French Desserts

By Food & Wine
Updated February 12, 2019
From classic macarons to buttery crêpes with Nutella, here are dozens of incredible French desserts to try. Make sure you have the right ramekins for your crème brûlée!
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Raspberry Macarons

Credit: Michael Turek
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These are among the simplest macarons, made with only sugar, almond flour, egg whites and red food coloring—and a filling of raspberry jam.

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Petits Pots à l'Absinthe

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Absinthe adds a subtle anise flavor to these puddings, which are delicious with berries.

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Semolina-Corn Sablés

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Sablés are crisp French butter cookies. Instead of baking them, William Werner dehydrates them. His other trick is to add crushed corn nuts to the dough for crunch.

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Country Apple Galette

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Jacques Pépin loves to serve this delicate apple tart as a buffet dessert, since it's beautiful, easy to slice and simple to eat, pizza-style, while standing. The miraculously easy and versatile pastry dough comes together in a food processor in less than 20 seconds and can be filled with all sorts of fruits or vegetables. Because the tart is free-form, the pastry can be rolled into either a round or a rectangle.

Recipes from Essential Pépin by Jacques Pépin. Copyright © 2011 by Jacques Pépin. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

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Apricot Pâte de Fruit

Credit: Edward Pond
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According to Jacques Pépin, "Pâtes de fruits, or fruit jellies, are very popular around the holidays—and usually expensive." In France, pâtes de fruits are sold in high-end pâtisseries or pastry shops. The French roll them in sanding sugar, which has large crystals that cling to the candy without melting. Table sugar also works, as long as the jellies are rolled in it just before serving.

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Crêpes Suzette

Credit: Con Poulos
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While restaurants traditionally make the buttery, orange-flavored sauce for this famous dessert tableside from start to finish, Pépin finds it easier to prepare largely in advance when entertaining. He flambés the liquor in front of his dinner guests and pours it over the platter of crêpes while still flaming.

Recipes from Essential Pépin by Jacques Pépin. Copyright © 2011 by Jacques Pépin. Reproduced by permission of Houghton Mifflin Harcourt. All rights reserved.

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Cream Puffs with Chocolate Sauce

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At Christmas, Elizabeth Katz likes to create a tower of fluffy, chocolate-covered cream puffs.

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Triple-Layer Chocolate Macaroon Cake

Credit: PHOTO © ANNA WILLIAMS
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Francois Payard's triple-layer chocolate macaroon cake is one of Kate Heddings's all-time favorite F&W recipes from the past 30 years.

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Gâteau Basque

Credit: Quentin Bacon
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There are many versions of this exquisite tart from the Pays Basque region of France. Daniel Boulud created his with pastry chef Eric Bertoiâ: A flaky crust surrounds a pastry cream dotted with brandied cherries.

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Blackberry Mousse and Honey-Tuile Napoleons

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Sue McCown's crunchy tuiles are wonderfully light and delicate. Layer them with the blackberry mousse just before serving, or they can become soggy.

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Brown-Butter Crêpes with Nutella and Jam

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To give his crêpes a subtle, nutty flavor, Mike Price browns the butter for his batter. "Any jam will go with hazelnuts and chocolate," the chef says. "You can't screw that up."

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Raspberry Clafoutis

Credit: Tina Rupp
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For this classic French dessert, Alix de Montille swapped in raspberries for the traditional cherries.

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Lemon-Ricotta Soufflés

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To make these individual soufflés sturdy, Maria Helm Sinskey uses choux pastry (the dough for gougères and profiteroles) mixed with airy meringue and ricotta. While the inside is nicely custardy, the edges and sides are deliciously crisp. The soufflés, which have a lovely, not-too-sweet lemon flavor, can be served hot, warm, or cool, when they become like mini citrus cakes.

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Pear Tarte Tatin with Red-Wine Caramel

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Instead of apple pie, Shawn McClain ends his Thanksgivings with this stunning tarte Tatin. Because the recipe calls for store-bought puff pastry (McClain is a huge fan of Dufour's), it's quite easy to prepare.

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Chocolate Tartlets with Candied Grapefruit Peel

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Orange is the classic choice with chocolate, but candied grapefruit peel has a little bitterness that is also enjoyable. Jacques Pépin prefers using a deep, strong, dark chocolate with about 70 percent cocoa—the richer the better.

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Bittersweet-Chocolate Tart

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Matcha-Macaron Ice Cream Sandwiches

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The French macaron is a simple cookie made with almonds, sugar and egg whites. The recipe here includes green tea powder (matcha), which gives it a delightful flavor.

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Jacques Pépin's Favorite Pound Cake

Credit: © Edward Pond
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The French call pound cake quatre-quarts ("four-fourths") because it is made with equal parts flour, sugar, eggs and butter. Jacques Pépin's mother, aunt and cousin all have their versions. He likes to fold in candied citrus peels to make a French fruit cake; he also loves plain slices dipped in espresso.

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Alsatian Rhubarb Tart

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Jean-Georges Vongerichten bakes the raw rhubarb in the raw pastry shell, rather than blind-baking (precooking) the crust. But the cooks in the F&W Test Kitchen discovered you can use Vongerichten's method only in a convection oven; in a conventional oven, the shell didn't bake through. That's why the recipe here calls for cooking the tart shell completely before adding the rhubarb. However you make this dessert, it's irresistibly tangy, creamy and frothy.

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Sweet Cherry Clafoutis

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Most chefs in France's Limousin region say that this creamy cake tastes best made with unpitted cherries. If this is too rustic for you, pit the cherries, roll them in sugar and freeze them; the frozen sugar grains seal the fruit, so juice doesn't stain the batter. Purists insist on local black cherries, but I think you can use any bold-flavored fruit, like apricots or plums.

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Lemon-Glazed Mini Pound Cakes

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These buttery individual pound cakes get their intense citrus flavor from a double glazing of lemon syrup.

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Pistachio Financiers

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Jing Tio likes to end dinner parties with rare fermented Chinese p'uerh tea and pistachio financiers, the absurdly easy-to-make buttery French cakes.

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Cocoa Crème Fraîche Cupcakes

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Meg Ray and Caitlin Alissa Williams usually bake this wonderfully rich cocoa crème fraîche batter in a loaf pan, but it bakes even faster in cupcake tins. If the amount of batter fills more than one standard 12-cup muffin pan, just bake the rest in sturdy foil baking cups set on a baking sheet.

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Butterscotch Crème Brûlée with Caramel Corn

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In his salute to dime-store sweets, pastry chef James Foran tops a silky butterscotch crème brûlée with his homemade Cracker Jack.

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Clay-Pot Tarte Tatin

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Flameware is perfect for preparing this French tart, as an ordinary clay pot may not be able to withstand the high heat required to caramelize the apples.

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Cherry-and-Chocolate Bûche de Noël

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Every year during Christmas week, pastry chef Dominique Ansel serves guests complimentary mini bûches de Noël. His version here is lighter than many, thanks to the beaten egg whites in the batter and the use of whipped cream in place of buttercream as frosting.

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Mango-Basil Vacherin

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Yigit Pura combines little lime meringue kisses with basil ice cream and sweet mango sorbet.

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