French Pastries: 20 Delicious Desserts You Need to Try in France
French pastry chefs have produced some of the world’s best pastries, cakes, and desserts. The croissant is the most famous example but visit any pastry shop in France and you’ll find a wealth of delectable confections to swoon over.
If you’re planning a trip to Paris and have a taste for the sweeter things in life, then this list of the best French pastries will tell you exactly what you need to look for.
THE BEST FRENCH PASTRIES
1. Croissant
There’s no better way to start this article on the best French pastries than with the iconic croissant. This buttery, flaky pastry is the most popular French pastry and beloved by many breakfast lovers from around the world.
Named for its crescent shape, the croissant is made with a laminated yeast-leavened dough. The dough is layered with butter, rolled, and folded several times before being rolled into a thin sheet. The dough is cut into triangles and then folded into the familiar crescent shape before baking.
While baking, the water in the butter vaporizes and expands, causing the dough to puff up and separate. The fat in the butter essentially fries the dough which results in a light, layered, and flaky pastry similar to a puff pastry.
Interestingly, the croissant is associated with France but it’s actually Austrian in origin. It’s a type of viennoiserie pastry (meaning “things of Vienna”) derived from the kipferl – an Austrian crescent-shaped bread roll. A Viennese bakery became popular in Paris in the mid-19th century and inspired French bakers to create a French version of the kipferl, which they named after its crescent shape.
2. Croquembouche
What’s better than a choux pastry puff? How about dozens of choux pastry puffs piled into a cone and wrapped in thin threads of caramel? That’s exactly what the croquembouche is.
Also known as croque-en-bouche, which means “something that crunches in the mouth”, this tower of deliciousness is a common sight at weddings, banquets, and other gatherings. The choux pastry puffs are typically cream-filled and adorned with other tasty decorations like melted chocolate, sugared almonds, strawberries, and edible flowers.
3. Chouquette
If you like croquembouche, then you’re definitely going to enjoy chouquettes. They’re light and airy choux pastry puffs baked with sucre perlé or pearl sugar, a type of specialty sugar popular in Europe. They’re made by compressing sugar crystals together to form larger nibs that hold their shape and crunch and don’t dissolve into the pastry when baked.
Like croissants, chouquettes are a type of viennoiserie pastry. They’re sold in bakeries throughout France and are traditionally eaten for breakfast or as an afternoon snack.
4. Financier
A financier is a small, bite-sized French almond cake. Similar in size to petits fours, these small cakes are made with almonds, hazelnut, egg whites, flour, powdered sugar, and beurre noisette (brown butter). They’re typically baked in small rectangular molds and are known for having a light and moist interior with a slightly crispy outer crust.
Financiers were said to have been invented by the Vistadine order of nuns in the 17th century. It’s unclear how these small French cakes got their name, but one story claims that the name “financier” is derived from the rectangular mold that resembles a bar of gold.
Another theory claims that the name is linked to the Paris Stock Exchange. These small cakes became popular in the financial district because they could easily be stored in the pocket for long periods without being damaged.
5. Beignets
People from New Orleans are no strangers to these delicious pastries. Beignets are a type of deep-fried pastry made from pâte à choux. They’re originally from France and were brought to the Acadia region of Canada by French settlers sometime in the 17th century. Many Acadians later moved to Louisiana, bringing the beignet with them.
In New Orleans, beignets are typically shaped into squares and served hot with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. They’re traditionally eaten for breakfast or for dessert, usually with a cup of hot chocolate or café au lait.
In France, beignets are round or oval in shape and much more cake-like in texture compared to their airier and crispier American cousins. These yeastier beignets are also referred to as “boules de Berlin” in France because they’re made with a similar dough as the German Berliner doughnut.
6. Paris-brest
The Paris-Brest is another dessert that choux pastry lovers will surely enjoy. Shaped like a bicycle wheel, it refers to a pastry made with a ring of pâte à choux split in half and filled with a praline-flavored cream.
The Paris-Brest was invented in the early 20th century to commemorate the Paris-Brest-Paris bicycle race, hence its wheel-like shape. Studded with almonds and dusted with powdered sugar, it was an instant hit with cyclists competing in the race because of its high caloric value. Today, it’s widely available in patisseries throughout France.
