Exploring Popularity of French Sweets in Japan

Recently, French sweets have become really popular in Japan. And they have a lot of history, features and many are still popular today. I would like to know these and I think many people may want to know these topics too. So I introduce famous French sweets. First thing is history. If you imagine a sweet country, what country do you imagine? I think it is France. In France, there are many kinds of sweets. For example, Eclair, Macaron and Madeleine. These are loved by many people. So why did French sweets become famous sweets? It has a long history. History of French sweets begins with the history of European sweets. Because old people collected European sweets culture in the middle of the 16th century, and European sweets culture was developed in French. In the middle of the 16th century, there was Catherine de Medici in Italy. Her father was very rich. So he let her marry a French prince. Then, she took Italian chefs and patissiers from Italy. Italian food culture was developed country at that time. Because of this, French sweets culture was developed and current sweets we know and love today were created. at the middle in the 17th century. On the other hand, when a Spanish princess got married, chocolate recipe was introduced to French people too. Chocolate looked like cocoa at this time. After that, in the French court, chocolate was drunk as a beverage and it became very popular to fair ladies. In the 18th century, Marie Antoinette also got married to Louis XVI. She took Austrian pastry chefs from Vienna. And Austrian unique recipe are combined with French sweets recipe. Austrian sweet’s feature is baked sweets. That’s the process, which French sweets are based and French sweets were created from a variety of European countries. Next, French sweet’s features. There are many kind of sweets in France. With refined taste and beautiful looks. There are roughly divided into two types. One is common sweets, second is event sweets. Common sweets are Eclair, Macaron and Mille-feuille. Eclair is a basis sweet in French sweets. Its name comes from the shape form of an eclair. Eclair means lightning in French. When we bake Eclair, the crack is created on the surface of it. It looks like a flash of lightning. So its name was created.Now, Macaron is representative French sweet, but it came from Italy. And feature of Macaron is the unique recipe. It consists of meringue and almond flour. Macaron was popular in Japan seventeenth century.And the end of common sweet is Mille-feuille. Mille means thousand and feuille means leaf by English. People called it “Great classic” because it was created by famous great people. Second thing is event sweets. They are Buche de Noel and Galette des Rois. Buche de Noel is eaten on Christmas day.

A long time ago, Buche de Noel meant burning a big real log. But the custom gradually went out of fashion, and Buche de Noel appeared as Christmas sweets instead of custom. Galette des Rois is eaten on Epiphany. Epiphany is the day of appearing Jesus Christ. When people eat Galette des Rois, they hide a pottery doll in sweet. And if someone who eat sweet win, the person put on the crown is made of paper and the person are congratulated by other people. So Galette des Rois means King’s sweets. French sweets are so famous, and they have interesting feature and funny origin.Third thing is current sweets. Sweets are introduced by TV or SNS. So I introduce current popular sweets. I have two ideas. First is Canele. It was used anime story. Until Japanese people watch the anime, almost Japanese people didn’t know Canele. And current Canele have feature such as small size and new arrange. So Japanese people chose for the reason that it eat easily and form is unique. Second is Creme Brulee. It looks like custard pudding and it means burning cream in French.I focused three thing about French sweets. European people eat many sweets the day. I’m surprised by it. However, I can know European sweets were developed because of their eating habits. I like French sweets. Especially, I like Macaron. I hope you are interested in sweets. And I would like to know many sweets culture. Sweets are high in calories. But if you have a special day, you should use these beautiful French sweets. Next I will search other countries sweets culture. So searching country, we can know the country's history. Let’s enjoy your sweets life.