July 14, 2018

RASPBERRY SLICE–a request for a recipe.

raspberry slice

This is not a recipe, but a request for one!  The raspberry slice or pavé framboise is a delicious thing that I sometimes buy from our favourite boulangerie in Descartes.

raspberry slice2

I would really like to know how to make it!  It comes as a large square which I usually then cut into four smaller squares to serve as a dessert or with a cuppa.  A whole slice takes some eating but a small one is quite manageable – in fact we can usually manage a couple!

raspberry slice3

Its type is very much a throw back to my childhood and I’m sure that either my mum used to make something similar or it was served for pudding at school dinners.

I have looked in my cookbooks and on the internet and none of the recipes I have found seem quite right.  Some have a pastry base, some have coconut in the topping, but this has neither of those.

The top and bottom are the same, a bit like a firm but crumbly cake or soft biscuit texture.  Definitely not pastry yet the top looks like it has been given an egg wash glaze.  In between there is a raspberry layer which could be jam or just fruit.  Either way it is delicious!

So, if anyone out there has any idea how to make it, I would be very pleased to hear about it!

9 comments:

  1. I'll see what I can find. The cake part seems to me to be a softer version of the Poitou broyau, which is a sort of hard shortbread. Pavé framboise goes fantastically well with coconut cream chantilly btw.

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  2. I think this is fairly close: Pavés sablés amandes et confiture de framboise. She doesn't glaze and score, but you could.

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    1. Susan, the picture does look very similar and it sounds about right. I'll give it a try!

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  3. I've emailed the French apéro group. We might get someone's granny's recipe :-)

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    1. What a great idea! It will be fun to see what turns up.

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  4. It's hard to tell without tasting it (and Descartes is a bit too far away to pop out and try it) but I was wondering if your boulanger might be from Brittany originally because the crumbly cake and soft biscuit does make me think of the legendary Gâteau Breton. I thought it might be some variation on that theme.

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    1. Phil, that makes sense. If I manage to reproduce it I'll post the recipe and then you can try it. Of course, it would be worth planning a trip to Descartes just to try a slice! Descartes is a very interesting place....

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  5. How crazy - we have just come back fom a holiday in france and she ne of the things i wanted to look up was a reciepe for pave framboise - it is the same as what my gran used to make (jam nasty pasty). On searching pave framboise on images there seemed to be a wide variety of ones that looked nothing like the ones we had until i found your image. So where had we holidayed? The gites in the chateau of Abily and we visited the fab boulangerie in descartes (the one on the corner as you head to the supermarket) we also had them make a rather fab birthday cake as it was our youngest 13th birthday. Anyways this is the reciepe i am going to try - https://blog.englishteastore.com/2015/12/01/recipe-rich-jam-pasty/

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    1. Hello, Looking Glass, I somehow missed your comment until today! It sounds like you bought the pastries from the same boulangerie as me.
      Thanks for the link, I will try that recipe and see how I get on.

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