A petit four is a small confection generally eaten at the end of a meal (e.g., with coffee) or served as part of dessert. The name is from the French

French language

French is a Romance language spoken as a first language in France, the Romandy region in Switzerland, Wallonia and Brussels in Belgium, Monaco, the regions of Quebec and Acadia in Canada, and by various communities elsewhere. Second-language speakers of French are distributed throughout many parts...

 petit four, meaning "small oven".

There are two different categories of petits fours. Petits fours secs (sec meaning "dry") include a variety of small desserts, such as special dainty biscuits, baked meringue

Meringue

Meringue is a type of dessert made from whipped egg whites and sugar, occasionally some recipes may call for adding an acid such as cream of tartar or a small amount of vinegar and a binding agent such as cornstarch found in icing sugar which may be added in addition to the corn starch which...

s, macaron

Macaron

A macaron is a sweet confectionery made with egg whites, icing sugar, granulated sugar, almond powder or ground almond, and food coloring. The macaron is commonly filled with buttercream or jam filling sandwiched between two cookies. Its name is derived from an Italian word "maccarone" or...

s, and puff pastries

Puff pastry

In baking, a puff pastry is a light, flaky, leavened pastry containing several layers of fat which is in solid state at 20 °C . In raw form, puff pastry is a dough which is spread with solid fat and repeatedly folded and rolled out and used to produce the aforementioned pastries...

. Petits fours glacés (glacé meaning "iced") are iced or decorated

Cake decorating

Cake decorating is one of the sugar arts that uses icing or frosting and other edible decorative elements to make otherwise plain cakes more visually interesting...

 in some way, such as tiny cakes covered in fondant or glacé icing, small éclairs, and tartlets. In a French patisserie, assorted small desserts are usually called mignardises

Mignardises

Mignardises are tiny, bite-sized desserts sometimes served at the end of a meal; they are a type of petit four. Mignardises frequently include tiny cookies or chocolates, as well as other edible delights....

, while hard, buttery biscuits are called petit fours.

There are also petits fours salés (salé meaning "salted" or "savoury"), which are bite-sized salted appetizers usually served as part of cocktail parties or buffets.

History

Petits fours were traditionally made during the cooling process of coal

Coal

Coal is a combustible black or brownish-black sedimentary rock usually occurring in rock strata in layers or veins called coal beds or coal seams. The harder forms, such as anthracite coal, can be regarded as metamorphic rock because of later exposure to elevated temperature and pressure...

 powered, brick ovens in the 18th century. This was due to coal's high burning temperature, relative to wood, and its expense at the time. Wasting the heat produced was not an option.

See also

• Punschkrapfen
  Punschkrapfen
  Punschkrapfen or Punschkrapferl is a classical Austrian pastry. It is a cake filled with cake crumbs, nougat chocolate, apricot jam and then soaked with rum...
  
  , a similar Austrian dessert
• French Fancy
  French Fancy
  A French Fancy is a British variety of iced sponge cake, resembling petits fours. They were originally produced in the UK by the Mr Kipling company.- Composition :...
  
  , a similar British variety