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Champagne-Ardenne
The colour of rosé champagne, with a texture that stands up to the bubbles — since 1690, the little biscuit rose de Reims has been the inseparable companion to fine glasses of Champagne and the sweet emblem of a crowned city.
Pastry or bakery speciality from Champagne-Ardenne.
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The story of the biscuit rose de Reims begins around 1690, in the ovens of Champagne's bakers. At the time, craftsmen were seeking to make use of the residual heat in their wood-fired ovens between two batches of bread. The idea arose to pour a light batter — eggs, sugar, flour — into elongated moulds, bake it once, and then leave the biscuits to dry slowly in the subsiding heat of the oven. This double baking, or bis-cuit in the literal sense, gives the biscuit its distinctive texture: crisp on the surface, slightly melting in the centre, and above all remarkably impervious to liquids — it absorbs without disintegrating, thanks to the egg white in the recipe and the second baking.
Vanilla made its way into the recipe a few decades later, lending the batter a discreet fragrance. But the scraped pods left unsightly little black flecks on the biscuit's surface. To conceal them, the bakers of Reims had the idea of coating the biscuits in a fine dusting of icing sugar tinted with cochineal carmine — a natural scarlet colouring extracted from a Central American insect. The characteristic pink colour, born of an aesthetic solution, became the product's hallmark for the next three centuries.
Reims is not only the capital of Champagne — it is also the cradle of the biscuit rose. Maison Fossier, founded in 1756 under the name 'Noël-Houzeau', has never left the city: its biscuit factory is still located there, today at 20 rue Maurice Prévoteau.
The Marne (département 51) is the only département where this production has historically taken place: of the fifteen biscuit bakeries recorded in Reims in the 1940s and 1950s for their biscuits, pains d'épices and marzipan, Maison Fossier is today the sole survivor.
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In 1756, during the reign of Louis XV, a small artisanal biscuit maker opened in Reims under the name 'Noël-Houzeau' — the forerunner of Maison Fossier, today the oldest operational biscuit factory in France. From 1775, its biscuits were served at the coronation of Louis XVI in Reims, and the house earned the title of purveyor to the king. In 1825, it received a royal diploma bearing the seal of Charles X, guaranteeing the quality of its biscuits. It was in 1845 that Monsieur Fossier, a baker by trade, took over the biscuit business, which then took on its definitive name.
In the 19th century, the biscuit rose conquered aristocratic tables across Europe: King Charles X, Leopold II of Belgium and the Russian Tsar were among its admirers. During the Roaring Twenties, the vogue for the biscuit rose grew even further, and society ladies loved to enjoy it with a fine Champagne.
In the 20th century, of the fifteen biscuit makers still active in Reims in the 1940s, Maison Fossier remained the sole guardian of this heritage. In 2006, it was awarded the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (EPV) label, which recognises French enterprises displaying outstanding artisanal craftsmanship. In 2021, it joined the Breton agri-food group Galapagos Gourmet — whilst keeping its production in Reims and preserving a recipe unchanged for more than three hundred years.
Appearance
A small, elongated, domed biscuit (around 8 cm) of an even, deep pink, dusted with a light veil of white icing sugar that contrasts with the pink hue. The surface is smooth and slightly glossy.
Aroma
Subtle and delicate — vanilla to the fore, a sweet note of baked biscuit, and a faint hint of caramel.
Taste
Mild, very subtly vanillic, sweet without being cloying. The flavour is discreet and deepens on contact with liquid.
Texture
Crisp when dry, with a slightly airy centre. Its great distinction: it does not crumble when dunked into liquid, but absorbs it slowly and turns meltingly tender without falling apart — a quality directly linked to the double baking and the egg white in the recipe.
the historic format, sold in small pink 225 g bags.
the biscuit rose is used in charlottes, tiramisus and a wide range of other desserts and pastries, subtly tinting each preparation with its pink colour; it is also available in powdered form to flavour other recipes.
the batter is piped into elongated shapes onto baking trays.
at a moderate temperature, to set the batter and give it its shape.
pink icing sugar tinted with cochineal carmine (E120) is applied to the biscuits whilst still warm.
packed in bags, stored at ambient temperature.
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The quintessential and traditional pairing is a flute of Champagne. The biscuit is dunked for a few seconds into the bubbles: thanks to the egg white in the recipe and the double baking, it absorbs without breaking or disintegrating.
Beyond Champagne, the biscuit rose is also enjoyed with tea, coffee or hot chocolate. In pastry and baking, it features in charlottes, tiramisus and numerous other desserts, where its pink colour subtly tints each preparation.
The biscuit rose de Reims enjoys no official geographical protection (neither PGI (IGP) nor PDO (AOP)); its name and recipe are in the public domain. Maison Fossier, the sole direct heir to the Reims biscuit-making tradition, has held the Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant (EPV) label since 2006, a mark of artisanal excellence recognised by the French state, though applicable to the enterprise rather than the product.
Artisanal industrial biscuit maker — Entreprise du Patrimoine Vivant
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