An autumn cheesecake with everything I love about it. A chewy texture, but also crunchy on top with the addition of a cinnamon crumble, all on a speculo base. It’s an irresistible delight for all cheesecake lovers. The melting apples add a touch of freshness to this rich, flavorful cake.
I prepared many more to eat as they were, without putting them all in the pannukakku. Peel them and cut them into quarters.

Place in a frying pan with the butter, sugar and cinnamon.


Cook for 30 minutes over low heat, with a lid, shaking the pan from time to time. They should become very tender.

Put the speculos in a blender to reduce them to a powder.


Pour the melted butter, sugar and specula powder into a small bowl.

Mix well, then pour into a 23cm removable-bottom mold lined with parchment paper.

Bake for 15 minutes at 170°C.
In a bowl, mix the cream cheese, which has been out of the fridge for at least 2 hours, with all the ingredients: cream, eggs, sugar and vanilla.

Mix well with a whisk.

Pour half over the pre-cooked speculo base.

Sprinkle with chopped cooked apples.

Pour over the remaining cream and sprinkle with apples.

Mix the butter, flour, brown sugar and cinnamon powder by hand.

Compact the dough between your hands, then break into pieces to sprinkle over the top of the cake.

Bake for 1h15 to 1h30 at 170°C over static heat (not ventilated heat).

Leave to cool completely, then chill for at least 3 hours. Add a little powdered sugar for decoration!



Not quite a far, nor a dutchbaby, still less a pancake, pannukakku is the Finnish version with its own identity of this type of dessert. The idea is to cook the dough in butter in a frying pan, then put it in the oven until it’s a lovely golden color! Here’s my version with cinnamon apples, to get in the autumn mood.
For apples:
Start by preparing the apples. I prepared a lot more so that I could eat them as they were, without putting them all in the pannukakku. Peel them and cut them into quarters.

Place in a frying pan with the butter, sugar and cinnamon.


Cook for 30 minutes over low heat, with a lid, shaking the pan from time to time. They must be getting all soft.

Place the eggs, sugar, flour and liquid vanilla in a bowl and whisk vigorously.

Pour in the milk while whisking.


Melt the semi-salted butter in an ovenproof frying pan. For this I used the Lodge brand (this is NOT a sponsored article, just my opinion) which is easily found on the internet.

When it starts to turn nutty, pour in the batter.

Sprinkle with apple pieces. If the wedges are too large for your taste, cut them in half.

Place in the oven at 205°C for 25 to 30 minutes on convection heat.

The pannukakku must be golden brown!

Serve hot, warm or chilled with a dusting of powdered sugar!



A good cake with fresh figs and hazelnut powder, very melt-in-your-mouth, that’s the recipe I suggest. I use mixed figs in the batter, but also chopped figs for even more flavor and softness. A delicious cake, as good warm as out of the fridge.

Start by washing the 200g of fresh figs at the beginning of the ingredients list.

Remove the stalks and place in a small blender with the 100g milk.

Blend well to obtain a sort of fig cream.

In the bowl of your food processor, or in a bowl, combine the butter, oil and brown sugar.


Add the eggs and fig cream.

Mix, then add the flour, hazelnut powder, baking powder and baking soda.

The dough should be smooth.

Finish with the 200g of fresh figs, cut into pieces.


Pour into a 22cm square mold lined with parchment paper. You can also use a 24-25cm-diameter round tin.

Bake for 1h15 at 155°C over static heat (not fan-assisted or convection heat).

Let cool completely before cutting into slices.


Cookies with an unexpected taste and texture! I put in a butter that I make hazelnut, i.e. well colored, with very developed perfumes.
But also hazelnut powder and crushed, toasted hazelnuts. At first they look like classic white chocolate chip cookies, but as soon as you bite into them, a whole new taste experience awaits!
For whole hazelnuts, I’ve used skinless hazelnuts here. I toast them in the oven at 170°C for 16 to 18 minutes.


To break them, I gently crush them with a rolling pin. I grilled a lot more than 100g, as I often use them in salads!

For the cookies, place the semi-salted butter in a saucepan.

Cook gently until it takes on a lovely nutty color, without burning the bottom of the pan.


Set aside to cool. Place the brown sugar, vanilla, semi-skimmed milk and 60g egg in a bowl.

Mix well, then pour in the hazelnut powder.

