HCB: Gold Ingots {Financiers}
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
This past weekend I have been up to my ears in flour, butter, sugar, spatulas, and every single piece of baking equipment in my kitchen.
In order words, I think I have baked myself OUT.
Is that even possible?
I think it may be. And just like my vast weekend-baking, there is going to be a substantial amount of posting to cover all of it.
So let’s start with the easy one. This weeks Heavenly Cake Baker’s choice was the Gold Ingots. Or better knows as Financiers, or at our house: “those little cakey-thingy’s-that are-yummy”
I kid you not, that is what we are calling them. Nobody can say Financiers and Tom refuses to call them Ingots, because he said that he is not eating a bar of molted gold. (I cannot make these things up – trust me. My house = Crazy).
But, I’m getting off topic here. Back to the cakey-thingy’s-that are-yummy.
These were pretty easy to put together, so easy that I totally skipped using the KA for it, but took out the hand beater – because I’m a chicken (more on that later).
We start with making “beurre Noisette”, which is just fancy French for hazelnut butter, or brown butter. The first time I tried this, I watched it like a hank, babying it, making sure my butter did not burn to a black mess. Now, I just put it on low heat, and go about my business, taking an occasional look-see at the stove to make sure its coming along. And that is a testament in how far I have come in my self-confident level in baking. Who is the boss of you, butter? Unlike the other ingot recipes in the book, this one calls for a double dose of butter, and since I was high on my mighty baking power, I decided to melt this part in the microwave - I was not up to watching another saucepan.
And here is where I HIGHLY recommend NOT DOING THIS. Because, the butter showed me that apparently I’m NOT THE BOSS of her, by swiftly exploding all over the place inside the microwave, making one fine BIG mess.
And we interrupt this post, to do some major clean-up of the chaos the butter left behind.
After the butter and I made peace with our respective lots in life, the next step was using another favorite ingredient of mine – Almonds, which we toasted, and then placed in the food processor, to pulse with the sugar to a fine crumbly base.
And this is the point in the story where I seriously thought of doing the whole thing in the food processor. Because, seriously Rose, please no more bowls! But, I was too chicken to do so, because I’m a sticker for following the rules the first time around.
Note to self: “Be more daring, or you will continue to wash huge amount of dishes after every cake from this book.”
So, in goes the dry ingredients (flour, baking powder) then we top off with the egg whites and you get a batter that is not very liquid, not very thick. I totally missed the step to refrigerate the batter for 1 hour, and simply pour it in my not so fancy square mini-pan, because the fancy financier pan, which I originally ordered from amazon.com after I made the Peanut Butter Ingots, was sent back due to a order glitch. And then Tom I decided that I did not need another baking pan and my cupcake pan will have to do.
They baked perfectly. Had no issue getting them out of the pan, which some of my baker counterparts did. And after an hour of cooling time, the tasting panel came together for the final take.
Verdicts:
Tom: “They are good, very good, but, I like the peanut butter ones better. These are just too buttery for my taste. I will still eat them”.
The little man: “I like the peanut butter cookies better” (he was talking about my TWD choice for this week - post is coming on those)
Me: I like them, like Tom, I preferred the Peanut Butter ones, maybe because they just had a deeper flavor profile than these. I also found them very buttery. What I did like, was the fact that they were very crunchy on the outside and nice and soft when you took a bite of them.
Would they be a repeat around these parts? I doubt it. But, that is why we have the peanut butter ones for.
Disclaimer: No recipes are shared in my Heavenly Cake Baker posts, due to restrictions in sharing the recipes by the publisher of Rose’s Heavenly Cakes. But, you can purchase the book here.
Reader Comments (10)
Seeing your gorgeous pictures makes me wish I'd tripled the recipe! Our's were gone in less than twenty-four hours.
I love this picture, it makes my mouth water. A definite entry to gawker.
"those little cakey thingy's that are yummy" --> awesome name!
Totally missed the part about 1 hour refrigeration as well!
Same like you, these are good but I doubt there would be a repeat. Strangely, I like the taste of the batter better than the finished product.
i didn't refrigerate them either, and i'm not entirely sure it was necessary...very confusing directions!
your photos are gorgeous--love the polka dot mat!
Monica,
I really love these pictures...they're really delicious!! Keep the coming.
Your golden Ingots look adorable. The first photo is stunning! I forgot to put the batter in the refrigerator for an hour too AND I exploded butter in the microwave this weekend. We must be on the same page. I am late posting because I started getting gun-shy baking over the weekend and decided to finish everything up today. Too funny no one would call these by there names =).
Your ingots looks so cute in square shape!
Hi Monica!
It was great having lunch with you in Atlanta yesterday and I'm loving your blog. The photos are wonderful. I've just gotten stuck on the Financiers and have a feeling that although I've just walked in the door, I'm going to have to get to toasting the bag of almonds that are in the pantry. These look delicious.
I look forward to reading more of the blog.
Fran.. the same it was a great conference, took away lots of good information, but the most important thing is to come away with all of you as my new "tribe"! Thank you for the compliment on the blog.. I took a peek at your and its great as well.. will be commenting! You are on my reader!
They look delicious anyway! I've always wanted to try financiers!