Recipe for oranais apricot French pastries

Oranais are a French pastry with apricots and crème patisserie. They’re popular in France as snacks and even for breakfast. Easy to make, fruity and fabulous, they’re also known as oreilletes aux abricots or abricotine, not to be confused with Abricotine liqueur!

Ingredients for 6 oranais

1 roll of puff pastry
1 can of apricots in syrup
Jam of apricot
1 egg yolk
Crystal or granulated sugar for sprinkling

Crème patisserie

250ml of milk (1 cup)
1 sachet of vanilla sugar
55 g of caster sugar (powder) (2oz or 1/4 cup)
20 g of corn flour (cornstarch) (1.3 tablespoons)
2 egg yolks

How to make oranais

Heat the oven to 180°C /Gas Mark 4/36°F

Cut the puff pastry into 6 rectangles. It doesn’t matter if the corners aren’t perfectly sharp.

Prepare the crème patisserie: In a pan, heat the milk and vanilla sugar together to just before boiling point. Whisk the egg yolks with the caster sugar and add the corn flour and mix well. Slowly pour half the hot milk over the egg mix whisking all the while, then slowly pour the rest of the milk and keep whisking. Pour the mix in a clean saucepan and whisky over a low-medium heat until it thickens. Set aside and let it cool.

Drain the apricots and keep a tablespoon of juice to pour into the pastry cream. Dry the drained apricots on absorbent paper.

Spread a little pastry cream on each rectangle, keeping two of the corners clear if you’re making them the traditional way, or go to the edges if you’re making them like the photo above.

Place 2-3 apricot halves over the cream. It’s traditional to fold the clean corners over each other and stick together with a little egg yolk.

Brush the pastry with egg yolk and sprinkle over a little crystal or granulated sugar. Bake for 15 to 20 minutes until golden brown. Gently heat a couple of tablespoons of apricot jam and brush over the oranais. They’re delicious warm or cold.