11 oz – 3+ cups – Product of France
The Pastry Chef's Secret Crunch
If you've ever bitten into an elegant chocolate, praline, or layered pastry and encountered an impossibly light, delicate crunch, there's a good chance you've met feuilletine.
Also known as Pailleté Feuilletine, these crisp French pastry flakes are made from paper-thin crêpes dentelle that are baked until golden and brittle, then broken into delicate shards. The flavor is lightly buttery, toasted, and sweet, but the real magic is texture: feuilletine adds crunch without the heaviness of chopped nuts, cookie crumbs, or cereal.
Long a staple of professional pastry kitchens, feuilletine is especially prized for creating the crisp layers tucked inside pralines, entremets, mousse cakes, bonbons, chocolate bars, and other confections.
“Add these buttery, toasty-sweet shards to ganache, frostings and truffles for a super crunch.”
— Tina Ujlaki, Food & Wine
What Is Feuilletine?
Feuilletine is made from crêpes dentelle—extremely thin, crisp French crêpes with a texture closer to a delicate wafer than the soft crêpe you might order for dessert. Once the crisp crêpes are broken into small flakes, they become feuilletine.
Don't expect large, uniform pieces. True feuilletine is naturally delicate, irregular, and quite small. That's exactly what makes it so good at disappearing into a chocolate or praline mixture while leaving that unmistakable fine crunch behind.
How to Use Feuilletine Flakes
The classic application is praliné feuilleté, a French-style crunchy praline layer made by combining feuilletine with praline paste and chocolate, then spreading it into a thin layer for cakes, entremets, tarts, or confections.
Feuilletine is also wonderful:
- Folded into melted chocolate, gianduja, or nut praline
- Added to truffles and bonbon fillings
- Layered into mousse cakes and entremets
- Mixed into chocolate-hazelnut spreads for crunch
- Sprinkled over cakes, pastries, ice cream, and plated desserts
- Added to chocolate bark or homemade candy bars
- Used anywhere you want a light, delicate pastry crunch
Hot tip: Feuilletine stays crisp best when surrounded by fat-based ingredients such as chocolate, praline, or nut butter. Direct exposure to wet ingredients can soften the delicate flakes, so if crunch is the goal, don't stir them into a watery sauce or leave them sitting in a moist filling.
Feuilletine vs. Corn Flakes or Cookie Crumbs
There are plenty of ways to make something crunchy, but feuilletine has a texture of its own. The flakes are thinner, lighter, and more brittle than cereal or cookie crumbs, giving pastry chefs a crisp layer that doesn't feel dense or hard against mousse, ganache, or chocolate.
It's one of those ingredients you may not notice by name. You just notice that the dessert is much more fun to eat.
Frequently Asked Questions
Is Pailleté Feuilletine the same as feuilletine?
Yes. Pailleté feuilletine is the traditional French name commonly used for the delicate flakes of crisp crêpes dentelle used in pastry and chocolate work.
Are feuilletine flakes supposed to be very small?
Yes. Feuilletine is fragile by nature. Small flakes and crumbs are normal and are ideal for mixing evenly into chocolate, praline, and other pastry components.
Will feuilletine stay crunchy in ganache?
It performs best when protected by chocolate, praline, nut butter, or another fat-rich mixture. Prolonged contact with high-moisture ingredients can soften the flakes.
How should I store feuilletine?
Keep the flakes tightly sealed in a cool, dry place. Humidity is the enemy of crunch.
Ingredients: Wheat flour, sugar, anhydrous milkfat, milk sugar, milk proteins, salt, barley malt flour, raising agent E500II.
Allergen Information: Contains wheat and milk. Packed in a facility that processes peanuts, tree nuts, milk, soy, wheat, and eggs.
