An essential recipe in the Centre region, pithiviers is a puff pastry cake filled with almond cream. Similar to the galette des rois, this pastry, which takes its name from the city where it was created, is always a great success. Back to its origins and secrets.
The history of the pithiviers is much longer than one might imagine at first glance. Because in reality, there is not one cake but two!
In order to know its first origins, one must indeed go back to Antiquity. Particularly famous for the flavour of their wafers, the Carnutes (people living in western Gaul) had a real revelation when the Romans introduced them to the almond. Mixing the two products, they developed the recipe for the first pithiviers: the "fondant".
Still being made, this cake is, many centuries after its creation, still very much appreciated.
However, in the 18th century, when pastry making was developing very strongly in France, the Prince de Condé's cook, a certain Feuillet, introduced the recipe for puff pastry. Success is immediate! Once this arrived in the Loiret, bakers adapted the recipe for melting pithiviers by including this novelty, thus perfecting the modern pithiviers recipe. Known as "of kings", this cake has a name that suits him well because, in his region, he reigns supreme over all guilty pleasures and Sunday meals.
Listed as part of France's culinary heritage, pithiviers are particularly tasty and the people of Loiret do not hesitate to taste them whenever the opportunity arises. For the most fervent followers, there is even a dedicated brotherhood.
Created in 1983, its goal is to make this speciality known nationally and to protect the recipe. To be inducted, each new member must take an oath: "I swear to eat it and give it to my friends to contribute to the reputation of our good city and its specialty! ».
To make sure you have a real pithiviers validated by the brotherhood, nothing could be simpler. Just make sure that two essential rules are respected: the cake must be filled with almond cream, not frangipane, and its edges must be scalloped (worked in a zigzag). Once that's done, go ahead and taste it!
The recipe of the pithiviers.
Bérengère for Comme des Français.
----
Feel like salivating while discovering other regional delicacies?
- The Basque cake
- The most buttery of French cakes
- An unmissable Alsatian speciality