French recipe | A French Collection

French Crêpe Recipe

A crêpe is an easy food to make using batter or dough that is cooked on a frying pan or griddle. A traditional French food and regionally a dish served in Brittany, there are two types of crêpes. Sweet crêpes (crêpes sucrées) or savoury galettes (crêpes salées). Both can be served with a variety of toppings and are delicious. Cider is a popular choice of drink to enjoy with crêpes or galettes.

French Crêpe Recipe

We eat loads of crêpes and galettes living in Brittany whether we dine out, or cook at home. You can add just about anything on top, they are quick to make and are very tasty. Here's an easy traditional recipe for you to try at home.

Crêpe Suzette Recipe

In true French style, the famous Crêpe Suzette dessert with the delicious orange sauce is surrounded by legends and mystic as to how it was created and how it acquired its now famous name.

Legend goes that in 1896 the Prince of Wales (the future King Edward VII) was dining with a young lady named Suzette at Café de Paris in sunny Monte Carlo and he ordered hot pancakes. As fortune would have it the young pastry chef Henri Charpentier, who was in charge of preparing the dessert, accidentally spilt alcohol on his crêpe.

The Best of Breton Cakes – Brittany’s Most Popular Desserts

Life in Brittany includes our fair share of delicious cakes and especially the cakes traditional to the region which are collectively called 'Breton cakes', even though this broadly includes biscuits, lollipops and caramels.

The Best of Breton Cakes - Brittany's Most Popular Desserts

Breton cakes are famous for their layers of pastry and creamy butter which is proudly produced locally. The most well known of the 'Breton Cakes' is the Gâteau Breton (Breton Cake), Far Breton and the Kouign-Amann. Surprisingly, the popularity of these desserts with inhabitants of Brittany doesn't correspond with how well known in general.

Sweets that have originated in the region include Salted Caramels, Niniches (artisanal lollipops from Quiberon), and Gavotte (a lacy golden mini crêpe). Breton butter cookies (Sablés Breton) are also a very popular dessert in Brittany. You'll find them in prettily packaged in tins in just about all supermarkets, souvenir stores, markets and in many boutique boulangeries.

Pot-a-feu Recipe

Pot-au-feu is one of those quintessential meals you'll find served up in homes across France. It's a great family meal that easily feeds a few and can even be varied depending on what you have available. Here's a delicious Pot-a-feu recipe for you to try.

Pot-a-feu Recipe

Pot-a-feu translates to 'pot in the fire' and refers to the slow cooking of meat and vegetables in a pot, historically over the kitchen fireplace (fire). I cook mine in a dutch oven and it cooks well. Although this meal takes time, it's well worth the effort.

Pot-a-feu can be served a couple of different ways. Either with the broth, meat and vegetables all together, or with the broth served alone as the first course and then the meat and veggies as the second course. When served as two courses, it's usual for the platter with the meat and veggies to be accompanied by small dishes of horseradish or Dijon mustard.

French Béarnaise Sauce Recipe

Béarnaise Sauce Recipe

This Béarnaise sauce recipe goes well with fish, chicken or vegetable but it seems to naturally accompany steak best of all. You'll often get a little dish of homemade béarnaise sauce on the side when you order steak or chicken at a French café, so I thought you'd like to try this elegant version of béarnaise sauce. It's the result of trying a few different recipes and tweaking it to suit my cooking style.

Cassoulet Recipe: A French Winter Favourite

Cassoulet recipe

Cassoulet Recipe: A French Winter Favourite

Do the colder months of the year make you feel like cooking warm and hearty meals? If so, you’ll love this winter recipe of Cassoulet. Just right for eating in front of a glowing fire, or when friends come over for a relaxed evening of games and fire side chatting.

Cassoulet takes its name from the traditional casserole dish that is used for cooking this stew. It varies regionally in the South of France with the best-known versions originating from Carcassonne, Toulouse and Castelnaudary.

Annette Charlton

Annette lives with her family between their homes in France and Australia. She’s been featured in International magazines including French Property News, on numerous blogs and travel websites and appeared on ABC National Radio. You can connect on Instagram or Facebook.

www.afrenchcollection.com

The Matchmaker of Périgord: Book Review

The Matchmaker of Périgord: Book review

Guillaume Ladoucette is the local barber of Amour-Sur-Belle; a village described as being so ugly that the English refuse to live there. Guillaume is forced to give up his business due to the advancing age of his customers and their increasing baldness.

So needing to work and occupy himself, he sets himself up as a matchmaker, because contrary to the name of his village – Amour-Sur-Belle, its inhabitants are very much lacking in love.

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Annette Charlton

www.afrenchcollection.com

Gugelhupf Cake Recipe – An Alsace Classic

Gugelhupf Cake Recipe – An Alsace Classic Cake

Have you baked a Gugelhupf Cake? It’s a classic Alsace recipe and easy to bake. We often cook them around Christmas time when we’ve eaten enough Christmas fruit cake and want something different that’s easy to bake and that we can share with visitors.

I like a good rich fruit cake but it doesn’t take me long during the Christmas holidays to get sick of eating fruit cake. That’s when I dig around my pantry, pull out my Gugelhupf cake tin and marzipan and strap on my apron.

Annette Charlton