Pastry glossary

The French and technical words that keep coming up in these recipes, explained plainly.

Bain-mariele bain-marie: Cooking in a pan of hot water, in the oven or on the stove. The water cannot go above 100°C, so a custard sets slowly and evenly instead of scrambling at the edges. See: Crème Brûlée · Galaktoboureko · Fraisier
Beurre noisettele beurre noisette: Butter cooked past melting until the milk solids toast and it smells of hazelnut — which is what the French name means. It must be watched: the line between noisette and burnt is seconds wide. See: Financier · Madeleine · Zekra Pistachio Financiers
Blind bakingla cuisson à blanc: Baking a tart shell empty, weighted with beans or chains, before any wet filling goes in. Without it the base steams instead of crisping. See: Tarte Bourdaloue · Tarte Normande · Tarte aux Pralines Roses · Flan Pâtissier
Crème anglaisela crème anglaise: A pouring custard with no starch at all — milk, yolks and sugar stirred over gentle heat to about 85°C. One degree too far and it scrambles; there is nothing to protect it. See: Île Flottante · Poire Belle Hélène
Crème d'amande / frangipanela crème d'amande: Equal weights of butter, sugar, ground almonds and egg. Frangipane is that cream cut with pastry cream. Both puff slightly and set, which is why fruit sits on them without sinking. See: Tarte Bourdaloue · Pithiviers · Galette des Rois
Crème mousselinela crème mousseline: Pastry cream beaten with a large amount of soft butter until light. It holds its shape at room temperature, which is why cakes built with it stand up straight. See: Fraisier · Paris-Brest
Crème pâtissièrela crème pâtissière: Pastry cream: milk, egg yolks, sugar and starch cooked until it boils and thickens. The starch is what lets it boil without curdling, and what makes it firm enough to pipe. See: Mille-feuille · Flan Pâtissier · Croquembouche · Religieuse
Détrempela détrempe: The plain dough — flour, water, salt, a little yeast and butter — that a block of butter is later folded into. It is deliberately under-kneaded: too much gluten and it fights back when you roll it. See: Croissant · Pain au Chocolat
Dorurela dorure: Egg wash. Yolk alone gives deep colour, whole egg gives shine, and a little cream in it gives both. It also glues layers of pastry shut. See: Croissant · Pithiviers · Bratislavský rožok · Brioche
Fleur de sella fleur de sel: Sea salt raked by hand from the surface of salt pans. It stays in flakes instead of dissolving, so you taste it in bursts — which is the whole point in a Breton biscuit. See: Palet Breton · Kouign-amann
Ganachela ganache: Chocolate melted into hot cream in a fixed ratio. More cream makes a sauce, equal weights make a filling, more chocolate makes something you can slice. See: Opéra Cake · Dacquoise · Sachertorte
Génoisela génoise: A sponge leavened by air alone: whole eggs whipped with sugar (often warm) until tripled, then flour folded in. No baking powder, so every bubble you lose while folding is gone for good. See: Bûche de Noël · Fraisier · Gâteau de Savoie · Somlói Galuska
Hard-crack stagele grand cassé: Sugar syrup boiled to 148-154°C, the last stage before caramel. Dropped in cold water it sets into brittle threads — the point at which nougat and Nancy macarons are made. See: Nougat de Montélimar · Macaron de Nancy · Turrón
Italian meringuela meringue italienne: Egg whites whipped while a sugar syrup cooked to about 118°C is poured in. The hot syrup cooks the whites, so the meringue is stable enough to sit for hours. See: Macaron · Dacquoise · Bûche de Noël
Lamination (tourage)le tourage: Rolling and folding a butter block into the dough over and over, so a few layers become hundreds. Each fold is a 'turn'; the dough rests cold between them so the butter never melts into the flour. See: Croissant · Kouign-amann · Pain aux Raisins
Macaronagele macaronage: Folding almond flour and sugar into meringue exactly far enough — the batter should fall off the spatula in a slow, thick ribbon. Under-folded shells crack; over-folded ones spread flat. See: Macaron
Pâte à chouxla pâte à choux: A paste cooked twice: flour is beaten into boiling liquid on the stove, dried out, then eggs are worked in. It puffs hollow in the oven, which is the point — the cavity is for the cream. See: Éclair · Profiterole · Paris-Brest · Croquembouche · Chouquette
Pâte feuilletéela pâte feuilletée: Puff pastry: the same lamination without yeast. It rises purely on steam trapped between the butter layers, which is why it shatters instead of pulling apart. See: Mille-feuille · Palmier · Pithiviers · Chausson aux Pommes
Proofingl'apprêt: The last rise after shaping, before the oven. A laminated dough is ready when it wobbles as the tray is shaken — under-proofed and the butter leaks out instead of steaming. See: Croissant · Brioche · Kouglof · Korvapuusti
Ribbon stagele ruban: Eggs and sugar whipped until the mixture falls back on itself in a ribbon that holds for a second before sinking. It is the visual test that enough air is in. See: Cassata Siciliana · Gâteau de Savoie · Bûche de Noël
Sirop / soaking syruple sirop d'imbibage: Sugar syrup, often with alcohol or citrus, poured over a cake so it stays moist. Cold syrup on a hot cake, or hot on cold — never both the same temperature, or the crust goes soggy. See: Baba au Rhum · Portokalopita · Galaktoboureko · Somlói Galuska
Temperingtempérer: Warming eggs gently by pouring hot liquid into them in a thin stream while whisking, so they never meet full heat all at once and set into lumps. See: Crème Brûlée · Île Flottante · Flan Pâtissier