Petit Fours

Petit fours are probably one of a hundred different kinds of absolutely beautiful desserts; depending of course on the region in which they’re made. In America, for instance, petit fours were fancy cakes; usually layered sponge cakes, filled with buttercream icing, or layered over with fondant. Fondant is basically sugar and water, cooked until it’s soft and malleable, colored, and flavoured, then rolled out to form a thin sheet. It’s often used for wedding cakes, and other very expensive cakes to make them look smooth, or for artistic cakes to look more realistic. American petit fours are often the fanciest, and are even used as alternatives to wedding cakes; such as towered, and in rows, that way guests can just pluck one up, instead of the more traditional cake slicing, and fork and knife usage that comes with a large full wedding cake.

In France, however, petit fours are instead, usually just hard butter cookies, though just as fancy. The assorted and differently decorated cakes and pastries that would be recognized as petit fours in America, are instead called “mignardises” by the French patisseries that make create them. The small hard cookies, are the petit fours. There are three basic categories of petit fours:

Petits Fours Secs: “Secs” means “dry”, in French, and these petit fours are uniced, and usually of the harder cookie variety, though still sweet, just not as fancy. The can also be baked meringues, macaroons, and puff pastries as well.

Petits Fours Glacés: “Glacés” means “iced” –basically, this category of petit fours can either be small, iced cookies, decorated, and shaped elaborately or they can be tiny, firm cakes, equally elaborately iced, with either buttercream frosting or fondant.

Petits Fours Salés: These are basically either crackers, or small rolls, –or they can be just small appetizers or hors d’oeuvres that are salted, and served as part of a buffet.