Or cake aux abricots in french! Apricots are plentiful this time of year and this is an easy way to use them to make a cake thats perfect as an afternoon snack.

Ingredients :

• 6 ripe apricots
• 3 large eggs
• 130g softened butter
• 125g sugar
• 1 sachet vanilla sugar
• 250g flour (I replaced half the flour with cornflour as this gives a lighter texture to the cake but just using flour is good too!)
• 1 teaspoon baking powder
• 1 large pinch of cinnamon

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Wash and dry the apricots, remove the stone and chop
3. Sieve the flour and the baking powder together
4. Use a fork to mash the softened butter until you get a beurre pommade*
5. Mix in the sugar, the vanilla sugar and the cinammon
6. Add in each egg separately, mixing well each time
7. Fold in the flour
8. Add in the chopped apricots
9. Bake in oven for 45 minutes (keep an eye on the cake, it might take less time)

*A beurre pommade is butter that has been let come to room temperature and then mixed with a fork or spoon until you get a spreadable mixture

Flaugnarde  or flognarde is a baked French dessert with fruit and a  thick flan-like batter hailing from the Limousin and Auvergne region in France. It is similar to a clafoutis, which is made with black cherries whereas a flaugnarde is made with apples, peaches, pears, plums, prunes etc. It can be served either warm or cold.

Ingredients :

• 100g flour
• 100g sugar
• 1 table spoon oil
• 300ml milk
• 200ml liquid cream (or liquid crème fraîche)
• 5 eggs
• 6 apples
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• Pinch of salt

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Peel and core the apples and slice into circles
3. Mix everything together in a bowl in the following order : flour, sugar, oil, milk, cream, salt
4. Beat eggs well and add to mixture
5. Butter a round oven dish and spread the apple slices around evenly
6. Pour the batter over the apples
7. Bake in oven for 45 minutes at 180°C

Sablé cookies are a traditional Christmas fare in France, although they are well loved all year round 🙂 They are from the Normandy region and are delicious plain but you can also dip them in dark chocolate or vary the flavourings – almond, orange zest, cinnamon etc.

The word sable means sand in French which is the term used when the English use the term “breadcrumbs”, as you rub the cold butter, flour and sugar together at the start of the recipe to make texture like breadcrumbs (or sand) before adding the egg.

Ingredients :

• 250g flour
• 125g butter
• 75g sugar
• 1 egg
• A few drops of vanilla essence
• I egg yolk (for brushing cookies before baking)

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Rub the flour, butter and sugar together until you get a breadcrumb texture
3. Make a well in the centre and add the egg and knead the dough into a ball
4. Leave the dough to rest for at least 30 minutes
5. Place on a smooth surface and roll out
6. Use cutters to cut out the cookie shapes
7. Brush the sablé cookies with egg yolk (to get a nice gold colour)
8. Bake in oven at 180°C for 12-15 minutes (keep an eye on them, once they are nice and golden remove from oven and place on cooling rack

Chocolate and pears go so well together, the dark chocolate and sweet moist pears make a lovely combination. I have already posted a pear and chocolate loaf , ideal with afternoon tea, this is more of a dessert which is perfect served with a scoop of ice-cream.

At this time of the year you can use fresh pears, making sure they are nice and ripe. You can always use a tin of pears too though!

Ingredients :

• 200 g dark chocolat (70%)
• 150 g butter
• 120 g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 130 g self-raising flour
• 4 pears

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Melt the butter and chocolat together in a bain-marie (put ingredients in bowl and place bowl in saucepan of water over a low heat)
3. Mix in the sugar
4. Separate the eggs into whites and yolks and add the yolks to the mixture
5. Fold in the flour
6. Beat the egg whites (with a pinch of salt) until stiff and gently fold them into the rest of the ingredients
7. Peel and core pears and slice in half
8. Grease and flour tin, place the pear halves on the bottom and cover with chocolate cake mixture
9. Bake in oven at 180°C for 40 minutes
10. Remove from tin immediately and place on rack to cool

Chocolate Pear Cake

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A gougère is a baked savory choux pastry made of choux dough mixed with cheese, usually gruyère or comté but you can use emmenthal or any hard cheese really – even cheddar!

Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• 100g grated gruyère (or you can use any hard cheese you have – cheddar, parmesan etc)
• 60g unsalted butter
• 150g flour
• 1 pinch of nutmeg
• 1/2 teaspoon of salt

Method :

1. Preheat oven to 210°C
2. Pour 25cl of water into a saucepan and add the butter, chopped in cubes and the salt
3. Bring to the boil
4. Add the flour and stir well with a wooden spatula
5. Continue stirring constantly for a few minutes until the dough pulls away from the side of the pot and forms a ball
6. Remove from heat and add each egg , one by one, mixing well between each one (Don’t worry if the batter separates and looks curdled at first, keep beating, and it will come together eventually!)
7. Add the grated cheese and nutmeg
8. Using two teaspoons make small balls of dough and place them on an oven tray covered in parchment paper (dip your spoons in a bowl of hot water between each scoop to avoid dough sticking to them)
9. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until well golden

Another loaf cake – this one is perfect for gouter but is also a nice breakfast cake!

