Petit Four
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Petit Four
A petit four (plural: petits fours, also known as mignardises) is a small bite-sized confectionery or savory appetizer. The name is French, ''petit four'' (), meaning "small oven". History and etymology In 18th and 19th century France, gas ovens did not exist. Large brick (Dutch design) ovens were used, which took a long time to heat up to bake bread, but also to cool down. Bakers used the ovens during the cooling process, taking advantage of their stored heat, for baking pastry. This was called baking ''à petit four'' (literally "at small oven"), a lower temperature which allowed pastry baking. Types Petits fours come in three varieties: * ''Glacé'' ("glazed"), iced or decorated tiny cakes covered in fondant or icing, such as small éclairs, and tartlets * ''Salé'' ("salted"), savory bite-sized appetizers usually served at cocktail parties or buffets * ''Sec'' ("dry"), dainty biscuits, baked meringues, macarons, and puff pastries In a French patisserie, assorte ...
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France
France (), officially the French Republic ( ), is a country primarily located in Western Europe. It also comprises of Overseas France, overseas regions and territories in the Americas and the Atlantic Ocean, Atlantic, Pacific Ocean, Pacific and Indian Oceans. Its Metropolitan France, metropolitan area extends from the Rhine to the Atlantic Ocean and from the Mediterranean Sea to the English Channel and the North Sea; overseas territories include French Guiana in South America, Saint Pierre and Miquelon in the North Atlantic, the French West Indies, and many islands in Oceania and the Indian Ocean. Due to its several coastal territories, France has the largest exclusive economic zone in the world. France borders Belgium, Luxembourg, Germany, Switzerland, Monaco, Italy, Andorra, and Spain in continental Europe, as well as the Kingdom of the Netherlands, Netherlands, Suriname, and Brazil in the Americas via its overseas territories in French Guiana and Saint Martin (island), ...
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Tartlet
A tart is a baked dish consisting of a filling over a pastry base with an open top not covered with pastry. The pastry is usually shortcrust pastry; the filling may be sweet or savoury, though modern tarts are usually fruit-based, sometimes with custard. Tartlet refers to a miniature tart; an example would be egg tarts. The categories of "tart", " flan", "quiche", and "pie" overlap, with no sharp distinctions. History The French word ''tarte'' can be translated to mean either pie or tart, as both are mainly the same with the exception of a pie usually covering the filling in pastry, while flans and tarts leave it open. Tarts are thought to have either come from a tradition of layering food, or to be a product of Medieval pie making. Enriched dough (i.e. short crust) is thought to have been first commonly used in 1550, approximately 200 years after pies. In this period, they were viewed as high-cuisine, popular with nobility, in contrast to the view of a commoners pie. While ...
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List Of French Desserts
This is a list of desserts from the French cuisine. In France, a chef who prepares desserts and pastries is called a pâtissier, who is part of a kitchen hierarchy termed ''brigade de cuisine'' (kitchen staff). French desserts * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * Ice-cream * * * * * * * * * Galette des Rois - Kings' cake. Traditionally served between January 6th-12th. File:Ujuvad saarekesed.jpg, A floating island is a dessert consisting of meringue floating on crème anglaise. File:Chocolate Mendiants 12-20-09 -- 20091220 0312jpg (4201735363).jpg, Mendiants are a traditional French confection. File:Cream puff (cropped and edited).jpg, A profiterole, sometimes referred to as a cream puff in other cultures File:Tarte.tatin.wmt.jpg, Tarte Tatin is an upside-down tart in which the fruit (mostly apples) are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked. French pastries * * * * * ...
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Dessert
Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and most parts of China, there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal. The term ''dessert'' can apply to many confectionery, confections, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatin dessert, gelatins, ice creams, pastry, pastries, pies, puddings, macaroons, tong sui, sweet soups, tarts, and fruit salad. Fruit is also commonly found in dessert courses because of its naturally occurring sweetness. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly umami, savory to create desserts. Etymology The word "dessert" originated from the French word ''desservir,'' meaning "to clear the table". Its first known use in English was in 1600, in a health education manual entitled ''Naturall and artificial Directions for Health'', w ...
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Puff Pastry
Puff pastry, also known as ', is a flaky light pastry made from a laminated dough composed of dough (') and butter or other solid fat ('). The butter is put inside the dough (or vice versa), making a ' that is repeatedly folded and rolled out before baking. The gaps that form between the layers left by the fat melting are pushed (leavened) by the water turning into steam during the baking process. History Modern puff pastry, used nowadays in European cuisine was created in France. The oldest recipe of puff pastry in France was written in a charter by bishop Robert of Amiens in 1311. However, the first recipe of the technique of ''tourage'' (the action of putting a piece of butter inside the dough and folding several time the dough) was published in 1651 by François Pierre La Varenne in ''.'' But it is considered that the invention of this technique was an idea of the famous painter Claude Gellée when he was an apprentice baker in 1612. The story goes that Lorrain was making a ...
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Macaron
A macaron ( , ) or French macaroon ( ) is a sweet meringue-based confection made with egg white, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond meal, and food colouring. The macaron is traditionally held to have been introduced in France by the Italian chef of queen Catherine de Medici during the Renaissance. Since the 19th century, a typical Parisian-style macaron is presented with a ganache, buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two such cookies, akin to a sandwich cookie. The confection is characterized by a smooth squared top, a ruffled circumference—referred to as the "crown" or "foot" (or "pied")—and a flat base. It is mildly moist and easily melts in the mouth. Macarons can be found in a wide variety of flavours that range from traditional (raspberry, chocolate) to unusual (foie gras, matcha). Name There is some variation in whether the term ''macaron'' or ''macaroon'' is used, and the related macaroon, coconut macaroon is often confused with the macaron. In Nort ...
