In Paris, beautiful patisseries are around every corner, and you will find it hard to resist to the mouth-watering pastries displayed in the store fronts. Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann has selected the top 5 pastries you cannot miss during your stay in France!
1. Our most beloved pastry: the croissant!
The croissant is a pastry which was originally born in Austria, under the name “kipferl”, which means “crescent”.
The French croissant’s shape was inspired from an Austrian pastry, but the recipe is not the same. French pastry chefs make the croissant from leavened or unleavened puff pastry dough, which are both flaky and soft. After being rolled repeatedly, the pastry dough is folded into a traditional crescent shape. Once the baking has been made, you can taste an airy texture combined with a buttery, rich flavor. The crispy outside dough crackles when you bite it, giving way to a soft heart… The French croissant became an old pastry classic we warmly invite you to taste. For those of you who are fond of chocolate, you can also try the croissant’s cousin: the “pain au chocolat”!
In France, a croissant can either be straight or curved. It is said that straight croissants are made from butter, whereas curved croissants are made from other fats such as margarine.
2. Eclair, the very classic French pastry
If you are not a fan of rich, heavy desserts, the eclair is the ideal pastry for you. It is said that its name has two meanings. The first one is that it is a pastry so good that it is eaten as fast as lightning. The second one is that the success of this dessert spread as fast as lightning through the entire country, thus receiving the name eclair which means “lightning” in French.
The classic recipe of this pastry is made of choux dough, vanilla pastry cream filling and chocolate icing (frosting). In Galeries Lafayette you will find a great variety of creative eclair variations, such as coffee, blackcurrant, pistachio, coconut, lemon and many more. Our eclairs are prepared by pastry Chef Christophe Adam, who opened “L’Éclair de Génie” in december 2012.
3. French maracon, a crisp and mellow pastry
The French macaron is known for its airy texture and its delightful contrast of crispness and smoothness. This dainty meringue-based pastry is made with a ground-nut shell and a smooth filling of your choice. Macarons can be found in a wide variety of colors and tastes. At Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann, you will be able to discover many unique macaron flavors, such as matcha, cinnamon, pine, mandarin, rose or even foie gras, a popular and well-known delicacy in French cuisine, made with duck or goose liver. We invite you to read more about French macarons on our website.
Discover french pastry during your stay in Paris!
In the heart of the Opera district, in a quiet corner of Galeries Lafayette,
learn the tricks of our French pastry chef for pulling off perfect macarons.
4. Mille-feuille, the inspiration for the Papal Cream Cake
The origin of this dessert is not precisely known. The first information about it were found in 1651, in the book “Cuisinier françois by François Pierre de la Varenne”.
What is definitely known is that this pastry, also known as a “Napoleon” and “Vanilla slice” in England, or as “Kremovka papieska” (the pope’s cream) in Poland, delights dessert fans around the world. There are numerous variations of this cake that are generally made from the same ingredients: crispy thin layers of pastry that are filled with rich pastry cream and a topping of icing.
5. Paris-Brest, a pastry named after a French cycling race!
This bicycle wheel-shaped dessert, is a French pastry that was created at the request of Pierre Giffard, the creator of the Paris – Brest – Paris cycling race. This original and light dessert is made of a crispy choux dough and a light praline cream put between the pastry cream and the whipped cream. Like for every other French classical pastry, creative pastry chefs have developed numerous variations of the Paris-Brest: with cheesecake cream, almond pavlova, semifreddo praline or NY-Breizh donut shaped.
Once you’ve finished your tourist race at Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann, we invite you to enjoy one of the most famous French desserts just like the racers used to do at the end of the competition!
Where to find the best pastries in Paris?
If you are curious to try all our other delicious French pastries, meet us at Maison & Gourmet! We also invite you to Liberté, Galeries Lafayette Paris Haussmann’s bakery, located on the Ground Floor of Maison & Gourmet. There, you can watch our pastry Chef in action, and discover every detail of the bread-making process.
Maison & Gourmet, the finest delicacies
35, Boulevard Haussmann
75009 PARIS
