Pair Wine From Burgundy With These Burgundy Dessert Recipes

Many people have a fair idea of what wines pair well with savory cuisines but are less certain when it comes to pairing wine and desserts, especially when it involves complex wine and Burgundy dessert recipes. However, there are numerous wines that complement sweet dishes, not just dessert wines. For example, a creamy, oaked Chardonnay goes well with cakes containing citrus or summer fruit flavors, such as lemon shortbread or drizzle cake. Additionally, desserts with dark, rich chocolate are best paired with the right Pinot Noir, as both the sweetness and wine offer complementary flavors. Pears poached in red wine, known as ‘Poires au vin,’ perfectly match the light, sweet character of Beaujolais wines. 

Ellie’s Cookbook, available online and used at home in Domaine de Cromey, not only has great savory recipes but also contains wonderful Burgundy dessert recipes and wine pairing tips. This article sets out a few of them to whet your appetite... 

The Best Burgundy Dessert Recipes and What We Drink With Them

To begin with, a light sweet dish which has always been one of our favorites - Warm Vine Peach Soup with Irancy Wine. Now this peach is slightly different to your average peach – it's known in these parts as Peche de Vigne because it often grows amongst the vines. Another name for it is ‘peche sanguine’ or ‘blood peach’ because of its red flesh. You can use any peaches but this one is beloved by cooks because it isn’t too sweet and has a wonderful bitter edge that can work wonders with many other ingredients – for example, in savory dishes made from game birds. But here, it’s definitely a sweet soup with which we serve cookies or scoops of vanilla ice cream. And the wine? Well that has to be a light Pinot Noir, and Irancy is perfect – look for something like Gabin and Felix Richoux’s Irancy, which has a backdrop of black cherry (also a slightly bitter sweetness, like the peach) but is also floral and masterfully balanced.  

How about a dish made from just three ingredients next? Our Tea Store Truffles are delectable and gluten free too! You need just three things: tea, chocolate (at least 70% cocoa ideally) and water. We have used Earl Grey and Lemon tea to great effect, but Rose tea would work just as well, or whatever you have to hand. You infuse the tea into sugared water, then pour the solution over the chocolate and combine to make an unctuous ganache. This is formed into small balls, and then we then temper some chocolate to roll them in. They’re a simple but memorable treat that can be paired with a Crémant de Bourgogne from Domaine Borgeot. Crémant is made in the same way as those more expensive wines they call Champagne…but this is much better value for money, made by a producer we know, with love and passion, on a smaller scale than those more expensive Champagnes made by the million. Why not give it a try? 

Next up is Ellie’s Brioche French Toast with Roasted Forced Rhubarb. Early spring is the time we usually start to ‘force’ our rhubarb, which simply means putting a can or pot over it, so it grows in the dark, trying to find light. We do this because it gives the rhubarb a more tender, paler stalk which has a more distinctive and delicate flavor than you would get with rhubarb grown normally outside. The recipe calls for brioche, but if you don’t have any to hand then you could also make a lovely French toast with a challah loaf (braided and often eaten in Jewish feasts) or panettone. This dish pairs well with Agnes Paquet’s Auxey-Duresses Blanc 'Patience' or Bourgogne Chardonnay. Her wines have all the bright fruit you need, with a zippy mineral edge to complement the rhubarb and a really nice lingering complexity at the end. 

For baking enthusiasts, the Fresh Apricot and Pistachio Cake is a delightful option, with coarsely chopped nuts lining the baking pan and topping the cake for added texture. There’s something about the sweet freshness of the apricots which partners so well with the green mellowness of the pistachio nuts. (If we don’t have time to make the full cake at Cromey, we often simply serve chopped apricots with a scoop of pistachio ice cream!) The colour combination of those vibrant oranges and lush greens is also a beautiful sight on any dinner table. The baking time is around 45 minutes for this dish, and you could serve it with a scoop of cream fraiche too.  

And now for something very traditional, one of those Burgundy dessert recipes that you may not have heard of before… Paris-Brest. This is basically a choux pastry dish made in the shape of a wheel, and created in homage to the Paris-Brest bicycle race by Louis Durand, all the way back in 1910. Today you will still find this mouth-watering dessert in Patisseries all over France. We were very excited to try this dish the first time at Domaine de Cromey… we’d made choux pastry often, but not in this form. Another serving option is to make this dish into one large ring, and slice it into smaller cake-like portions to make it go further! If you can’t decide on what to drink with this dish, then we have an easier option – why not choose our Introduction to Burgundy White Six Pack of wine? That way you don’t have to pick one wine – you can have six, which are some of the best expressions of pure Chardonnay we’ve come across. They come from across the Burgundian map – from Chablis in the North, through the Cote de Beaune and on into the southern regions – you’ll get rich, ripe fruit with fantastic freshness, the perfect accompaniment to our Paris-Brest. 

If you're in the mood for a refreshing sweet beverage, you might want to try the recipe for Elderflower ‘Champagne,’. This is a non-alcoholic drink, (but you can always keep it in leftover champagne or Crémant de Bourgogne bottles!). Just don’t wait too long before you use the flowers, or they’ll turn to berries (if this happens, put them into a pie). There’s a video on our YouTube channel to show you exactly how we make our elderflower cordial. It's a sure-fire hit for drinking with almost any Burgundy dessert recipes.

Burgundy Cookery Demonstrations at Domaine de Cromey 

At our home in Burgundy you can learn to cook Burgundy dessert recipes like Ellie too! We run cooking demonstrations throughout the year, each tailored to your group’s preferences and tastes. You can let us know what you want to cover in your class on our booking form. These memorable events happen in the manoir kitchen, where you’ll see our 300-year-old bread oven, in which we can make anything from pizzas, legs of lamb, pulled pork, and many more delicacies. This will be one unforgettable gourmet experience to tell all your friends about.  

And once you set off exploring the area from here, who knows where your adventures might take you? To really get to know the area, nothing beats exploring it at your own pace. The French Grande Randonnée (GR) routes offer suggested paths that allow you to connect with nature right from your doorstep. There are numerous well-marked and maintained hiking trails that run through Burgundy, and you can access them just outside Cromey's gate. Whether you're looking for a leisurely one-hour walk through the vineyards, an afternoon spent exploring the surrounding countryside, or a more ambitious journey to join the route to Compostela, it all begins here. There is a whole range of other activities that you can do too, from hot air ballooning to cycling and more: to view a sample itinerary click here. 

Elden Selection’s Burgundy Wine Club offers members the opportunity to learn more about Burgundy wines through four shipments per year, member-only virtual events, wine glasses, tasting notes, and a chance to win a stay at the Burgundy manor house Domaine de Cromey. For more information about the producers, appellations, and terroir of the Burgundy Wine Region, visit the Domaine de Cromey blog.