France Archives - Jenny is baking

French Flan Pâtissier with Pistachio and Raspberry Flavor

Today is the eighth anniversary of my severe bike accident without permanent damage. For me this day is like a second birthday, each year I like to celebrate it with a decadent cake. This time I made French flan with pistachio and raspberry flavor. Flan originated in Spain, spread during colonization and became very popular in Latin America. I have quite a few recipes on the blog: classic flan, pineapple flan coconut flan, chocoflan, flan with coffee flavor and quesillo from Venezuela, I hope this proves how popular flan has become. Obviously the French also took their take. Instead of simply mixing eggs with some dairy products and have this mixture bake in a waterbath, they decided to make a pudding first. This means that the French version tempers the eggs and then is cooked on medium heat until it thickens. I may be wrong, but I believe that the final result is even creamier this way. Additionally, this could also be described as a custard pie as a pie crust is added. Obviously by adding all these steps, the amount of work increases, however, I believe it is worth all the effort, especially when celebrating that I have no permanent damage.

23/04/2026

Gâteau Opéra or French Opera Cake

Gâteau Opéra or French opera cake is the French answer to an Italian tiramisu. It is a classic of elegant French patisserie. It consists of an almond sponge cake soaked in coffee syrup, coffee buttercream, and chocolate ganache layered into a seven-layer dish. Traditionally, the decadent cake slices are cut into small rectangles, and decorated with the word “opéra,” but I opted for a treble clef instead. The inventor of this elegant cake, the French Cyriaque Gavillon aimed to provide the whole experience in one small bite. Once his wife tried his concoction, she claimed that this cake reminded her of the Parisian opera house Palais Garnier. Voilá the French opera cake was born. The pastry shop Dalloyau where Gavillon was employed, has been serving this cake since 1955. This is as French as it gets. But I will warn you, it does have many components and takes its amount of time to prepare. But slices can be frozen and components made in advance. You will be rewarded with the most delicious cake that so nicely combines the coffee and chocolate flavor. Maybe you will give this a try?

10/10/2025

Quince Tart with Four Ingredients

Normally quinces are harvested in October, however, for some strange reason all the local stores here in Germany offer them in abundance in January and February. I did ask last October whether any were available, but I was informed that I would have to wait a little. For that reason I decided to publish one more winter recipe before we finally jump to fresh and vibrant spring recipes. If anyone knows why stores offer this fruit just now, please let me know. Regardless, I decided to make a traditional tarte tatin. This means that a) this is an upside down cake, so the dough is on the top when it is baked. And it also means that b) the fruit gets to soak up all of that lovely caramel. I hope you understand now why I wanted to make a quince tarte this way.

03/03/2023

Coffee Date No. 12, Lille Travels

We went on a holiday to the north of France and got to see beautiful Lille. If you are up for it, how about a virtual coffee with me and you get to get a small glimpse into what we experienced? I have to warn you though, a lot of pictures and a lot of culinary recommendations, however none of them are sponsored. You can’t deny that I am married to a foodie and probably am one myself by now 😉 By the way, travelling with a dog was super easy, all restaurants we visited allowed Hazel to be with us, she usually got fresh water and was petted by waiters a lot, so don’t fret, Lille seems to be a dog-friendly destination.

13/10/2022

Coffee Macarons filled with Dulce de Leche

I do love December, here in Germany advent is a special time with each Sunday being celebrated as one step closer to Christmas. I love the fact that, finally, it’s also the season in Germany for cookies. Can you believe it, you have to wait this long? I decided to go a little fancier today. Macarons are a perfect give-away, especially if you go with a strong coffee flavor as I did here, which cuts the sweetness of the macaron shells quite a bit. For that reason I thought salted caramel would be a good partner for coffee. But this is not regular caramel, no, it is dulce de leche, which means it is made of sweetened condensed milk, yum!

I have introduced a few macaron recipes on my blog. I started off with the summer version, which was also the first time I had ever made macarons. This was followed by heart-shaped macarons for Valentine’s. After that I introduced a recipe with real and strong strawberry flavor, until today I went for coffee macarons with dulce de leche filling.

16/12/2018

Classic French Tarte Tatin

Tart Tatin, simple, plain, classic. This is what you will get on my blog today. Reason for it was a colleague of mine you gifted me with some home-grown apples. So then I thought, finally I have the chance to actually introduce this classic recipe here, even though I have been making it for a while already. This time I wanted to do it the really old-fashioned way, you know, with an oven-proof skillet, with apples, caramel and a pastry dough. Can you believe that classic tarte tartin actually only contains four ingredients: apples, sugar, butter, and flour? You can add some spices such as cinnamon or ginger. But the one made with four ingredients will be amazing. I like both versions. You can see how I make the tart in this video.

12/10/2018