A petit four is a small confectionery, generally eaten at the end of a meal (e.g. with coffee) or served as part of dessert. The name is from the French 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 meringues, macaroons, and puff pastries. Petits fours glacés (glacé meaning "iced") are iced or decorated 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, 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.
Petits fours were traditionally made during the cooldown process of brick ovens fired by coal fuel in the 18th century. Coal heat is hard to control as it burns much hotter than wood, and at the time was much more expensive so waste of the heat generated was not an option.
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