Cast your mind back to a time when proficient home baking meant an evenly iced coffee and walnut cake, or a tray of perfectly golden scones. No one measured their cake layers with a spirit level and only a masochist would attempt their own croissants, never mind cronuts. That has all changed in the past few years – it’s all about DIY patisserie now. This Christmas, keen home patissiers can seek inspiration in a clutch of new recipe books. These include Patisserie Maison by French baking expert Richard Bertinet, Patisserie Made Simple by Bake Off winner Edd Kimber, and La Pâtisserie des Rêves from the glamorous Parisian cake shop. There is even a book called My Paleo Patisserie for those who want to make pastries without the wheat or sugar (somewhere in a small French town, a baker is vigorously shaking his head).
Like so many baking trends, this one is directly linked to The Great British Bake Off, which has a patisserie week every year. Within hours of this year’s episode, recipes for kouign-amann, a caramelised pastry hailing from Brittany, were trending on Google, and M&S rushed a line of kouign-amann into stores. But are there other reasons? It seems home bakers are growing in confidence and looking to stretch their skills. “Patisserie is the ultimate in baking,” says Kimber. “It presents challenges, so bakers looking to try something new can find plenty in the French classics.” But partly it’s because, let’s be honest, lots of us like to show off – and cupcakes just don’t cut it any more. “There are definitely home bakers that love the competitive side of baking,” says Kimber.
Isn’t life too short to fuss over the layers of a gâteau opéra when the family would be happy with chocolate cake, or to prove croissant dough overnight when M&S sells perfectly good ones? I am reminded of my mother, who stopped making her own profiteroles in the early 80s – choux, crème pat et al – after realising it took her hours to make them and my father seconds to snarf them. In need of some convincing, I headed to the Bertinet Kitchen Cookery School in Bath to find out.
Richard Bertinet is very tall, very French and, when it comes to matters baking, il sait que ses oignons. Bertinet is best known for his books on bread, but now he has turned his attention to patisserie. “I learned how to make patisserie at the bakery in Brittany where I was an apprentice,” he says. “We made so many genoise.”
Genoise, a light and delicate sponge, forms the basis of the confection we’re making today: a classic fraisier. It is formed of thin, even layers of genoise soaked with kirsch syrup, and crème au beurre, topped with a strawberry. You’ll find them in every pastry shop in France, but Bertinet says fraisier is also a good recipe to start with if you want to make patisserie at home. “The fraisier is very simple,” he says, while whisking eggs with sugar over a pan of gently simmering water for the genoise. When they make an emulsion and “start to ribbon”, we gently and carefully fold in flour and melted butter. It really wasn’t too hard. “French names make people scared,” says Bertinet. “They hear ‘sponge’ and think ‘easy’, but hear ‘genoise’ and think ‘Oh, bloody hell.’”
Bertinet is a firm believer that people should start slowly when it comes to patisserie. “When people decide to bake because of Bake Off and all those shows, they want to run before they can walk.” He recommends mastering the foundations first: genoise, crème patisserie and crème au beurre (crème pat with added butter – look away now, dieters). And don’t feel you have to make absolutely everything from scratch. “Even chefs don’t make their own puff pastry. It’s better to make an apple tart with bought pastry and get confident than not make it at all. Then one day, you’ll feel ready to make your own …”
When it comes to mastering the art of patisserie, you also need to rethink the British approach to cakes: big and rustic is out, small and delicate is in. To assemble fraisiers, Bertinet spreads an even layer of crème au beurre over the thin genoise layer, and repeats. This goes in the fridge to firm up, ensuring that when he runs a hot, sharp knife through the layers, the result is neat and perfect little squares. I’m entrusted to top each one with a strawberry half, et voila – a tray of fraisiers that wouldn’t look out of place in a Brittany bakery. I admit the appeal, and the confidence boost, is addictive. I might even follow Bertinet’s suggestion and make a charlotte aux pommes for Christmas. But I still can’t be bothered to make my own croissants.
Patisserie Maison by Richard Bertinet (£20; Ebury Press) is out now.
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