Just as Chinese people around the world eat mooncakes during the Mid-Autumn Festival, what is the traditional Christmas dessert that the French must eat as Christmas approaches? Let’s talk about related topics in today’s episode!
Bûche de Noël (split wood cake)
When we visit French families at Christmas, we find that the hosts always serve their guests a split-wood cake from the cupboard during dessert. In the past, people used to go to the woods before Christmas Eve to collect firewood and put it in the fireplace to thank the winter sun for its warmth. With the disappearance of the fireplace, the real tree trunks were replaced by “split-wood cakes” for the first time in 1870, and served on the Christmas Eve table.
The beloved woodchopper cake can be made in a variety of ways, and today, in addition to the traditional cream and chocolate, vanilla, coffee, strawberries, and almonds are common ingredients for Christmas woodchoppers. In addition to the cake option, many families are now buying ice cream in the shape of a chopped wood for dessert.
Marron Glacé with Iced Chestnuts
In China, we have rock candy canes, and in France, we have rock candy chestnuts, which are not only a specialty dessert, but also a must-have dessert on the French Christmas table, in addition to cake. The main reason is that candied chestnuts are a seasonal product, available only around Christmas in France.
Each translucent chestnut is wrapped in gold foil, carefully peeled, and bitten into a soft, sweet, tender and creamy dessert. The only thing is, it’s expensive, and although the ingredients (chestnuts, sugar, rum, etc.) are not expensive and not complicated to make, the process is time consuming! It takes seven days to complete.
Caramel Puff Tower Croquembouche
The sweet and crunchy caramel wrapped around a creamy caramel puff tower is a traditional French wedding dessert, but it is also often served at local Christmas events. At weddings, the puffs, which symbolize happiness, are glued together with marzipan as a base and caramel, and then stacked one on top of the other, the tall puff tower is a vision of happiness. Thus, caramel puff towers stacked like a small Christmas tree are once again on the Christmas table.
Now let’s introduce you to a century-old store in Paris where you can buy these Christmas desserts!
A la mère de famille
Founded in 1760, A la mère de famille was the first chocolate shop in Paris, and it retains a vintage window and façade, and its interior and exterior features will give you the illusion of going back in time a hundred years.
Mr. Bernard opened the confectionery on rue Faubourg Montmartre in the 9th arrondissement, where he married and had children. In a dramatic turn of events, Marie Adélaïde became the successor in 1807, when her husband died and she had to raise four children on her own. The most complete iconic building. Iced chestnuts, sold only around Christmas time, have since secured their place as the store’s best sellers!
Stohrer
What did the first dessert store in Paris look like, going back to its roots? Then come to Stohrer, which was founded in 1730 with a long lineage of royalty.
In 1725, Polish Princess Marie-Rejeska married into France, and as the Empress of King Louis XV, the royal confectioner Nicolas Stoll followed her to Versailles, where the Polish pastry chef was so skilled that in his fifth year in France, he started his own business and created Stohrer, a dessert store that has been passed down to this day.
Walking into this legendary old store, with its lake-green glass ceiling, huge crystal chandeliers, and 18th century paintings on the walls, the smell of old France is overwhelming. Delicate pastries are casually displayed inside the store, and postcards from the house are sold in a booth at the entrance. It is said that this is the place where the Queen of England must pass every time she comes to Paris, which shows the depth of Stohrer’s dessert mastery. The store’s signature desserts, lightning puffs and rumballs, are a must try! When it comes to Christmas, they even offer a variety of flavors of chopped wood cakes!
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