Thursday, September 01, 2011

Financiers

The other day Rosanne asked me,
"What is a financier? I bought a 'financier' thinking it was a madeleine since it was oval shaped. Pas de tout
Normalement a true financier is shaped like a mini gold brick.
All of about 3" long, full of luscious browned butter(beurre noissete). Plus almond powder and baked in rectangular pans.
I don't know why they had to change the design?
The little tea cakes were first made in a pastry shop near the Place de Bourse 75002 - i.e. the Wall Street of Paris.
I've never seen pans this shape, yet the recipe is in their book.
The financier can come in many flavors. Mariage Freres serves a mean Matcha cake (on the left) at tea time.
 Pierre Herme only makes big rectangular cakes. He says,
Les cakes me replongent toujours dans des souvenirs d’enfance. D’apparence parfois simple, ils se révèlent à la découpe, moelleux, denses et souvent truffés de surprises savoureuses et croquantes.”
'Cake always takes me backto childhood memories. The appearence is simple, they reveal themselves in the cutting,soft , dense, often filled wiht surprises savory and crusty-crunchy'.
You can watch one of many financier demos at L'Atelier des Chefs.
The best possible info on the best financier in Paris is at Le Figaro naturalement and their list of Paris' 10 best. A la prochaine/next time I'll taste test and give you the lowdown PBers.
Yesterday I went looking for other financiers to taste but Bouchon has none and Financier Pastries was sold out except for a minis pack and I don't trust myself to eat just one.
I might as well just buy a pound of butter and start munching.
BONJOUR FINANCIERS!

26 comments:

  1. Gina L3:06 PM

    Bonjour Carol,

    It appears that your little financiers from Ladurée might have been made in a pan used for making barquettes. They look delicious! There are some of these molds or pans on amazon.... if you want to start making them yourself!

    Gina
    Houston Tx

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  2. Gina, I have enough Almond flour (from my macaron mishaps) to sink a ship!

    Tanks!

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  3. Lucinda3:24 PM

    I LOVE these little cakes!
    The perfect accompaniment to Green tea..

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  4. Carol...it seems that many take license with the shape of a financier...my FAVS come from Brooklyn - Colson Patisserie - I live in Ohio, but I order them all the time for special occasions (get the chocolate ones) - www.colsonpastries.com

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  5. Dear ParisBreakfast, what is "Bouchon" ? Is that a new Parisian pastry shop ?

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  6. Mad About,

    Colsons Patisserie's financiers are like mini round muffins!
    Why Oh why do they do that :(
    I will have to treck out there to taste them on your rec..

    RAIDS Patisserie,

    Bouchon Bakery is owned by chef Thomas Keller of French Laundry fame- there are 2 branches in New York - I should post on it. They only have large size macarons...most annoying IMHO...

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  7. I like the shape you bought..I have the burnt red silicone mold as pictured and it works perfectly..But the barquettes are cute too.
    J'en ai..but they have ridges and are metal..
    Don't know if they would work well..

    Bouchons are also like little brownies..W-S has the pan etc..:) Cute cute..
    http://www.williams-sonoma.com/products/silicone-bouchon-mold/

    Love your aquarelle.

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  8. NANA<

    I found the barquettes on Amazon.

    I REALLY have to do something with all that almond powder in the fridge...
    But if I started wolfing these down I would be in trouble..hmmm
    Must look for a whole-grain ALMOND bread of sorts :(

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  9. G in TX5:37 PM

    Re:Almond flour..
    i make little greek kourabiedes (I am sure I am spelling that incorrectly) with almond flour during the holidays for gifts - as they are more forgiving and require almost no skill or luck... of course they aren't macarons or financiers....
    and I don't think a little white ball of cookie would be too interesting to paint!

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  10. OMG!
    I LOVE those little white cookies!!
    You get the sugar all down your front too..
    I live in Greekville here in Astoria
    Those things ae seriously dangerous Gina.
    I can taste it melting in my mouth right now...sigh
    oh my
    they may be better than macaronies..

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  11. The financiers look delicious.
    I've never seen any around here, though.
    Actually I'd never heard of them before! Thank you again, Carol, for the education :)

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  12. Most of t6he few actual Financiers I've met at cocktail parties here on Philly's Mainline are rather rotund shaped.
    No doubt from eating too many Financiers.

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  13. I just wouldn't know anything about Paris or all the fattening French food if it weren't for you. Thank you for sharing! I guess it's a good thing we don't live in New York, either, let alone Paris, because I could not resist eating anything you write about.

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  14. I thought the financiers in your first post were Madeleines until I read the text! I've never seen that shape of mold either!

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  15. This is a WONDERFUL comment Bill.
    I will embroider the 1st two sentences on a pillow.
    xCarolg

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  16. Carol, I can see that I am going to have to set out and do some of my own research at these places around NYC.

    (Must remember to take lots of cash for this research!)

    xo

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  17. Carol, Thanks for the very informative post. I've never been a big fan of financiers but you've convinced me to give them a second (and perhaps a third!) chance. Let me know if you need any help with your "research" the next time that you're in town! ;-) And since my bakery just re-opened today (Woohoo!) I'll go ahead and get started on the taste testing this morning.

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  18. A faire rapidement....

    A kiss from Paris

    Manon

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  19. Funny, I just cooked Financiers yesterday, (with "Matcha tea powder" like Mariage) I don't know why Ladurée changed the design, it's not a good idea, did they absolutly want to be unique in everything, why not squared macarons?
    A second kiss from Paris! xxx

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  20. Loved this post Carol! :) That matcha financier from Mariage Freres brings back such good memories! Have you tried the ones from Au Panetier in the 2nd arr? They make GIANT (in the shape of muffins) financiers in caramel, currant, and chocolate+cherry! ^_^

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  21. I went to Paris for first time last year...ahhh Paris...anyway I loved the Pierre Herme Macarons the best...also had Finaciers from Eric Kayser that were to die for...took a bag of minis home on the plane as well as the large muffin shaped raspberry ones...OMG!
    Thanks Carol...your blog helped me make sure not to miss some great places!

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  22. Yum! They sound good--I'm not sure if I've had one of those before or not! Pretty.

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  23. Dear Carol-

    I am so honored to have prompted an entire PARIS BREAKFAST entry!

    Thank you so much for taking the time to explain it so completely.

    Financier in NYC actually gives you a little teeny financier with every cuppa purchased. And they are heavenly!

    Next time I'm in NYC we must have a macaron/financier together for a meeting.

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  24. decorateur-design1:56 PM

    Thank you Caroll for making our days so sweet. I'm a big fan of financiers and I will certainly purchase some on my next trip to NYC.

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  25. why, why, WHY the deadly almond powder in so many Parisian goodies? I think they're trying to torture me.

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  26. I was at Financier's pastry shop a couple of days ago too! :)

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