When the butter is no longer too hot, pour in 90g, which should be the weight at this point. You started with 125g, but some of it cooked off and evaporated.

Mix and pour in the flour.

Mix, then add the 100g of crushed toasted hazelnuts.

If the dough is too soft at this stage, chill it for a quarter of an hour. Then scoop out the balls, here with an ice-cream scoop, and place them on a baking sheet lined with parchment paper.

Flatten them slightly by hand.

Then bake for 10 to 12 minutes at 170°C over fan assisted heat.

The center should appear slightly undercooked. To make them rounder, I twist a small circle (or upside-down glass) around each cookie.

They will keep perfectly well at room temperature in an airtight tin for 5 days.


A cheesecake of Basque origin? Not really, but the story is mostly very recent (less than 30 years) and is clearly becoming a classic and well-known recipe on social networks and in pastry shops in the USA and some Asian countries. You can find the history of this cake on the Internet. Basically, it was born in a restaurant in San Sebastian in the 90s, before being (re)discovered in the 2010s and becoming known in the USA as the Basque Burnt Cheesecake. The history of cheesecake is one of evolution, starting with the Jewish culture of Eastern Europe, before becoming the standard cake in North America, then adapting again in Asia in a more runny or puffed version. So this version doesn’t come from the Basque country as a regional specialty, but was born from the desire of a talented restaurateur to make a new version. What makes it different from a classic cheesecake is its caramelized crust and soft center. In addition to cream cheese, I use classic unsweetened fromage blanc, but you can also use heavy cream or even mascarpone!
Recipe for a 18cm mould:
Place the cream cheese in a container and microwave for 45 seconds to soften slightly. Pour in the two sachets of vanilla sugar, then top up the total sugar weight to 160g (roughly 15g vanilla sugar and 145g sugar).

Remove the vanillin from two split vanilla beans.

Stir into the sweet cream cheese.

Add the eggs and liquid vanilla.

Finish with the cornflour and fromage blanc. Mix well, using a hand whisk if necessary.


Line an 18cm removable-bottom mold with parchment paper.

Pour into the mould.


Bake for 50 minutes in an oven preheated to 230°C over static heat (not fan assisted). The cake will puff up (then fall back down) and get a nice, colorful crust. When cooking is complete, leave in the oven, door ajar, for 15 minutes.

Then let stand at room temperature.

Then chill overnight before slicing and serving.

A melt-in-the-mouth delight!


Crisp, crunchy shortbread! These are my cocoa-pecan shortbread. They are very low in sugar (enough for my taste), which may surprise some people. You’d expect a chocolate shortbread, but I actually used cocoa nibs. I love their texture, which will be perfect on these cakes, for a snack rich in flavour!
For the grits, I roasted mine at 160°C for 15 minutes. Do this if you buy it raw.

Place the brown sugar and butter in a bowl and mix well until creamy.

Add the flour and mix again.

Mix until smooth. Pour in the chopped pecans and cocoa nibs.

Weigh out 60g dumplings to make 12 large shortbreads.

Bake for 30 minutes at 160°C over fan assisted heat. The shortbread should be well browned.

Leave to cool before storing in an airtight tin.


I really like the idea of travel cakes, these cakes that keep for quite a long time. It contains no cream or butter and reveals the intense taste of roasted hazelnuts. It’s very easy to prepare, but you’ll need to be a little early to toast the hazelnut powder that will be used to make this perfect tea-time cake!
For a 20cm mould:
Place the whole raw hazelnuts in an ovenproof dish and do the same for the hazelnut powder.


Bake at 170°C for a good 30 minutes. You’ll need to stir the hazelnut powder fairly regularly to ensure even roasting. At the end, the powder takes on a lovely caramel color.

For whole hazelnuts, the skin should crack and they should be nicely browned.

Pour the roasted hazelnut powder, brown sugar, flour, baking powder and salt into a bowl. Mix.

Pour in the 180g of egg white (to do this, collect the whites of 5 or more eggs, and weigh out the quantity required). Mix again.

The dough should be homogeneous.

Pour into a mould lined with greaseproof paper and grease the inside edge. Pour in the dough, then arrange pieces of toasted hazelnuts on top.

Bake for 40 minutes at 155°C over static heat (not convection heat), then lower the temperature to 120°C with steam function if you have this option, and bake for a further 30 minutes. Without the steam function, lower the temperature to 120°C by placing a dish of boiling water in the bottom of the oven and bake for 30 minutes. Leave the cake to cool, turn out carefully and sprinkle with powdered sugar as required.

