A pithivier (; french: pithiviers, ) is a round, enclosed

pie A pie is a baked dish which is usually made of a pastry dough casing that contains a filling of various sweet or savoury ingredients. Sweet pies may be filled with fruit (as in an apple pie), nuts ( pecan pie), brown sugar ( sugar pie), swe ...

usually made by baking two disks of

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 befo ...

, with a filling stuffed in between. It has the appearance of a hump and is traditionally decorated with spiral lines drawn from the top outwards with the point of a knife, and scalloping on the edge. It is named after the French town of

Pithiviers Pithiviers () is a communes of France, commune in the Loiret Departments of France, department, north central France. It is one of the Subprefectures in France, subprefectures of Loiret. It is twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, Eng ...

, where the dish is commonly assumed to originate. A small mound of filling is positioned at the centre of the underneath layer of pastry, rather than spread on it, so as to prevent it from leaking during baking. The pie is traditionally finished with a distinct shine to the top of the crust, by brushing on an

egg wash An egg wash is beaten eggs, sometimes mixed with another liquid such as water or milk, which is sometimes brushed onto the surface of a pastry before baking. Egg washes are also used as a step in the process of breading foods, providing a substra ...

beforehand, or by caramelising a dusting of

confectioner's sugar Powdered sugar, also called confectioners' sugar, or icing sugar, is a finely ground sugar produced by milling granulated sugar into a powdered state. It usually contains between 2% and 5% of an anti-caking agent – such as corn starch, ...

at the end of baking, or both. Made for

Epiphany Epiphany may refer to: * Epiphany (feeling), an experience of sudden and striking insight Religion * Epiphany (holiday), a Christian holiday celebrating the revelation of God the Son as a human being in Jesus Christ ** Epiphany season, or Epiph ...

, it is similar to the . The filling of the pithivier is often a sweet

frangipane Frangipane ( , ) is a sweet almond-flavored custard used in a variety of ways including cakes and such Pastry, pastries as the Bakewell tart, conversation tart, Jésuite and pithivier. A French spelling from a 1674 cookbook is ''franchipane'' w ...

(optionally combined with fruit such as cherry or plum), but savoury pies with vegetable, meat or cheese filling can also be called ''pithivier''.

References

Pies French pastries Almond dishes Holiday foods Puff pastry {{france-dessert-stub

See also

References