Strawberry Fontainebleau History and recipe for this dessert

Fontainebleau is a simple dessert mixing faitselle or fromage frais and whipped cream. With a multitude of delicious toppings possible. For me red fruits.

Fontainebleau is therefore the dessert of fromage blanc or fromage frais lightened with whipped cream for a foamy and airy texture. Strawberries (fresh, in coulis, in compote, in mint syrup, etc.) are optional and can be replaced by other toppings. Also not bad to try with a cooked cherry soup.

Origin and history of the Fontainebleau dessert

Fontainebleau, also called bellifontain or crémet, is a dessert appeared in the 18th century in the depot of a creamery on rue Grande of the pretty eponymous commune of Ile de France.
Fontainebleau is today better known for its royal royal castle as well as its forest recognizable by its granite rocks, the perfect place for Parisians to stroll or climb.

There is several mysteries surrounding the origin of this dessert. The name of its creator is not known, some speak of presence of whipped egg whites in the original recipe.
Finally, we don’t really know its initial texture because Fontainebleau has evolved. a century later with the addition of whipped cream making it lighter, or rather airy. The proliferation technique consisting of blowing air into a cooled preparation dates back to the 19th century.

Whatever the case, the Fontainebleau as it has thus evolved is became a creamy, foamy and light preparation in the mouth. And the exact composition, as it was when it was invented, is not really fixed. There is therefore no established process to follow, for example for a cooking CAP recipe.

Unsalted fresh cheese, drained and whipped fromage blanc or fromage frais, mixed with whipped cream are, however, the main markers. Here I give you my favorite combo.

Fontainebleau is actually a very easy dessert to make. Homemade whipped cream, white cheese or cheese, that’s all.
And for an ultra gourmet touch, the topping of your choice. It was strawberry for me the day I took these photos.

A nice whipped cream or whipped cream

The difference between the two?

• Whipped cream is, as its name suggests, simply a cream that has been whipped with a whisk to incorporate air.
• Chantilly cream is none other than a sweetened whipped cream.

To obtain very firm whipped cream, which does not tip over when you turn it over and makes the peak that we call in culinary terms the bird beakyou need two things:

• a very cold whipping cream. Take it out of the refrigerator at the last moment. You can even put your bowl and your whisk or the whisk of your electric mixer or food processor.
• A whipping cream with 30% fat minimum. No light cream, it won’t work well.

Two other little tips: add a little mascarpone or halfway add a little sugar (if you followed correctly, this turns the whipped cream into whipped cream).

Fresh cheese

Choose either one fresh unsalted cow’s cheese or a faitselle with 40% fat which you have left to drain well.
Failing that, you can definitely opt for white cheese or skyr. I would avoid Greek yogurt because it is still quite liquid.
A 40% fat cheese is, in my opinion, the best option.

To drain your dish, use the can with holes in which the Faisselle is located by taking it out of its container so that it drains well or put cheesecloth or gauze in a colander and place the Faisselle on top? I didn’t take a photo but a gauze pad purchased at a pharmacy works very well.

Some suggestions for garnishes

Here I give you the recipe for this dessert accompanied by fresh strawberries: half mixed into a coulis with just a little sugar and lemon juice but this is optional, and half cut into pieces. You can also choose to add a little homemade mint syrup, it’s great, or cook them a little.

But you can opt for a whole bunch of other fillings or toppings:

• Of brown sugar or other very fragrant sugar likecoconut sugar or muscovado sugar
• Jam or the chestnut cream
• Other fresh fruits or cooked into compotes. Above all choose fruit seasonal. Other red fruits than strawberries in the summer (raspberries, blueberries, etc.), apple or pear compote in winter, cherries in June, Mirabelle plums in August, etc.
• Granola, roasted hazelnuts as a garnish. A crumble or streusel dough simply put in the oven and crumbled on the Fontainebleau.
• A few fresh mint leaves

Treat yourself according to your tastes, and as always don’t hesitate to make the recipe your own and revisit it with slightly more gastronomic or healthy accents.

Before leaving you, a little focus on two other quite similar traditional French recipes: Crème Nantais and Crème d’Anjou. I haven’t dug into it yet but it’s obviously that the crément d’Anjou is made with the addition of whipped egg whites and whipped cream.

Sources: Jean Vitalaux, Dictionary of the Gastronome, Frédéric Zégierman, The great book of French gastronomy