About France
Types of French bread.
Pain a l’Ail – Garlic bread. In France, this may be any bread that is toasted and flavored with garlic.
Pain au Froment – Bread made from 100% wheat flour.
Pain aux Noix – Nut bread; made with whole wheat flour and walnuts.
Pain Baguette – The most well-known of French breads.
A standard baguette is almost 70 cms long and weighs 250 grams.
Pain Baguette a l’Ail – Toasted garlic bread; made here with a sliced and toasted baguette.
Pain Bâtard – A bastard; the name used in boulangeries that make their own bread, for any loaf that comes out of the oven in an odd shape.
Pain Beignets – French for a doughnut; however this a breakfast pastry and it is not anything like an American doughnut. Then and now some families still place a large boule on the French breakfast table,
Pain Beurrée or Tartine Beurrée – A sliced baguette, or any another French bread; served with butter alongside the morning’s café au lait,
Pain Bis – Brown bread made with rye flour.
Pain Blanc – Standard white bread. The shapes may be different to those at home, but this is the name for France’s standard bread.
Pain Boule or Boule de Pain – A round loaf. Before the baguette became famous, the boule was considered, by visitors to France, the “French bread”.
Pain Boulot – Another name for pain boule.
Pain Brié– A classic wheat flour bread from Normandy; the bread is made with butter and has no connection to Brie, the cheese.
Pain Brioché – Brioche is bread made with added eggs, butter and a little sugar; the shapes vary with local traditions. Brioché is also often the bread of choice when a recipe calls for bread stuffed with meats or pâté. Toasted brioché is also the bread most often served alongside foie gras.
Pain Brioché de Vendée, Label Rouge – A traditional and famous brioché from the département of Vendée in the région of the Pays-de-Loire.
Pain Campagrain – Under this name are sold quite a number of different high fiber breads; campagrain breads may use anywhere from two to five grains or more. The grains used include wheat, malted corn, rye, oats, barley, etc.; Some bakers may include sunflower, sesame and flax seeds.
Pain Complet – Whole wheat bread.
Pain Croûte à Potage or a Potage son sous Béret – A bread crust used to cover soups, a béret is a beret, the head covering, in English. A bread covering, made to cover your soup or stew, may appear on the menu under various names, not just beret. A soup or stew covered with a bread covering may also surprise you when it appears on your table without any prior advice; this covering is only rarely eaten.
Pain Cramique – A bread similar to the pain brioche, but including raisins.
Pain d’Épice – Gingerbread is more appreciated in France than in any other country; it many of its producers are considered artists. One of the most famous French ginger breads is the Pain d’Épices de Dijon, the gingerbread of Dijon.
Pain de Campagne or Pain Miche – Country bread. These breads vary a great deal in the recipes and shapes used, and the flour used may be standard wheat flour, a whole wheat flour, or mixed flours.
Pain de Mais – Cornbread
Pain de Mie or Pan Carré – Sliced bread. Sliced bread is not particularly popular in France, except when used for sandwiches or toast.
Pain de Seigle or Pan Noir – Rye bread.
Pain de Son – A bread made with a bran flour.
Pain Déjeunette – A baguette about one third the length of a full-sized baguette. The name déjeunette implies that it is enough for the petit déjeuner, for breakfast.
Pain Doré – One of the names for French toast. See Pain Perdu.
Pain Ficelle – This is a long thin loaf that looks like a thinner and shorter baguette. Outside of bakeries and supermarkets the word ficelle translates as string.
Bœuf en Ficelle is beef tied by a string and cooked while it is suspended above boiling broth.
Ficelle Picardie is a crêpe stuffed with mushrooms, ham, and poultry; the finished crêpe is baked in a béchamel sauce with gruyere cheese and served gratinée.
Pain Forgeron – A farmhouse style bread with added sunflower, sesame, and flax seeds.
Fougasse and Fougassette –Traditional breads that originated in the city of Nice and its surrounding villages. The fougasse was originally a crusty bread made of baguette dough brushed with olive oil and flavored with orange zest,
The most popular fougasse breads include black olives and or anchovies and some may include onions. The shape may vary from village to village and restaurant to restaurant.
Pain Grillé or Toast – Toasted bread; toast
Gros Pain – A large bread that will be sold in a variety of shapes and sizes; this bread is traditionally sold by weight.
Pain Maison – Homemade bread.
Pain Nordique – see Pain Polaire.
Pain Parisien – Usually another name for a standard baguette; however the name is also used for breads shaped like a baguette but with different lengths and weights.
Pain Polaire, Pain Suédois or Pain Nordique – Polar bread, Swedish bread or Nordic bread; this is the traditional a rye flour based flat bread with dimples. In France, this bread is often served with open sandwiches
Pain Perdu – French toast. In French, the translation of pain perdu means lost bread; indicating bread that is generally considered to stale to use.
Pain Rassis – Stale bread; the bread that often becomes pain perdu.
Pain sans Levain, Pain Azymes, or Pain Juif – Unleavened bread and also the French name for the traditional Jewish matzo eaten during the Jewish Feast of Passover.
Petit Pains – Bread rolls; there are, of course, different names for each shape and each recipe used for traditional bread rolls, but in a restaurant or supermarket the only name you will need for bread rolls is petite pan.
Pain Tresse – Braided bread; usually a pain brioche.
Tartine – Not the tartine beurrée – Tartine is the French for a sandwich and tartine will be used interchangeably with the English word sandwich; however sandwich, the English word, is used more often. Many tartines are open sandwiches, but that is by no means a fixed rule; the ingredients in or on a tartine vary with the area, the season and the chef.
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