Less sweet, less fat: where to eat healthier pastries in Paris

Who decreed that after the logs, the galettes des rois and (soon) the pancakes, the sweet tooth should give up eating cakes?

Not these new generation brands scattered around the capital which endeavor to offer a range of healthy and virtuous pastries, chocolates and confectionery.

Namely, seasonal, less sweet, less fat and better nutritionally.

“We don't want 5,000 calorie bites anymore.

Health has reasons that gluttony can no longer ignore ”, writes Frédéric Bau, creative director of the Maison Valrhona, in the book“ Gourmandise raisonnée ”(La Martinière editions, 2020).

He does not believe in saying so, the proof in seven addresses and associated products.

The Belles Envies cookie (Paris 5th and 17th centuries)

Welcome to the paradise of diabetics, could be captioned the chic pastry shops Les Belles Envies which have been established since 2016. In this high place of the low glycemic index, neither white flour nor white sugar but alternatives: whole flour prized for their fibers, coconut blossom sugar "with twice the sweetness and twelve times more expensive", explains the founder Alix Bornon, adding that her house creations are 60% less caloric than at traditional pastry chefs.

We found the signature fried egg-style tart funny, but the most exciting was the dark chocolate and hazelnut cookie (from a small producer in Piedmont, according to Alix Bornon), so supple that it recalls the texture of a soft caramel.

The trick?

Lower temperature and cooking time.

The passion fruit tart is also worth the detour, with a tempting shortbread (made from coconut flour, lupine and oat bran) and a dense fruity creaminess like a flan.

Guillaume Gomez, chef at the Élysée, is a fan, enough in any case to invite Les Belles Envies to the presidential palace during the opening of the Cannes film festival in 2018. History does not say whether Marion Cotillard and Jean Dujardin also appreciated.

Les Belles Envies: 3, rue Monge, Paris (Ve) and 17, rue Poncelet, Paris (17th century).

€ 3 per cookie.

www.lesbellesenvies.com

The Mont-Blanc pastry shop Oh Oui!

We are not going to take four roads: the very young pastry shop Oh Oui!

is our big crush.

The two faces behind the counter, Delphine Cousseau (long in marketing for a large group of frozen pastry that supplies professionals) and Marie Jacqueau (freshly graduated from Sciences-Po and passed, between two dissertations, by the house of Eric Kayser and La Fabrique à Cookies), have been preparing since June 2020 a short selection of cakes with a tray look, without any sweeteners and with a low glycemic index.

In the section of the very beautiful achievements, there is the tart garnished with a fluid cream (not very sweet) with Sicilian lemons with lime zest on the top.

And then the Mont-Blanc, here revised with a vanilla cream, a blackcurrant mousse and blackcurrant balls to counterbalance the dense texture of the chestnut cream.

A little gem of balance.

Hurry, it's still available for two weeks only!

Oh yes !

: 95, rue du Bac, Paris (7th district).

6 € the Mont-Blanc.

www.ohoui.com

The "Mikados" of Foucade (Paris IIIe)

"Our customers have convictions or constraints", announces Julien Beltran, a former expert in digital communication who has converted to organic cakes with brown sugars, readily plant-based ingredients and gluten-free.

The general manager of Foucade, a girly-style pastry shop in business since the end of 2015, insists on “recreational” sweets such as the replicas of Oreo (house) or the upcoming marshmallow bears.

We can leave with shortbread, mini-cakes, and madeleines or better: the thick “Mikados” with milk chocolate and coconut, with a slender cookie made from a mixture of rice flour and chestnut.

Perfect for long winters ... and confined.

Foucade: 61, rue de Bretagne, Paris (3rd arrondissement).

€ 14 for a pack of twenty “Mikados”.

www.foucadeparis.fr

Maison Plume's chocolate tart (Paris IIIe)

There is delicacy in this pastry, born in March 2019 under the leadership of Tara Pidoux, who traded her golden future as a graduate of the prestigious EM Lyon business school for whips and maryses (especially at the pastry chef Sébastien Gaudard in Paris).

