French Recipes
1126 recipes found
Classic Brioche
A classic brioche should be tender, eggy and contain croissant levels of rich, delicious butter. Sure, it requires a stand mixer (incorporating the butter by hand wouldn't be possible by most bakers' standards) and 24 hours, but the results are bakery-worthy. It can be made in one day, but an overnight stay in the refrigerator will not only give the dough a deeper flavor, but it will also firm up the butter, making the dough easier to shape and handle when it comes time to bake.
Whole-Wheat Seeded Loaves
This is a whole-wheat adaptation of Jacquy Pfeiffer’s seeded bread from “The Art of French Pastry.” The seeds and the flaked oats are soaked overnight before they’re mixed into the dough. This allows them to absorb moisture and softens them, so that the bread is wonderfully moist, and the seeds won’t be hard on your teeth when you bite. Soaking the seeds also breaks down phytic acid and protease inhibitors, which allows the nutrients to be more readily absorbed by the body. This is a two-day recipe, as you must allow time for soaking the seeds overnight.
Pain au Chocolat
Chocolate sticks called “batons” are made especially for rolling easily into pain au chocolat. Here, two batons are spiraled into the dough so you get rich pockets of chocolate in each bite of flaky croissant. You can order batons online, but regular chocolate bars, cut crosswise into thin sticks, work just as well. Either way, use a good-quality chocolate. (Make sure your first attempt at croissants is a successful one, with these tips, and Claire Saffitz’s step-by-step video on YouTube.)
Country Bread With Apples
This is a whole wheat version of a classic Norman country bread. Normandy is apple country and apples find their way into many dishes in this region. I came across the bread in “Bread Alone” by Daniel Leader, and have adapted the recipe. The dough ferments overnight in the refrigerator, and after it has come back to room temperature the chopped apples are kneaded in. It goes beautifully with cheese.
Croissants
This recipe is a detailed roadmap to making bakery-quality light, flaky croissants in your own kitchen. With a pastry as technical as croissants, some aspects of the process — gauging the butter temperature, learning how much pressure to apply to the dough while rolling — become easier with experience. If you stick to this script, buttery homemade croissants are squarely within your reach. (Make sure your first attempt at croissants is a successful one, with these tips, and Claire Saffitz’s step-by-step video on YouTube.)
Jambon Beurre
Unlike ham and cheese, a sandwich that’s ubiquitous across the globe, jambon beurre (ham butter) is strictly French. Though it’s a seemingly sparse construction — simply baguette, cooked ham and butter — the ingredients for this interpretation from L’Ami Pierre in New York require careful selection. High-quality baguettes are now sold in many bakeries. High-butterfat butter enhances the sandwich, providing more fat than 80 percent supermarket standard, and the ham, preferably silky jambon de Paris, a cooked ham sliced, in the finer shops, from a bone-in joint, can make it or break it. French-style or similar cooked ham is available in many areas; to avoid are boneless, often waterlogged deli hams. Like most sandwiches, this one is designed as a treat for one, but, cut into smaller sections and served on a platter, it can enhance a buffet, even at holiday time.
Provencal Crown Roast
Steamed Mussels With Tomatoes and Chorizo
This is a no-recipe recipe, a recipe without an ingredients list or steps. It invites you to improvise in the kitchen. Simplicity itself, if you can find a bag of mussels at the store. Scrub and debeard them as necessary. Then grab a big pot, and use it to sauté some cubed chorizo in olive oil over medium-high heat. When it starts to crisp, add a few handfuls of halved cherry tomatoes and a clove or two of chopped garlic. Let the tomatoes blister in the fat, then add the mussels and a glass of white wine. Cover the pot and allow the mussels to steam open. (If at the end you have mussels that haven’t opened, ditch them: They’re dead.) Garnish with chopped parsley and serve with plenty of toast for the sopping. Sam Sifton features a no-recipe recipe every Wednesday in his What to Cook newsletter. Sign up to receive it. You can find more no-recipe recipes here.
Paris-Brest
Named for a bicycle race that runs between Paris and Brest, France, this show-stopping dessert is an assemblage of praline-flavored mousseline piped inside a ring of pâte à choux designed to resemble a bike wheel. The recipe might appear daunting, but all of the components can be prepared separately and in advance, so assembly isn’t a monumental effort.
Classic Kouign-Amann
A yeast-risen pastry with soft layers, deep buttery flavor and a chewy, caramelized top, this recipe, adapted from Nicolas Henry of the Montreal patisserie Au Kouign-Amann, celebrates the classic Breton kouign-amann, traditionally made as a round skillet cake and served as slices. There’s no shortcut and no substitute for the repetition needed to perfect this pastry. But you are in good hands: The process is a series of simple steps, with plenty of opportunities to make ahead. And the results of your efforts are sure to please, whether it accompanies your morning coffee, serves as a delightful afternoon snack or stunningly ends a meal. You’ll need an oven-safe nonstick skillet for this cake. A cast-iron skillet will work, but will produce a deeper, more caramelized result.
