Pub-style ambiance, the traditional restaurant or the refined, each has its specialty. New cuisine or traditional, whatever your heart desires. In any case, you’ll learn to love the lifestyle here in Champagne.
The menu is organized around the seasonal specialty champagne, and it’s long.
The region: Champagne, first off, is a region with a peculiar soil. Chalk is what lends champagne its flavor.
In winter, it protects the vine’s roots from freezing, and in summer it restores the moisture necessary for growth.
From the originality of regional products to the prestige associated with champagne, Champagne-Ardenne’s rich and varied cuisine will reward lingering here with a new discovery at each meal of different culinary preparations or local specialties.
It would be a shame never to enjoy the boudin blanc de Rethel, the Andouillette de Troyes, Jambon d’Ardennes, or pigs feet à la St. Ménehould, Chaource or Langres cheese, which can be ripened in Marc de Champagne, croquignolles from Reims, accompanied of course by a cider from Pays d’Othe, a Riceys or a Coiffy wine, without forgetting champagne and coteaux champenois wines, Bouzy, Cumières, and more.
From approved farm products to the most refined dishes, taste them all, report back what you find, and come back often.
Regional Specialties:
The best-known specialties are tête de veau or pigs feet à la St. Ménehould, andouillette de Troyes, and champagne chicken.
The Ardennes sugar tart, gâteau mollet, or chocolate ardoises from Sedan are the preferred desserts of locals in Champagne-Ardennes.
Regional Cheeses:
Cheeses to enjoy here are Chaource, Langres, Troyen, and Coulommier.
Wines and Spirits:
Champagne is an internationally renowned sparkling wine. But the region also possesses some still wines such as Bouzy (red), Coteaux champenois (white), and Riceys Rosé.
Varietals used:
Chardonnay, Pinot Noir, and Pinot Meunier
Ardennes Sugar Tart
Preparation Time: 15 minutes and about 30 minutes to rest
Cooking Time: 20 minutes
Ingredients:
Dough:
- 1 cup tepid milk
- 1 packet baker’s yeast
- 2 eggs (reserve a bit of the yolk to mix with a tablespoon of milk to brush on the crust)
- 1 teaspoon sugar to mix with the yeast + a little warm water to start it rising
- 3 dashes salt
- 7 tablespoons (100 g) softened butter
- 2 ½ cups (250 g) flour
Garnish:
- 1 cup (125 g) fine sugar – several pats of butter
Preparation:
- Put the flour in a bowl; add the salt, eggs, softened butter, and milk to the middle.
- Mixing with a fork, incorporate the flour bit by bit, lifting the dough to aerate it well
- Add the yeast, which you have already started with warm water. Continue to beat the dough.
- Let it rest in a warm place until the dough doubles in volume.
- Stretch the dough over the buttered pie plate; leave it to rise a bit, brush it with the egg yolk/milk mixture, and add sugar. Add pats of butter generously.
- Cook in a 450°F (230°C) oven for approximately 20 minutes.
- Remove from the pie plate.