Within this Maison Plume, all the cakes voluntarily take the shape of a feather (including the Paris-Brest which looks like a boat with its waffle chou dough) and is intended to be gluten-free, fair trade and no added sugar. (even the chocolate is sugar free and the rest is sweetened via organic stevia).

The must is the elegant chocolate tart with its ganache which slides on the palate and its cocoa icing which reinforces this gourmet bomb.

One regret: not having been able to taste the almond pie with pears.

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Maison Plume: 61, rue Charlot Paris (3rd arrondissement).

€ 5.70 for a chocolate tart.

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Truffles from the Rrraw chocolate factory (Paris IIe)

/ Rrraw  

Even if the trend is accelerating, there are still few chocolatiers who work their favorite material from cocoa beans and not via what is called "couverture" (in the form of pistoles) sold by large companies such as Cacao Barry or Valrhona.

With his modern-day druid look, Frédéric Marr not only works directly on Peruvian beans but he does not roast them, he ferments them for a long time in the glass workshop which opens onto his little shop that came out of the earth three years ago. years (but it has been ten years since this ex-specialist in agribusiness trading).

Raw chocolate therefore, which contains "four times more antioxidants", recalls Frédéric Marr.

We melt for products without added sugars (replaced by whole dates, with its fibers and natural sugar) and in particular small truffles (50% cocoa) plain or those flavored with banana or pineapple depending on the requirements. palate keen on roundness or acidity.

You can also venture with your eyes closed to pralines, organic and prepared like everything else without dairy products, in favor of crushed almonds and olive oil.

Who says better ?

Rrraw Cacao Factory: 8, rue de Mulhouse, Paris (IIe).

€ 18.50 for a box of truffles and from € 22 for boxes of pralines.

www.rrraw.fr

Paris-Brest from Le Bon pastry shop (Paris XI)

It is no coincidence that Paris-Brest is the most popular cake in this small and sober boutique with pretty white and wood tones.

First, it is easy to cut with its choux pastry as a base rather than as a sandwich.

But it is undoubtedly because this exquisite sweetness does not saturate the palate.

“We avoid over-sweetening.

We also only use seasonal products.

And there are zero dyes, even those sold as natural ”, explains, cap screwed upside down, Clément Yang.

Now 27 years old, this pastry chef launched his own “hard” business with his partner Marie in October 2019 after having worked in a pastry shop known to Parisian sweet tooths, Pain Pain.

"The good" is him, in a nod to the emotional nickname of his Franco-Cambodian grandfather.

In Paris-Brest, scoops of whipped cream flavored with homemade praline (which can also be found on top) have replaced the traditional mousseline cream with butter and sugar.

On weekends, don't miss the pastries: croissants, pains au chocolat as well as caramelized rolls with hazelnuts or cinnamon.

And there's even emulsified hot chocolate to order.

Everything is good in Le Bon.

Le Bon Pâtisserie: 68, rue du Chemin Vert, Paris (11th century).

5 € the paris-brest.

The small pastries opera house (Paris XI)

/ The Small Pastries  

This is not an opera.

A rather yes, but with cashews, dates, coconut sugar, unroasted cocoa, agave syrup, cocoa butter and roasted barley to remind coffee.

A rather bluffing feat on the palate when you know that almost all the ingredients are raw, rich in vitamins and minerals (allow about two days to make raw cakes using a dehydrator that replaces the oven).

We owe this opera of a different kind to Violaine Bergoin, 38, founder of the chain Les Petites Patisseries, which has been claiming a raw and vegan offer since its opening in July 2018.

“With a traditional pastry, we indulge ourselves in the moment but at the nutritional level ... The raw cake is rich but really nourishing, there is only good fat.

It's also a break for the digestive system, ”defends Violaine Bergoin who discovered raw food in the north of England where she lived for many years (and studied Fine Arts), before crossing the Channel again and become a chef for restaurants that are raw (42 ° C) or specialize in superfoods (Sol Semilla).

Small pastries: 44, rue du Chemin Vert, Paris (11th century).

€ 6.50 the opera and € 2 the delicious fondant beggars.

www.lespetitespatisseries.com