Desserts and sweets
Gâteau de Savoie, the most famous local speciality
Traditionally, desserts were kept for special occasions. Fairs, communions, Christmas and carnivals all provided good excuses for enjoying cakes and sweets.
Gâteau de Savoie
A true gâteau de Savoie is a very light sponge cake cooked in a fluted mould that has been lined with butter and sprinkled with flour and sugar in order to give the finished cake a thin and crispy crust.
It can be filled with jam or covered with cream.
Brioche de Saint-Genix
This speciality from the town of Saint-Genix-sur-Guiers was created by the Labully family around 1860. It is a round brioche filled with pink pralines and covered in sugar. The ‘Gâteau Labully' brand name was registered in 1880.
Recipe
Rissoles
Rissoles, or ‘r'zule' as they are known in the local dialect, are a traditional Savoie Mont Blanc desert. Generally eaten at Christmas or on feast days, originally they were filled with meat and fried in lard. Today, they are made as fruit, compote or jam turnovers, using shortcrust or flaky pastry. They can be fried or baked and eaten hot or cold.
Recipe
Bugnes
The recipe and shape of bugnes vary slightly from one village to another, as can the name, which is derived from local patois. They are generally eaten around Mardi Gras.
Épogne aux pralines
The name ‘épogne' covers a range of sweet and savoury cakes and tarts based on dough made with live or dried yeast that were traditionally cooked in the village bread oven on ‘baking day'. Épognes aux pralines are made using a bread or brioche dough, confectioner's custard and pralines.
Recipe
Bescoins
Bescoins are a type of sweet bun made from a fine leavened saffron dough, glazed with egg yolk and filled with aniseed. They were traditionally made by bakers for fairs and certain religious festivals. They can be elongated, crown-shaped or heart-shaped. In the past, children would attach them to the boxwood branches they took to be blessed during mass on Palm Sunday.
Rioutes
These small cakes from the Maurienne Valley were eaten at the end of Lent. They are dry, ring-shaped brioches made from flour flavoured with aniseed and pepper.
Truffes de Chambéry or chocolate truffles
The recipe for chocolate truffles was invented in Chambéry in 1895 by a local confectioner called M. Dufour. Having run out of chocolate for making his end-of-year sweets and too proud to ask his fellow confectioners to give him some, M. Dufour had a spark of genius. He mixed together fresh cream, a touch of vanilla and powdered chocolate. To improve the appearance of his product, he dipped it in melted chocolate and covered it in chocolate powder. The chocolate truffle was born!
Frolanche
Around twenty master pastry chefs and chocolate makers from Savoie and Haute-Savoie recently joined forces to create a chocolate delicacy that they have called Frolanche (‘caress' in Savoie dialect). Each facet of these pyramid-shaped sweets bears a symbol of the area: ibex, coat of arms, yacht. Its crispy, dark chocolate walls hide a creamy mixture of milk chocolate and crushed raspberries.
