"petit four" news and stories

Petit fours have been becoming increasingly popular over the last few years. They're perfect for those of us concerned about portion control. You can satiate your sweet tooth without overindulging with the bite sized sweets.

There's a certain conception that most people have of petit fours. Most of us think the treats have to be small square or round cakes with a poured fondant icing and a piped decoration on top. There's much more to it than that. Petit four translates from French as 'small oven,' which refers to the ovens after the large items had been baked. The heat in the oven was a lot lower after the bread or large cakes (in the case of the nobility) came out, so things like smaller cakes and cookies that needed lower temperatures could then be baked.

In a strict sense, a petit four can be any small cookie, cake, creme puffs or tartlettes. Even sugar coated nuts and fruits could be considered petit four, technically speaking. According to Larousse Gastronomique, petit fours became popular during the reign of Louis XIV, the Sun King himself.

When we work on the small desserts for teas or buffets in my pastry kitchen, we use almond cake to make the petit four glacés. It's a very dense almond cake that we then layer with different flavors of marmalade, top with marzipan (only on the top layer), and then pour fondant over in a very thin layer (after cutting the cake into small squares of course). They're so rich it's a good thing we cut them in such bite-sized pieces.

Look up cute in the dictionary, and you'll inevitably find a photo of of these adorable little veggies, made from Williams-Sonoma's new cast-aluminum petit four pan.

The ones in the photo are professionally done, so of course the fondant looks perfect (so perfect, in fact, that they look almost like marzipan...), but I'm sure they'd be great for kids to decorate, too.

The pan retails for $34, and can hold twenty veggies - radishes, pea pods, cabbages, and carrots - at a time. Not sure how WS made its "dirt," but you could definitely just crumble a bunch of chocolate cookies and toss 'em in a pan.