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.
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The Breton Cake or Gâteau Breton
Originating from the Lorient region, the Breton cake is a generous salted butter shortbread with a crust decorated with crosses drawn with a fork. In the past, it was considered a "travel cake" because it could be kept for several weeks, which made it a sailor's delicacy. Measuring 12 to 25 cm in diameter and 3 to 4 cm thick, this large biscuit must contain at least 20% butter to be called a "Breton cake". You might find this cake is sometimes filled with prune cream or salted butter caramel.
The Breton Cake comes in as the #1 most popular dessert in Brittany. Read our full post and get the traditional recipe of Breton Cake.
The Breton far
This is the great classic #2! It's easy to make with only flour, eggs, milk, butter and sugar, and is cooked in the oven. Simple but delicious! Quite filling, it knows how to satisfy greedy stomachs at snack time.
In its most famous version, it contains prunes that sailors used to bring back dried from their voyages and which add a fruity touch to the traditional recipe. You can also add raisins and a dash of rum.
Get our traditional Breton Far recipe to bake at home.
The Kouign-Amann - the #1 Breton Cake
Less well known outside of France, but romping in as the #1 most loved cake in Brittany, is the caramelised Kouign-Amann. Invented in Douarnenez around 1865, this pastry is sure to melt all gourmets. It is made with simple ingredients, but requires a real knack to get it right. Made from bread dough with sugar and salted butter it's folded to create a pastry like puff pastry. The quality of the salted butter and the resting time of the dough are essential to its success. During cooking, the butter-sugar mixture melts, giving the cake a soft texture on the inside and a caramelised exterior.
Bake your own cakes with our Kougin-Amann Recipe.
Breton Butter Biscuits
Breton biscuits, also called Sablés Breton, are thin round serrated butter biscuits. The tasty butter biscuits were made famous by Isidore Penven in 1890. The "galettes de Pont-Aven" have become one of the most famous specialities of Brittany.
Served in tea rooms and with coffee, these little biscuits are also the perfect gift to take when invited by friends to dinner. Packaged in the most beautiful tins, a gift of these biscuits is also practicable with the tins suitable for storing sewing items, watercolour painting supplies, pencils and pens, or cooking fèves.
Find out more about these iconic French biscuits and get a recipe to try at home in our post Breton Butter Cookies Sablé Breton
Salted Butter Caramels
Salted butter caramel (caramel au beurre salé) was created in 1977 by French pastry chef Henri Le Roux in Quiberon, Brittany. Using Breton demi-sel butter, salted butter caramels are synonymous with the region of Brittany.
These traditional treats are one of the most popular choices for tourists to take home as a reminder of their visit to the Breton region with its dramatic coastline, medieval towns and thick forests. Wrapped in either cellophane bags with decorative ribbons or packaged in bright and attractive tins, salted butter caramels are impossible to resist.
The lace crepe - a delicious Breton Cake
The lace crêpe is better known as the Gavotte and was invented in 1886 by crêpe maker Marie-Catherine Cornic. The story goes that Marie-Catherine forgot a crêpe that was cooking on her billig, and so rather than bin it, she wrapped the overdone lacy crêpe around itself and served it as a treat. Gavottes are wrapped eight times over themselves and flavoured with chocolate as a sweet option, and served on their own as a savoury aperitif.
Boulangeries and supermarkets sell both sweet and savoury Gavottes and sometimes you'll find them being cooked fresh at markets.
The Niniches
Brittany also has its own artisanal lollipops, which are called Niniches. In Quiberon , the Maison d'Armorine confectionery offers around fifty of them, based on original recipes based on caramel or fruit.
How many of these top Breton cakes have you tried? Do you have a favourite?
