the french bastard's pain aux raisins

the french bastard's pain aux raisins

9 Mar 2026

When I visited Paris in 2023 my favourite pastry by a long shot was the pain aux raisins from The French Bastards. Rather than raisins or sultanas the snail was filled with currants and it was delicious. You can imagine how delighted I was when the bakery published a recipe book, 'The French Bastards, Modern Pâtisserie Classics from Paris's Cult Bakery' in 2025, which contained their recipe for the pain aux raisins. 

I copied the recipe then studied it. The recipe was obviously a scaled down version of a commercial batch of pain aux raisins. The recipe was very short on detail and some of the measurements didn't appear to be correct. I bought some high fat content butter and set to work. I struggled on aided by multiple google searches for pain aux raisins recipes plus suggested resting and cooling times during the lamination process. 

The end result didn't look too dissimilar from the original but I could have rolled the dough more tightly to get another swirl. My lamination skills definitely need work. It was 26°+ C the day I made the dough and despite using ice blocks to chill the surface and regular rests in the fridge and freezer, my butter block melted a bit during the rolling process. The quantity of pastry cream in the recipe wasn't very generous and although I increased the quantity a little I think you need at least 50% more. However the quantity of syrup was super generous and probably double what you need but any leftovers can be stored in the fridge. 

The dough was also very dry so I had to add another 40-50 mls of water before it came together. Then finally, the recipe suggested baking the snails at 150°C, conventional for 25 minutes. All the other recipes I consulted suggested baking the snails at 180°C-200°C, conventional which is what I ended up doing.

Here's the original recipe for you from The French Bastard's cookbook, without my suggested changes, which makes 6-12 snails. For all my recipes, I use a 250 ml cup and a 20 ml tablespoon. All eggs are 60 grams and my oven is a conventional oven not fan forced, so you may need to reduce your oven temperature by 20°C. If you'd like to see a demonstration of a double/single fold mentioned in the recipe I've attached a link here, with l.architecte.patissier expertly showing how the turns are performed.

The French Bastards Pains aux Raisins - makes 6 
Preparation time: 1 hr * cooking time: 25 mins * resting time: 2 hrs 15 mins

For the pastry cream
112g whole milk
21g caster (superfine) sugar
10g custard powder
4g egg yolk
22g whole egg

For the croissant dough
141g pastry (sponge) flour
141g fine soft wheat flour (e.g, Italian 00 flour)
6g salt
11g fresh yeast/4g dried yeast
14g unsalted butter, cold
42g caster (superfine) sugar
7g cold water
110g whole milk, cold
169 g unsalted dry butter (84% fat)

For finishing
600g currants

For the syrup
150g caster (superfine) sugar
150g water

Pastry cream
Pour the milk into a saucepan and bring to the boil. Combine the sugar and custard powder in a bowl, add the egg yolk and whole egg and mix well. Pour in half the hot milk, stir to combine, then return the mixture to the pan with the remaining milk. Bring back to the boil, then remove from the heat. Allow to cool.

Dough
In a mixer fitted with a dough hook, combine all the ingredients for the dough, except the dry butter. Mix on the lowest speed for 5 min to form a dough, then knead on speed 2 for 8 minutes. The dough should be smooth.

Shape the dough into a rectangle on a baking tray (pan). Cover with cling film (plastic wrap), allowing it to be in direct contact with the dough and rest for 15 minutes in the refrigerator.

Take the dough out of the refrigerator and use it to encase the dry butter. Make a double turn and roll out the dough to a thickness of 8 mm. Next, make a simple turn and roll it out to a thickness 8 mm, then roll out the dough to a thickness of 4.5 mm. Trim the edges of the dough to form a regular rectangle. Press the lower edge of the dough with your fingers.

Using a spatula, spread the pastry cream over the entire surface of the dough. Scatter the currants evenly over the cream. Starting at the top, roll the dough into a sausage, then cut it into six slices. Lay the slices on a baking tray lined with baking parchment and leave to rise for 2 hours.

When they have doubled in size, preheat the oven to 150°C, conventional and bake for 25 minutes. In the meantime, make the syrup. 

Syrup
Combine the sugar and water in a saucepan and heat until the sugar dissolves. Allow to cool. Remove the pains aux raisins from the oven and brush them with the cold syrup while still hot.

Would I make pain aux raisins again? I'd like to improve my lamination skills, so the answer is 'yes' but I'd use a different recipe. Perhaps this one.

See you all again next week with some more baking from my kitchen.

Bye for now,

Jillian

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paris

paris

18 Sept 2023

Paris, what can I say about you that hasn't been said before? It's equal parts sublime and frustrating.

I stayed in Goncourt, an area I'd not stayed in before, and visited some new to me places as well as old favourites. One thing for sure, 3 full days in Paris was never going to be long enough. I hared around as quickly as my feet and the Metro would allow, not helped by my complete inability to follow phone directions. Guaranteed, I ended up walking in the wrong direction every single time. Call me a fossil, but I need an old fashioned paper map that I can turn upside down.

I vowed I would consume a pastry a day and that I did. They were of varying quality and price and the best of the lot was this pain aux raisin from The French Bastards.

No place is at its best when it rains and on my first day in Paris it absolutely bucketed down. Unfortunately that was the day I spent in the Marais, one of my favourite places in Paris, and with such limited time, I wasn't able to return.

After my pastry run, I made my way to Merci, a store I photographed many years ago. Since then it's popularity has grown and the place was packed. It was then a toss up between Museums, either the Musee Carnavalet or the Musee Picasso.

I chose the recently renovated Musee Carnavalet but in retrospect I wish I'd chosen the Musee Picasso. The history of Paris was less engaging to me than the works of Picasso.

Air conditioning isn't much of a thing in Paris so the museum was pretty hot and stuffy. I was quite happy to be outside in the rain photographing the pretty gardens.

I then walked down Rue des Roisiers but by this time the rain was so heavy and my jeans and shoes were wet, so I gave up and went home for the day.

The next day although there wasn't too much sun, at least it didn't rain. I started my day with a market, the new to me Marche Monge, which was charming.

As you can see despite the heat, autumn had come to Paris.

I wish you could had smelt these strawberries. The perfume was so intense and best of all, they tasted like strawberries.

I visited the Arab World Institute for the rooftop view over Notre Dame.

As I was on the left bank I walked to the Odette, a pastry shop housed in an extremely old building. As you can imagine, Odette is an instagram magnet and I had to wait a very long time for the crowds to part.

I visited the Jeu de Paume, to see a black and white photographic exhibition then walked through the Tuileries.

I kept walking until I reached the Galeries Vivienne, one of the many covered passages of Paris, where I photographed this pooch.

I then crossed the street to the recently reopened Bibliothèque Nationale de France - Richelieu to see the fabulous Oval reading room.

The next day, my final day in Paris was meant to be low-key but in the end I spent the whole day running around. I started the day with a visit to Musée de la Vie Romantique a small museum near Pigalle.

It has a pretty little garden and I sat writing postcards under these heavily scented blooms.

I planned a bit of light shopping around the Rue Montorgueil area where all the kitchen shops are located. I somehow managed to turn a 2 minute walk between shops into a 45 minute escapade.

Eventually I found the shop and left with my goodies but walked past many an eatery en route.

Do you think these customers knew I was taking their photo?

 

I stopped by the Galeries Lafayette for a final view of Paris. Nowhere near as good as the view from Printemps but their terrace is now reserved for restaurant customers only.

Such a pity the sun only came out on my final day but then again, I'll always have Paris!

See you all again soonish with some photos from my time in Slovenia. 

Bye for now, 

Jillian

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