Ingredients :

• 125g butter
• 100g sugar
• 3 eggs
• Zest and juice of two oranges
• 125g self-raising flour
• Icing sugar

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Cream the butter and half the sugar (50g) together
3. Separate the egg whites and yolks
4. Add the egg yolks, zest from two oranges and the juice of one orange to the butter and sugar and mix well
5. Slowly mix in the sieved flour
6. Brat the egg whites with the remaining half of the sugar (50g) until stiff
7. Gently mix the egg whites into the cake batter
8. Pour into a greased loaf tin and bake for 30 minutes in pre-heated oven at 180°C
9. Use the juice of the second orange to make a glaçage, mixing it with icing sugar until you get a sweet slightly thick sirop
10. Place loaf on cooling tray and, while it is still warm, pour the orange glaçage over the cake

Yet another loaf cake – my most used tin in the kitchen! Pears are in season at the moment, for this recipe just make sure they are nice and soft before using.

Ingredients :

• 3 pears
• 150g self-raising flour
• 80g sugar
• 3 eggs
• 90g butter (melted)
• 50 g dark chocolate

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Mix the flour, sugar, eggs and melted butter together
3. Peel and chop pears in small cubes
4. Break the chocolate into small pieces (or use ready made chocolate chips)
5. Add the pear and chocolate into the cake mixture and pour into loaf tin
6. Sprinkle some sliced almonds and chocolate on top of the cake
7. Bake in oven for 40-45 minutes at 180°C

This is another traditional french cake that is very popular at goûter time and is a real favourite with french kids.

Ingredients :

• 125g butter
• 200g self-raising flour
• 3 eggs
• 6 tablespoons of milk
• 200g sugar
• Vanilla essence
• 25g cocoa powder

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Cream the butter and the sugar together
3. Add the eggs, milk and flour and mix well
4. Separate the mixture in two halves
5. Add a few drops of vanilla essence to one half
6. Add the 25g of drinking chocolate to the other
7. Grease and flour your loaf tin
8. Pour in some of the vanilla mixture, followed by the chocolate mixture and repeat
9. Bake in pre-heated oven for 40 minutes

Financiers are a french pâtisserie made with ground almonds.  In 1890 the pâtissier Lasne re-visited an old recipe from the 17th century for a small oval cake called visitandines (called after the religious order of sisters who created the cake), using the same ingredients but changing the shape. As his shop was situated in the financial district in Paris and almost all his clients worked there, he called his cake a “financier” and gave it the shape of a gold bar.

Financiers are light and spongey and are a perfect accompaniment for afternoon tea. I have added raspberries to the recipe but you can make them without or juggle around with other flavours!

They are traditionally rectangular shape but if you don’t have this type of tin you can use a mini-muffin tin or a small bun tin instead.

Ingredients :

• 140g icing sugar
• 125g ground almonds
• 50g flour
• 150g butter (beurre noisette)
• 3 egg whites
• Raspberries
• Salt

Method :

1. Pre-heat oven to 180°C
2. Make a “beurre noisette” by melting the butter over a low heat until it turns golden brown (and gives off a nutty aroma hence the name) and leave to cool
3. In a bowl mix the sugar, flour, ground almonds and a pinch of salt
4. Add a pinch of salt to the egg whites and beat to a soft peak
5. Fold the egg whites into the dry ingredients
6. Mix in the cooled, melted butter
7. Spoon the mixture into the financier tin and place 2 or 3 raspberries on top, pressing down slightly
8. Bake in oven for 15 minutes

The quatre-quarts is a classic recipe from the french repertoire. Directly translated into english it means “four-quarters”. It originated in Brittany and its name comes from the fact that it is made up of 4 ingredients in equal quantities, each representing a quarter of the cake.

This is the traditional quatre-quarts recipe but you can then add different flavours etc – lemon, vanilla, apples

Ingredients :

• 4 eggs
• Same weight in flour
• Same weight in sugar
• Same weight in salted butter
• I heaped teaspoon of baking powder

Method :

1. Crack your eggs into a bowl and weigh them. 4 eggs weighs around 180g – 200g.
2. Use the weight of your eggs and weigh the exact same amount of flour, butter and sugar.
3. Melt butter and allow to cool
4. Beat the eggs with the sugar
5. In another bowl mix the flour and baking powder
6. Make a well in the flour and pour in the egg and sugar mixture and beat gently with a whisk
7. Add the melted butter and mix well
8. Pour batter into a greased loaf tin and bake for 50 minutes