Gold Ingots

The hardest part of making these tasty little morsels is not the beurre noisette, nor is it toasting the almonds--both of which I grumbled last week might take them out of the quick and easy category. Indeed, they were quick and easy, even though I got out the dreaded piping bag for neatness in placing the batter.  No, the hardest thing is getting the #%^#& ingots out of the pan in one piece.  This was particularly difficult since I added a raspberry to the center of each bar, making the middle very fragile. The good part was that Jim and I were forced to gobble up all the imperfect ingots. FORCED, I say!

If you've made any version of these ingots--or financiers--you know the drill: toast the almonds, brown the butter, grind the almonds, make the batter, fill the molds.

In this case, we not only browned some of the butter, but some was just plain melted. I truly don't understand the chemistry behind this, but Drew Shotts of Rhode Island Confectionary promnised Rose that they were the most melt-in-your-mouth financiers ever, and I can't say he's wrong.

Rose says you can use a spoon to fill the financier pans, but you really should use a pastry bag if you're any kind of human being at all. Or words to that effect.

So I got out the pastry bag. In truth, I was a bit pouty at the pastry bag idea, because it usually spells disaster. But I'll admit that filling the pans from the pastry bag was much slicker than glopping it in with a spoon.

Plus I like the Dairy Queen-like swirl that you get at the end of the batter. The key to successful piping, in my opinion, is that whatever you're piping has to be soft enough to go through the tip without getting stuck. So this batter was much easier than a stiffer buttercream. This is probably obvious.

A great new bakery opened up just a few blocks from my house in South Minneapolis: the 46 Patisserie., at 46th and Grand. They have financiers there--the first time I've ever seen them outside my kitchen. I now realize I'm so cutting edge that master French bakers will copy me. Actually, owner John Krause is a former pastry chef at Chicago's French Pastry School, and he's not copying me. I am copying him in carefully inserting a fresh raspberry in the center of the batter, which only improved this already excellent little unassuming pastry.

I probably shouldn't have pushed it down into the batter because the batter rose and nearly covered up the raspberry. It would have been more attractive if you could have seen more of the berry on top. But that's just a quibble. I'm pretty happy with the way these turned out.

It's my favorite of the three financiers I've made. The flavor of the butter really shines in this version, whereas the stronger flavors of chocolate and peanut butter masked its purity in the other ingot incarnations.


TASTING PANEL
Doug: "Really good. I liked the aftertaste, and it was nice and moist."
Karen: "I liked the texture. The cake is delicious. I wouldn't have minded a bigger piece."
Jim: "Exceptionally good cake. I liked the raspberry inside, but it wouldn't have needed it. The cake tastes good on its own. I always like the cakes that are a little crunchy on the outside."