Pommes Boulangère
Like a creamless gratin, this potato casserole gets its flavor and richness from caramelized onions and chicken (or turkey) stock. For a sliceable texture, bake the casserole ahead of time and let it cool completely (during which time the gelatin in the stock and the starch in the potatoes will set), then reheat before serving.
Chocolate Soufflés
While soufflés are delicate and sensitive creations, they're also fundamentally simple, consisting of a flavored base that's lightened with beaten egg whites. The keys to success are beating the egg whites properly so they're stable and voluminous, working quickly to prevent their collapse, and thoroughly greasing the ramekins so the mixture can rise unencumbered in the oven.
Almond Croissants
Rum simple syrup and toasted almond cream — both quick and easy to assemble — are all you need to transform stale homemade or store-bought croissants into deliciously sweet and fragrant pastries. The amount of syrup might feel excessive, but it’s needed to replace the moisture lost in the croissants as they become stale, so be generous when soaking them.
Fresh Fig Tart
The photogenic tart will make you look like a pastry chef, though it's no more difficult than baking a pie. A sweet tart crust is layered with almond cream, fig jam (homemade is nice, but store-bought works well, too) and fresh figs. The key to success is superb figs. They can’t be so jammy that they collapse when you cut them into quarters or sixths. But they should be sweet and ripe. The dough recipe below makes two crusts, one for now and one for later (store extra dough, well-wrapped, in the freezer).
Apple and Swiss Chard Pie
This is a version of a classic French tourte aux blettes, a Swiss chard pie made with abundant chard, raisins, pine nuts, Parmesan or Gruyère, sugar and apples. But here, the usual olive-oil crust has been swapped for a flaky butter-based pâte brisée.
Provençal Greens Soup
In France this simple, nutritious soup is made with wild greens that you might forage on an afternoon’s walk, such as nettles, watercress and dandelion greens. If you must use one green, make it Swiss chard. The soup can be prepared through step 1 several hours before serving.
The court-bouillon
Provençal Salmon With Fennel, Rosemary and Orange Zest
In 1998, Mark Bittman and Katy Sparks, then chef of Quilty's in Manhattan, developed this easy recipe for salmon encrusted with fennel seeds, rosemary and orange zest. It's a simple though sophisticated twist on weeknight salmon. A couple things to keep in mind when making this dish: Make sure you use fillets of equal size. Buy skinned salmon fillet from the thick (that is, not the tail) end of the fish then cut across the fillet to make the four pieces. Also, allow the fish to sit for a while after coating to encourage the fragrant seasonings to permeate the flesh of the fish.
Béarnaise Sauce
Béarnaise sauce is a piquant child of hollandaise, one of the so-called mother sauces of French cuisine. It is simply an emulsification — egg yolks and butter cut through with vinegar flavored with tarragon and shallots, with a bite of black pepper. Think of it as a loose mayonnaise, requiring only plenty of whisking and a careful hand with the heat to master. You don’t need the clarified butter many recipes call for — a good unsalted butter, melted, works just fine. Apply the sauce to steaks or burgers, asparagus or salmon. The sauce’s richness improves virtually everything it touches.
Salade Niçoise With Yogurt Vinaigrette
The market tomatoes, green beans, peppers, cucumbers and lettuces were irresistible, and we would have been happy to dine on this iconic Provençal salad every day. I’m making the anchovies optional in this recipe, but they are always included in the authentic salade niçoise.
Lamb Chili With Lentils
Mr. Franey brought this French-inspired variation of the American classic to The Times in 1993 his 60-Minute Gourmet column. In a nod to his country of origin, he calls for lamb instead of beef, and tiny green lentils for red kidney beans. Beyond that, you'll recognize most of the players – onions, garlic, celery, red pepper, jalapeño, cumin and chile powder. It is a sophisticated take on traditional cowboy fare. Serve it alone or over rice.
French Yogurt Cake With Marmalade Glaze
In France, this cake is usually served with a little sweetened crème fraiche, but it lends itself to other toppings as well. Fresh soft fruit, like sliced peaches or plums, is a natural with this as is berries with a touch of sugar. And, because the cake is plain and just a little tangy from the yogurt, it pairs happily with lemon cream, curd or mousse and is delicious with chocolate mousse or chocolate sauce.
Beurre Blanc (Classic French Butter Sauce)
This is a classic butter sauce. It works well with fish. It’s flexible, too, and can take on flavors like chile, ginger and mustard.
Mushroom Bourguignon
Meaty mushrooms simmered with pearl onions, wine and carrots make for a rich, wintry Bourguignon-style stew. The quality of the stock here makes a big difference, so if you’re not using homemade, buy a good brand. If you’re a meat eater, beef broth adds a familiar brawny character to this dish, but mushroom or vegetable broth work just well, especially because the whole dish is rounded out with a tamari for depth. For the best flavor, use as many kinds of mushrooms as you can get, and let them really brown when searing; that caramelization adds a lot of depth to the sauce. Maitake mushrooms give this a brisketlike texture, in a very good way.