It will be perfect for a snack!



Here’s a delicious and surprising cake, with an almond base and a good taste of honey, but also with a rather unexpected ingredient that adds a lovely texture. It’s delicious on its own, well chilled or at room temperature, but even more so if accompanied by a totally addictive cream cheese and honey chantilly. It’s very simple, and takes just a few minutes to prepare.
For a 20 cm square mould :
For the honey and cream cheese chantilly :
Pour the eggs, honey, oil and brown sugar into a bowl.

Mix, then add the almond powder, breadcrumbs, cinnamon, salt and baking powder.

Mix well and leave to stand for 10 minutes.

Pour into a square mould lined with baking parchment.

Bake at 170°C over static heat (not over revolving heat) for 40 minutes.

Turn out and leave to cool.

Then simply cut it into slices.

If you want to make the chantilly, pour all the ingredients except the chantifix into a container or into the bowl of your food processor.

Whip at high speed.

When the whipped cream has firmed, add the chantifix and whisk again to obtain a firm texture.

Serve the cake at teatime with whipped cream on hand!



It’s been a long time since I made a chocolate cake on my cooking site. Here’s an ultra-chocolate fondant with roasted almonds. This is a low-sugar cake, with 70% cocoa chocolate, and naturally gluten-free, as it’s flourless. So yes, it’s rich and very, very chocolatey! Enjoy it in small slices with coffee.
For a 20x25cm rectangular mould (or a 22 square mould or a 24cm round mould):
Melt together the semi-salted butter and dark chocolate.

I make it in the microwave, heating to 900w for 1 minute 30. You can also do it in a bain-marie.

Mix well, then add the 90g cane sugar and mix again.

Add the 230g of egg (to do this, beat 4 large eggs or 5 medium eggs into an omelette and weigh out the quantity required). In the photo, I have 4 whole eggs that total 205g, but I’ve added 25g as an omelette.

If the butter doesn’t mix well, keep stirring briskly, as it will eventually become homogeneous.

Butter the mould, then pour in the batter.


Chill the mold, while pouring the almonds into a baking tray and bake at 180°C over fan assisted heat for 17-18 minutes.

Once out of the oven, cut the almonds into fairly coarse pieces.

Remove the mould from the fridge and sprinkle the surface with crushed almonds.

Place in the oven, still at 180°C, for 20 minutes.

Leave to cool and enjoy at room temperature or fresh from the fridge!


My friend Gaëlle, a pianist by trade, is also a fine cook, and if you have my latest book “La cuisine de Bernard” published by Flammarion, you’ll find her recipe for salmon and tuna tataki. It’s not the first time she’s agreed to share one of her delights on my site. So a thousand thanks to Gaëlle for this delicious orange cake. Here, the orange is cooked, then blended whole with the peel (organic oranges are essential) and mixed with other ingredients, including almond powder previously roasted in the oven. Once baked and cooled, then topped with a chocolate icing/ganache, this cake has an incredible consistency and taste! A must-try!
For a 23cm cake:
For the cake
For the chocolate ganache :
Start by cooking three oranges (2 table and 1 blood) in boiling water for 1 hour. You can put a lid on during cooking. You’ll be left with a blood orange, which can then be squeezed.

The oranges become soft after this treatment.

Let them cool out of the water.

Meanwhile (or while the oranges are cooking), bake the almond powder at 170°C for 16 minutes.

Slightly tinted.

When oranges can be handled, cut them into pieces and remove any seeds.

Weigh out 600g and place in a blender with the wholegrain cane sugar and eggs.

Blend to a creamy consistency. Pour into a container.

Squeeze the last blood orange.


Pour 70g of the juice into the dough.

Pour in the melted coconut oil and almond powder.

Mix well, then pour into a mold (in this case, a removable springform pan) lined with parchment paper. You can also apply grease to the inner edge.

Bake at 175°C for 45 minutes over static heat (not fan assisted).

Leave to cool, then make the ganache by melting the cream and chopped dark chocolate together in a microwave oven. Mix well, then pour over the cake and shake to smooth. You can also tap the mold on the work surface to even out the surface.

Leave to cool before chilling for at least 4 hours before serving. Eat well chilled.

