Guide to raspberries, known as Framboises (pronounced 'from-bwauz') in French. Includes their health benefits, how to store them, and my best French raspberry dessert recipes to try at home.
French Raspberry Season
The raspberry fruit grows in Summer. High season is between as early as May to September, with certain varieties until October in France.
Random Facts about Raspberries in France
- The raspberry is the edible conical fruit of the rose family, of the genus Rubus. With over a thousand varieties, this includes the blackberry (mûre).
- Born to be wild, framboises sauvages grow throughout the mountainous regions of Europe. Today look for wild raspberries particularly in the Vosges, Auvergne and the Alps.
- Raspberries in the Renaissance were used for medicinal purposes and didn't become eaten as a table fruit in France until the 19th century.
- At the local market and supermarkets, raspberries are normally sold in punnets of 125 g (4.5oz) in standard weight.
What Are the Little Raspberry Seeds Called?
Did you know that the little seeds that make up a conical raspberry are called drupelets - or druppéole in French.
What are the Health Benefits of Raspberries?
Health Benefits: according to the French Ministry of Agriculture's Aprifel, raspberries are a good source of vitamin C, B9 and manganese. They also have anti-inflammatory properties.
Raspberry Leaves - Best Infusion
It's not just the fruits that are good for you - raspberry leaves are a good antioxidant.
Our local pharmacies sell herbal infusions of raspberry leaves (feuilles de framboisier). Infuse raspberry leaves in boiling water for 10-20 minutes then leave to cool slightly. This infusion can help calm women's period pains and constipation.
How to Store Raspberries
Storage: As particularly fragile, consume raspberries as quickly as possible.
There's no need to wash them. If they do get bashed, blitz them into a purée, sauce or coulis, and make this peach melba recipe.
Famous French Raspberry Recipes
French pastry chef, Pierre Hermé first created the Paradis rose and raspberry cake at Fauchon in 1987. Following its success with such flavours, he created the Ispahan macaron while at Ladurée. It's a combination of mainly raspberry with rose and lychee (see more on Ispahan).
In Dijon, raspberries are made into a liqueur much like the crème de cassis in Dijon and often used to make the French apéritif drink, le Kir (see the end of this post).
Many French pastry chefs cut raspberries in half for beautiful decor. Fill the cavities with coulis or pastry cream for special effect.
Best French Raspberry Dessert Recipes
Here are more French raspberries recipes to serve up for dessert.
Make this vibrant Raspberry Clafoutis recipe - it's a berry good twist to the French classic baked custard dessert, normally made with cherries.
We love desserts with raspberries and rose in France. Try these raspberry macarons with a white chocolate ganache.
Perhaps the most famous French raspberry recipe is this classic dessert. Raspberries are blitzed into a tangy purée and served on top of vanilla ice cream and vanilla poached peaches in this Peach Melba recipe with a raspberry coulis.
Use the Melba's raspberry sauce or coulis for other desserts - or make a berry compote using this rhubarb compote recipe as a base. They both freeze well too!
Prepare a French Bavarois recipe with red fruits either using frozen or fresh raspberries.
The most famous French celebratory iced dessert is the Vacherin ice cream cake. It's traditionally made with raspberry sorbet and vanilla ice cream, meringue and cream.
Baked peaches are stuffed with crushed Italian Amaretti biscuits and fresh raspberries for a delicious summer dessert. Great for picnics.
Fresh raspberries are one of the main ingredients in a traditional Scottish Cranachan dessert. This is my French style version (Old Alliance between the Scots and the French) served on a shortbread base and honey ice cream with an oat praline to make my original recipe, Cranachan Parfait.
Turn a British raspberry trifle into mini macaron Ispahan trifles, with raspberries, rose and lychee for a French touch.
Delicious with this passion fruit macaron filling, decorate with fresh raspberries.
More Dessert Ideas Using Fresh Raspberries
Add fresh raspberries on chocolate desserts, on trifles, on honey desserts, ice creams. Also perfect added to almond tarts, topped on rice pudding (or this almond milk rice pudding) and crème caramel.
Push in a little raspberry to add a berry good flavour to these buttery financier cakes.
Add a little raspberry liqueur (crème de framboises) or Chambord liqueur to make a French Kir Royal - either plain with white wine or a Kir Royal with bubbly fizz.
