Desserts

Berries bursting in warm honey, cold vanilla ice cream underneath and a finish that glows: Sauce Martin’s Blizzard hot sauce, made mostly of blueberries and blackberries with fruity habanero, turns dessert into winter with a fire at the end.

Hot espresso melts the chopped chocolate, then pours over cold vanilla ice cream in a swirl of dark and pale, and François Pralus’s Brazil 75% Dark Chocolate Bar, with its aromas of coffee, cocoa and wood, seems made for the moment.

A spoon sinks through tangy cream down to the buttery crumbs, dragging with it a deep purple-red ribbon of Maison Perrotte’s sour cherry jam, made from Oblacinska morello cherries and lively in its balance of sweet and tart.

Cubes of day-old brioche soak up milk, eggs and orange zest, then puff in the oven around melting pockets of chocolate: Comptoir du Cacao’s Candied Oranges Dark Chocolate Bar, 72% cocoa, brings the old French love affair of orange and dark chocolate to the table.

When the crumble comes out golden and bubbling, the strawberries beneath owe their lively edge to Maison Perrotte’s rhubarb jam, made from green rhubarb whose natural tang is softened by a delicate sweetness.

Puffed from the oven and dusted with powdered sugar, a clafoutis that smells like a Parisian macaron: Dammann Frères’ Macaron Cassis Violette Tea Bags N°313 infuse the milk with black currant, bitter almond and violet over a fresh green tea.

Threaded on little skewers, pineapple, melon and strawberries wait for their crown of half a calisson: Arnaud Soubeyran’s Tutti-Frutti Calissons, blending mixed candied fruits and almonds, bring color and a festive note to the end of a meal.

Instead of coffee, the ladyfingers soak up a cool, fragrant tea before disappearing under mascarpone, strawberries and passion fruit; Dammann Frères’ L’Ôriental Tea N°2, green tea with passion fruit, bush peach and wild strawberry, gives the dessert its gently exotic air.

Ladyfingers dipped for just a second, clouds of mascarpone and a snowfall of cocoa: Terres de Café’s Blend The Forest coffee beans, organic coffees from Ethiopia and Brazil, bring velvety body and notes of chocolate, warm spices and praline.

The spoon taps, the caramel shatters, and beneath it the cream carries apricot, bergamot and vanilla: Joli Coeur Tea N°656 from Dammann Frères, a Chinese Sencha with a lovely, indulgent sweetness, has steeped in it before baking.

Christmas Eve in Provence ends with dried figs, dates, clementines and nuts spread across the table: Arnaud Soubeyran’s Traditional Calissons, with candied melon, orange and almonds beneath their icing, take pride of place among the thirteen desserts.

Ripe strawberries release their juices with a little sugar and basil, then a few turns of the mill change everything: Place des Épices’ organic Tellicherry black pepper, intense and fruity with delicate citrus notes, lingers long and elegant.