Figue Chocolat: Local French Desserts in France

Last Updated on 30th March 2018 by Sophie Nadeau

If only ‘professional sweet taster‘ were a job, right? I mean, it would literally be my dream job; eating sweets all day, every day! However, I’m not sure my dentist would be all too happy… But I digress (as usual). Yesterday, I tasted a ‘figue chocolat’ for the first time; all in the name of ‘market research’, of course!

To be honest, France has more pastries than you could ever begin to imagine.  Of course, everyone has heard of the humble macaron (ie: the best selling cookie in France), but have you heard of the Kouign-Amann– a cake exclusive to Brittany?

Or, the Figue Chocolat? As I headed into the boulangerie to buy some baguettes yesterday, I decided that the best way to tackle the next few hundred words of my dissertation would be to consume a pastry! I spotted the green concoction peeking out from behind the dessert counter and decided I had to try it for myself…

Figue Chocolat, a History: Marzipan, Fig, and Chocolate 

This sweet dessert mixes figs, chocolate and often a form of some kind of nut to create a deliciously naughty dessert. A chocolate ganache is made, combining fig, chocolate and hazelnuts. This is then enrobed in a thick layer of marzipan.

If I’m honest, I wasn’t all too sure exactly what the texture would be like when I first bit into it! The ganache is crunchy and smooth at the same time (weird, I know), while the marzipan just tastes, well, like marzipan! However, it has to be said that the resulting sweet is perfection!

Just a word of warning: this dessert is super sweet, to the extent where even I found that one was enough (normally I’d be the first person to reach for second helpings ha!). If you aren’t too keen on extra sweet things and prefer desserts like carrot cake, then maybe it would be best to give the figue chocolat a miss… The shape of the pastry is meant to remind the consumer of the shape of a fig. Although I’m not sure my one really looked like a fig, you can kind of see where they were going with it, right?