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Meringue
Meringue (, ; ) is a type of dessert or candy, often associated with Swiss, French, Polish and Italian cuisines, traditionally made from whipped egg whites and sugar, and occasionally an acidic ingredient such as lemon, vinegar, or cream of tartar. A binding agent such as salt, flour or gelatin may also be added to the eggs. The key to the formation of a good meringue is the formation of stiff peaks by denaturing the protein ovalbumin (a protein in the egg whites) via mechanical shear. Its flavorants are vanilla, a small amount of apple juice, or orange juice, although if extracts of these are used and are based on an oil infusion, an excess of fat from the oil may inhibit the egg whites from forming a foam. They are light, airy and sweet confections. Homemade meringues are often chewy and soft with a crisp exterior, while many commercial meringues are crisp throughout. A uniform crisp texture may be achieved at home by baking at a low temperature () for an extended period ...
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Biscuits
A biscuit is a flour-based baked and shaped food product. In most countries biscuits are typically hard, flat, and unleavened. They are usually sweet and may be made with sugar, chocolate, icing, jam, ginger, or cinnamon. They can also be savoury, similar to crackers. Types of biscuit include sandwich biscuits, digestive biscuits, ginger biscuits, shortbread biscuits, chocolate chip cookies, chocolate-coated marshmallow treats, Anzac biscuits, '' biscotti'', and ''speculaas''. In most of North America, nearly all hard sweet biscuits are called " cookies", while the term " biscuit" is used for a soft, leavened quick bread similar to a less sweet version of a ''scone''. "Biscuit" may also refer to hard flour-based baked animal feed, as with dog biscuit. Variations in meaning * In most of the world outside North America, a biscuit is a small baked product that would be called either a " cookie" or a " cracker" in the United States and sometimes in Canada. Biscuits in ...
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Buffet
A buffet can be either a sideboard (a flat-topped piece of furniture with cupboards and drawers, used for storing crockery, glasses, and table linen) or a system of serving meals in which food is placed in a public area where the diners serve themselves. A form of ''service à la française'', buffets are offered at various places including hotels, restaurants, and many social events. Buffet restaurants normally offer all-you-can-eat food for a set price, but some measure prices by weight or by number of dishes. Buffets usually have some hot dishes, so the term cold buffet (see Smörgåsbord) has been developed to describe formats lacking hot food. Hot or cold buffets usually involve dishware and utensils, but a finger buffet is an array of foods that are designed to be small and easily consumed only by hand, such as cupcakes, slices of pizza, foods on cocktail sticks, etc. The essential feature of the various buffet formats is that the diners can directly view the food and imm ...
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Appetizer
An hors d'oeuvre ( ; french: hors-d'Å“uvre ), appetiser or starter is a small dish served before a meal in European cuisine. Some hors d'oeuvres are served cold, others hot. Hors d'oeuvres may be served at the dinner table as a part of the meal, or they may be served before seating, such as at a reception or cocktail party. Formerly, hors d'oeuvres were also served between courses.''Oxford English Dictionary'', First Edition, 189''s.v.''/ref> There are two types of hors d'oeuvre from service point of view: # General hors d'oeuvre # Classical hors d'oeuvre General hors d'oeuvres include cold preparations such as salad, cold meat, and fish. Classical hors d'oeuvres include fruit juice and soft drinks, grapefruit, shellfish cocktail, and so on. Typically smaller than a main dish, an hors d'oeuvre is often designed to be eaten by hand. Etymology in French literally means "outside the work"; that is, "not part of the ordinary set of courses in a meal". In practice, i ...
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Éclair (pastry)
An éclair (, ; ) is a pastry made with choux dough filled with a cream and topped with a flavored icing. The dough, which is the same as that used for profiterole, is typically piped into an oblong shape with a pastry bag and baked until it is crisp and hollow inside. Once cool, the pastry is filled with custard (''crème pâtissière''), whipped cream or chiboust cream, then iced with fondant icing. Montagné, Prosper, ''Larousse gastronomique: the new American edition of the world's greatest culinary encyclopedia'', Jenifer Harvey Lang, ed., New York: Crown Publishers, 1988, p. 401 Other fillings include pistachio- and rum-flavoured custard, fruit-flavoured fillings, or chestnut purée. The icing is sometimes caramel, in which case the dessert may be called a bâton de Jacob. A similar pastry in a round rather than oblong shape is called a Religieuse. Etymology The word comes from the French ''éclair'', meaning "flash of lightning", so named because it is eaten quickly ( ...
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Dessert
Dessert is a course (food), course that concludes a meal. The course consists of sweet foods, such as confections, and possibly a beverage such as dessert wine and liqueur. In some parts of the world, such as much of Greece and West Africa, and most parts of China, there is no tradition of a dessert course to conclude a meal. The term ''dessert'' can apply to many confectionery, confections, such as biscuits, cakes, cookies, custards, gelatin dessert, gelatins, ice creams, pastry, pastries, pies, puddings, macaroons, tong sui, sweet soups, tarts, and fruit salad. Fruit is also commonly found in dessert courses because of its naturally occurring sweetness. Some cultures sweeten foods that are more commonly umami, savory to create desserts. Etymology The word "dessert" originated from the French word ''desservir,'' meaning "to clear the table". Its first known use in English was in 1600, in a health education manual entitled ''Naturall and artificial Directions for Health'', w ...
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