This is one of the best-loved traditional desserts from Brittany, on France’s Atlantic coast. It’s a thick custard with marinated prunes that is baked until spotted with gold. The word far means “pudding” in the Breton dialect.

On my first trip to France, a whirlwind Eurailpass adventure (when several hundred dollars could carry you—not lavishly, but comfortably, in a scruffy kind of way—for many weeks), I stopped in just about every pastry shop I saw, usually for a wedge of