https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/Recent content on Goûter GourmandHugoen-USSun, 20 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0200https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/why-shortcrust-shrinks/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 15:00:00 +0200https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/why-shortcrust-shrinks/<p>You roll the pastry out, line the tin neatly, and the sides stand up straight. Twenty minutes later the sides have slid two centimetres down and the tart has no rim left.</p> <p>This is not a recipe problem. It is almost always a gluten and timing problem.</p> <h2 id="what-happens-in-the-tin">What happens in the tin</h2> <p>Even shortcrust, which contains little water, develops <a href="https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/gluten-free-cookies/">gluten</a> as soon as you work it. That network is <strong>elastic</strong>: stretched, it tries to return to where it started, exactly like a rubber band being released.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/icing-without-icing-sugar/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 14:00:00 +0200https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/icing-without-icing-sugar/<p>It is four in the afternoon, the cake is baked, and there is no icing sugar left. The question is not whether you can do without, but which of the three routes you take: remake it, work around it, or change icing altogether.</p> <h2 id="what-icing-sugar-actually-is">What icing sugar actually is</h2> <p>Granulated sugar ground very fine, with <strong>about 3 % starch</strong> (maize or rice) added to stop it caking.</p> <p>Two practical consequences. First, you can remake it at home, since it is only a matter of grinding. Second, the starch is not just an anti-caking agent: it slightly thickens the icing. An icing made with home-ground sugar, with no starch, will be a little runnier for the same weight.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/gluten-free-cookies/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 11:00:00 +0200https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/gluten-free-cookies/<p>Most gluten-free cookie recipes simply announce a blend of flours, without saying what gluten was doing before it disappeared. Yet that is the only thing that explains the failures.</p> <p>I should say straight away that I am not writing about health or diets here, that is not my subject. I am writing about texture, and about what it takes to get a decent cookie back.</p> <h2 id="what-gluten-was-doing-in-the-cookie">What gluten was doing in the cookie</h2> <p>Gluten is an elastic network that forms when wheat flour meets water. In a cookie it does three things.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/no-bake-chocolate-cake/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 10:00:00 +0200https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/no-bake-chocolate-cake/<p>A no-bake chocolate cake does not hold together the way a baked one does. There is no coagulated egg, no gelatinised starch, no <a href="https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/gluten-free-cookies/">gluten</a>: <strong>it is the fat, set solid by cold, that provides the entire structure.</strong> Everything else follows from that, including the failures.</p> <p>That was the first thing I understood after pulling three refusing-to-unmould mixtures out of the fridge.</p> <h2 id="what-holds-the-cake-together">What holds the cake together</h2> <p>In a no-bake cake, only three elements do any work.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/cake-without-oven/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 09:00:00 +0200https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/blog/cake-without-oven/<p>You can make a cake without an oven. Not any cake, and not with any recipe: the four methods that work give four different results, and none of them truly reproduces what an oven does.</p> <p>My oven died one July, in the middle of a week of birthdays. That is when I tested all of this properly, in no particular order, with the failures that came with it.</p> <h2 id="what-the-oven-does-and-what-has-to-be-replaced">What the oven does, and what has to be replaced</h2> <p>An oven surrounds the batter with dry heat. Three things follow from that, and they are exactly the three you lose when you do without.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/legal-notice/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/legal-notice/<h2 id="site-publisher">Site publisher</h2> <p>Goûter Gourmand, available at <a href="https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/">https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/</a>, is published by a private individual acting as an independent content publisher.</p> <p><strong>Editorial contact</strong>: <a href="mailto:contact@www.gouter-gourmand.fr">contact@www.gouter-gourmand.fr</a></p> <h2 id="editorial-manager">Editorial manager</h2> <p>The editorial manager is the person responsible for the editorial content of Goûter Gourmand.</p> <h2 id="hosting">Hosting</h2> <p>The site is hosted by GitHub, Inc.</p> <p><strong>Address</strong>: 88 Colin P. Kelly Jr. Street, San Francisco, CA 94107, United States <strong>Website</strong>: <a href="https://github.com">https://github.com</a></p> <h2 id="nature-of-the-site">Nature of the site</h2> <p>Goûter Gourmand is an independent editorial website. It publishes informational content, guides and comparisons for documentary purposes. This content does not constitute personalised advice and is no substitute for the opinion of a qualified professional.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/privacy-policy/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/privacy-policy/<h2 id="data-controller">Data controller</h2> <p>The controller of the data collected on Goûter Gourmand is the site publisher, who can be reached at <a href="mailto:contact@www.gouter-gourmand.fr">contact@www.gouter-gourmand.fr</a>. Any question about data protection may be addressed directly to them.</p> <h2 id="minimal-collection">Minimal collection</h2> <p>Goûter Gourmand collects only the data strictly necessary for the operation of the site and for handling the messages it receives. No data is sold, rented or transferred to third parties for commercial purposes.</p> <h2 id="data-collected">Data collected</h2> <p><strong>Browsing data.</strong> IP address, browser type and version, operating system, pages viewed, date and duration of the visit, referring site. This data is used in aggregate form by the audience measurement tools.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/terms-of-service/Sun, 20 Sep 2026 00:00:00 +0000https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/terms-of-service/<h2 id="purpose">Purpose</h2> <p>These terms of use set out the conditions of access to and use of Goûter Gourmand, available at <a href="https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/">https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/</a>.</p> <h2 id="acceptance">Acceptance</h2> <p>Accessing and browsing the site implies full acceptance of these terms. If you do not accept them, you are asked not to use the site.</p> <h2 id="access-to-the-site">Access to the site</h2> <p>Access to the site is free of charge and open to anyone with an internet connection. Equipment and connection costs remain the responsibility of the user, who is responsible for ensuring that their hardware is compatible.</p>https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/about/Mon, 01 Jan 0001 00:00:00 +0000https://www.gouter-gourmand.fr/en/about/<p>My name is Marion Kieffer. I have been baking afternoon treats at home for about ten years, first for my children, then because I grew to love it.</p> <p>I am not a pastry chef. I work in an ordinary kitchen, with a cheap electric oven that runs far too hot underneath, one decent tin and an ageing scale. That is exactly where this site comes from.</p> <h2 id="why-this-blog-exists">Why this blog exists</h2> <p>For two years, I got almost everything wrong. Soggy tart bases, cakes raw in the middle and burnt underneath, creams that split. For a long time I assumed I was the problem.</p>