Showing posts with label financiers. Show all posts
Showing posts with label financiers. Show all posts

Saturday, May 23, 2009

Living the Sweet Life in Paris: Some experiments

My mother doesn't cook, but she loves buying kitchen gear and a few years ago she gave me a very cute pan that's similar to a mini-muffin pan, except the depressions are in the shape of hearts. 

I finally found a use for this pan: untraditional financiers. A few days ago I baked David Lebovitz's chocolate-almond financiers, which were easy and wonderful and seemed like they would lend themselves to flavor variations. 

On the left is a green tea financier. On the right, an horchata financier. How were they? They were heinous. But interesting!

I know what went wrong:

a. didn't grind the almonds finely enough, which made them rough 

b. didn't compensate for the omission of cocoa powder from Lebovitz's recipe by adding extra flour, which made them sticky and gummy

More specifically, green tea financiers are just a crummy idea. Matcha may have a place in sponge cake, which is airy and fluffy, but not a dense, chewy, nutty sweet. While these didn't taste at all like seaweed, something about the color makes it impossible not to think about kelp. Altogether unappetizing. Won't proceed with this line of research.

Horchata financiers have possibilities, although these did not taste at all like horchata. They tasted like cinnamon. Is it even possible to reproduce the delicate, elusive horchata flavor in a non-liquid? Or is cold, gritty rice milk essential to the experience? Thoughts? Further research required.