Franglais27 Tales

*I received a gift box for the purposes of this article but I was not contractually obligated to produce any content and all opinions within are my own.

Recette Sucrées as a bakery (pâtisserie) serving French inspired goods was always going to sound heavenly to a Francophile like me. Whilst, despite its name, the company may not have been established in 1859, its creation was inspired by a French recipe book from 1859. Recettes Sucrées operates as an online shop but adopts all of the concepts associated with French cooking and as such there are no additives included but there is that emphasis on homemade food with an enhancement of flavours. Important to Recettes Sucrées is the use of French seasonal products.

As many businesses are finding presently, there are difficulties in sourcing those seasonal products from other European countries and so Recettes Sucrées is solely operating from its online shop in Bournemouth. Recettes Sucrées can also be located as one of the producers participating in the Food and Drink Festival Online, which is where I first discovered this delightful bakery. As a testament to the quality of its baked goods, Recettes Sucrées has also been the recipient of awards such as being the 2018 Bursary Award winner in the BBC Good Food Show. Also, the Guild of Fine Food awarded the 2018 Great Taste Award to Recettes Sucrées with two gold stars.

There are many products to try ranging from hampers, with a delicious sounding rum cake, to those traditional French tartes, madeleines and even chocolate truffles to indulge in via the online shop for Recettes Sucrées. It may seem overwhelming simply to choose as everything sounds scrumptious! Each product is made to order and so there will be the option to pick and choose items for a purchase.

Additionally, online baking classes are offered but understandably these have been postponed for the time being. But, this could be the opportunity to indulge in some of the almond croissants and the chutneys from Recettes Sucrées for those summer picnic moments. Even simpler for picnics are the Treat Boxes for weekends. Within these boxes are a savoury sandwich, croque monsieur, frittata or quiche as well as salad, chutney and cake for that lunchtime balance. Such boxes also sound ideal for that return to work!

Recettes Sucrées’ founder had mentioned that this period is now ideal to prepare for the Christmas trade given the various delays with suppliers in these times of the pandemic. It would certainly be interesting to see whether there may be more rum cake produced for the Christmas period.

Unfortunately, I was unable to sample the rum cake but I did sample Kouign-Amann, which is a traditional cake from Brittany. Have you ever tried this cake before? You might have seen that I mentioned this cake for the first year anniversary Twitter quiz for Franglais27 Tales and so I can provide a summary. In Breton, the name of the cake is quite literally translated to that of ‘Butter Cake’. The word ‘kouign’ means cake and ‘amann’ means butter.

Buttery it certainly is! Kouign-Amann is caramelised with a firm texture which resembles a croissant at times. It is described on the packet as being a ‘caramelised puff pastry stuffed with almond cream’ and so it sounds scrumptious from the outset! It was certainly delicious; Kouign-Amann is rich, slightly sticky at moments and reminded me of a combination of a millefeuille, with the pastry layers, a croissant and a nata, but without the custard. It almost seems like a meal in itself and as it had been described in the New York Times newspaper as ‘the fattiest pastry in all of Europe’, you can probably imagine why!

Kouign-Amann is one of those desserts that is ideal as a celebratory treat or just because, like me, you enjoy indulging in French desserts at times! If you have not tried this Breton specialty before, it should be added to your list of treats and as it is individually wrapped it is the perfect treat for one!

Just as delicious and rich were the brownies in the pack! These arrived in a smaller box with the instructions to keep them chilled, which seemed to enhance the flavour. The dark chocolate taste was deep throughout the brownies with a dusting of cocoa powder on the outside. One of the brownies also contained nuts which offset the sweetness and emphasised the chocolate more with its molten centre. It is very deliciously moreish and is called the Crazy Brownie.

The second brownie, the Drunken Squirrel brownie, seemed to contain raisins and therefore was slightly sweeter, its texture seemed to be drier and more like a cake, but equally as rich with chocolate. Out of the two, I was partial to the nut filled brownie, as it was not as sweet, for that after dinner indulgent dessert which teases the taste buds with its multi-layered taste.

Both of the brownies are scrumptious and can be purchased in a box of six directly from the Recettes Sucrées website to support an independent business.

That was not where the chocolate treats stopped, however! There were also samples of crazy squirrel chocolate nuts to try! Surrounded by a chocolate coating with a dusting of cocoa powder, which reduces the sweet taste with a scrumptious, lingering bitter, dark chocolate flavour. These nuts were also moreish and ideal for a quick after work or post workout snack. A range of nuts from macadamia nuts to almonds were included within this individually wrapped package which are a compact size to take on holiday. These are truly a chocolate lover’s dream snack!

What would you choose from the Recettes Sucrées products? Let me know in the comments below.