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Summer Patisserie Recipes

French Bakery Favorites

By , About.com Guide

Seasonal, fruit-based pastries are a delicious choice for a summer dessert. True French patisseries pride themselves on serving only the highest quality pastry and cake, rotating flavors on a seasonal basis. Try these summer patisserie recipes in your own kitchen. For great results, just add real butter!

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Fig Tart Recipe

©Avlxyz
Traditionally, this fig tart is a summer recipe. With a little ingenuity, though, you can soak dried figs and use them year-round for a delicious dessert. The caramelized fig filling is warmed up with a splash of port wine and enlivened with a bit of blackberry jam. A little dollop of Chantilly cream served with the dessert makes the ideal treat.

Raspberry Almond Mille-Feuille Recipe

Kimberly Vardeman
This raspberry almond mille-feuille recipe, also known as napoleons, is as easy as they come. Perfect for last-minute guests, simply thaw frozen puff pastry, bake it, and arrange berries and nuts on pastry cream or whipped cream. This mille-feuilles recipe will have everyone thinking they came from a high-end patisserie.

Mirabelle Plum Clafouti Recipe

Flickr user dailyfood
This Mirabelle plum clafouti recipe, also known as clafouti aux mirabelles, uses the delicious addition of dainty yellow plums swirled into the traditional custard cake. Mirabelle plums are delicately scented, popular for their tart, tangy skin and juicy, sweet flesh. Their uniquely sweet, tart, and spicy flavor makes a wonderful focal point in jams, tarts, cakes, and spirits.

Vanilla Chantilly Cream Recipe

Piotr Lewandowski/SXC
Simple Chantilly cream is without a season, yet its light texture is perfectly suited to summery, fruit-based desserts. A good Chantilly cream recipe is essential to every French kitchen. Rich whipped cream infused with vanilla extract is a classic embellishment to French pastry, Génoise cakes, and tarts.

Nectarine Tart Recipe

Flickr user FrettingDetails
Nectarines make up nearly half of all peach cultivars in France and the majority are from the scenic Rhone Valley. Given their popularity and unique refreshing flavor, it's no mystery why they're the focus of so many summer-themed recipes. This fresh nectarine tart recipe takes a few hours and three simple steps - pastry, custard, and fruit topping - to create an exceptionally elegant and scrumptious dessert.

Peach Tart Recipe

Lee-Sean Huang
This peach tart recipe has a wonderful combination of summery, bright-tasting peaches and smooth almond cream, also known as frangipane . These tasty peach pastries can be prepared and on the table in less than 45 minutes, so they're the perfect homemade treat for last minute guests.

Raspberry Bottereaux Recipe

©Jess Lander
These raspberry-filled pastries, also known as raspberry bottereaux, are best served just minutes after frying them. The jam filling is warm and the pastry is flaky and crisp. Dust the pastry with confectioners’ sugar and serve immediately with café crème for a cozy breakfast or coffee break.

Black Raspberry Pastry Cream Recipe

This fresh-tasting berry pastry cream is incredible hidden away in chocolate or lemon pastry. It’s also wonderful layered into a Génoise cake or petite crepe cakes.

Cherry Clafouti Recipe

Shamanyx
This cherry clafouti recipe, also know as clafouti aux cerises, is the most well-known version of the traditional puffed French custard cake. In France, it is customary to serve clafouti with cherry pits intact. For ease at the table, and to ensure dental safety, make sure to pit the cherries or forewarn your guests of the tradition.

Strawberry and Vanilla Charlotte Recipe

This strawberry and vanilla charlotte recipe creates a beautiful presentation full of fresh, juicy strawberries and creamy vanilla custard. This recipe is a simplified version of the classic layered charlotte, and every bit as delicious. It makes an effortlessly impressive dessert to take along to a weekend party.

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