Mokonuts in Paris. Everything they do is delicious, these as much or more than everything else. It can be a little difficult to find black sesame seeds....