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), sweete ...

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 commune in the Loiret department, north central France. It is one of the subprefectures of Loiret. It is twinned with Ashby-de-la-Zouch in Leicestershire, England and Burglengenfeld in Bavaria, Germany. Its attractions incl ...

, 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 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, pot ...

at the end of baking, or both. Made for Epiphany, it is similar to the . The filling of the pithivier is often a sweet frangipane (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