List of French desserts

This is a list of desserts from the French cuisine. In France, a chef who prepares desserts and pastries is called a pâtissier, who is part of a kitchen hierarchy termed brigade de cuisine (kitchen staff).

French desserts

Angel wings – Sweet crisp pastry
Calisson – Traditional candy from Aix-en-Provence
Charlotte – Icebox cake
Clafoutis – French dessert traditionally made of black cherries and batter, forming a crustless tart
Coconut cake – Cake with white frosting and covered in coconut flakes^[2]
Crème brûlée – Custard dessert with hard caramel top^[3]

Crème caramel – Custard dessert with soft caramel on top
Crêpe Suzette – French citrus and pancake dessert
Croissant – Flaky, crescent-shaped pastry
Croquembouche – French dessert
Custard tart – Baked dessert consisting of an egg custard-filled pastry crust
Dariole – French pastry and dessert mold
Dame blanche – Ice cream dessert
Éclair – Cream-filled pastry
Flaugnarde – French dessert
Floating island – Dessert made with meringue and crème anglaise
Galette des Rois - Kings' cake. Traditionally served between January 6th-12th.
Kouign-amann – Breton cake
Macaron – Sweet meringue-based confectionery
Marjolaine – Layered dessert cake
Mousse – Soft creamy prepared food using air bubbles for texture
Mendiant – Traditional French confectionery^[4]
Mont Blanc – Chestnut-based dessert
Norman Tart – French almond dessert
Opera cake – French almond cake with chocolate and coffee fillings
Pain d'épices – French quick bread
Paris-Brest – Pastry
Pêche Melba – Peach and ice cream dessert
Pièce montée – Decorative confectionery centerpiece
Poire à la Beaujolaise – French dessert
Poire belle Hélène – Pear and ice cream dessert
Pot de crème – Dessert
Pralines – Confection made with nuts
Profiterole – Cream-filled pastry
Riz à l'impératrice – Rice pudding dish in French haute cuisine
Soufflé – Baked egg-based dish
Tarte conversation – French pastry
Tarte Tatin – Caramelised fruit tart
Teurgoule – Rice pudding from Normandy
Yule log – Traditional Christmas dessert
Galette des Rois - Kings' cake. Traditionally served between January 6th-12th.

A floating island is a dessert consisting of meringue floating on crème anglaise.
Mendiants are a traditional French confection.
A profiterole, sometimes referred to as a cream puff in other cultures
Tarte Tatin is an upside-down tart in which the fruit (mostly apples) are caramelized in butter and sugar before the tart is baked.

French pastries

An assortment of petit fours, which are small confectioneries. Some petit fours are also savory.

Angel wings – Sweet crisp pastry
Baba au rhum – Cake saturated in rum
Beignet – Deep fried pastry
Bichon au citron – Puff pastry filled with lemon curd
Brioche – Type of French bread
Canelé – French rum and vanilla pastry
Chouquette – Petits fours originating in France
Coussin de Lyon – Sweet pastry specialty of Lyon, France
Croissant – Flaky, crescent-shaped pastry
Croquembouche – French dessert
Croustade – Culinary term for a crust or pie-crust of any type
Divorcé - A pastry consisting of two choux separated by vanilla cream
Éclair – Cream-filled pastry^[6]
Financier – Small French almond cake
Gâteau à la broche – Traditional Lithuanian cake
Gougère – Savory pastry puff with cheese
Jésuite – French pastry
Macaron – Sweet meringue-based confectionery
Madeleine – Small sponge cake with a distinctive shell-like shape
Mille-feuille – French pastry
Nonnette (dessert) – French gingerbread cake
Pain au chocolat – Viennoiserie sweet roll (also called Chocolatine in the South part of France)
Pain aux raisins – French pastry
Palmier – French pastry
Paris–Brest – Pastry
Petit four – French confection
Puits d'amour – French pastry filled with cream or jelly
Religieuse – French pastry
Savarin – Cake saturated in rum
St. Honoré cake – French pastry dessert
Tarte des Alpes – Pastry originating from the southern Alps
Tarte Tropézienne – French dessert pastry
Tuile – French wafer
Viennoiserie – Type of baked goods
Vitréais – Breton cake