David Lebovitz's Blog, page 38

Buckwheat Chocolate Chip Cookies

I’ve always had an affinity for whole grains. I use all-purpose flour frequently in baking, but I like the hearty taste of whole-grains, such as whole-wheat flour in croissants and polenta in crisp topping, in spite of regular surveillance by the authenticity police. My argument back is that most things, like croissants and baguettes, were likely made with flour that was closer to whole grain flour than the refined flour that’s used today. So adding whole-grains to pastries may make them taste closer to the original versions, than the ones we make today.

In addition to winning an argument, chocolate chip cookies get a win from the addition from what are now called “alternative” flours, such as buckwheat flour, which is popular in France due to it being an essential ingredient in French traditional dishes like kig ha farz and galettes (buckwheat crêpes). Since I always have a sack on hand, when writing my book, L’appart, I dipped into my bag of farine de sarrasin, also called blé noir, or black flour, to come up with a recipe for buckwheat chocolate cookies that I can’t stop making…and eating.

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Brown Butter Financiers

One my favorites, of all French pastries, is the financier. Enriched with nuts, and moistened with butter, almost every bakery you go into has them. They come in different sizes, shapes, and even flavors; almond is the most popular, but you’ll sometimes come across financiers made with ground hazelnuts or pistachios. I like them all. There are a few theories how this mini-gâteau got its curious name.

One is that, traditionally, they’re baked in small, rectangular molds.  Once baked and unmolded, the little cakes resemble bars of gold. Another is that even adults in France are known to indulge in an afternoon sweet stop at their local bakery, for their goûter. Because people who work in the financial industry normally wear nice outfits or suits, something that’s neat to eat is appreciated, so they can stay presentable when heading back to the office.

I don’t have to worry about that, nor has anything come out of my oven turned to gold. (Quelle dommage!) But when I found myself with some leftover brown butter from infusing it in bourbon for Brown Butter Old Fashioneds, since I treat butter like gold, instead of tossing it, it got repurposed as a base for a batch of financiers.

Using browned butter keeps the butter flavor even more in focus. Some people get a little anxious when they see dark specks in pastries and desserts; I once had a waiter ask me what the dark flecks in the vanilla ice cream were. When I told him they were vanilla beans, and asked him (incredulously) what he thought they were, he replied, “I thought they were dirt.”

So after you brown the butter, when pouring it out of the pan, you don’t want to scrape up too much of the dark bits at the bottom of the pan, but I don’t mind a few in my cakes (in fact, I prefer them), so don’t fret too much about having a few in your batter. These cakes are also very forgiving, which is why so many bakeries in France offer them. They’re easy to make, keep well, and are the perfect afternoon snack – or as the French say, un snack.

Browned Butter Financiers

For financiers, I use mini-muffin tins, which are easily available. I'm not a fan of silicone bakeware but know that some people like it. This batter is pretty forgiving so can be baked in madeleine molds or even in larger muffin tins, filling them only about halfway. If you use another size mold, you'll likely need to adjust the baking time; bake them until browned on top, and the feel just set in the center when you touch them.

As mentioned, I made these with leftover brown butter from the Brown Butter Old Fashioned recipe. I started with 4 ounces (8 tablespoons/115g) of butter, which yielded the amount called for in the recipe. If starting from scratch, and making your own brown butter, start with that amount of brown butter, then you can measure it out when it's browned and cooled. (If you need a bit more butter, you can simply add a bit of melted butter to it, to reach the 2 1/2 oz/75g amount. There are links at the end of the post with detailed instructions on making brown butter.







Servings24 financiers







Ingredients








1cup (140g)

almond or hazelnut flour

3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (180g)

sugar

5tablespoons (45g)

flour

generous pinch

salt

4large

egg whites, at room temperature

1/2 teaspoon

vanilla or almond extract

2 1/2 ounces (75g)

brown butter,slightly warm (liquified)










Instructions









1. Preheat the oven to 375ºF/180ºC and butter the insides of 24 mini muffin tins generously with softened, not melted, butter, making sure the butter the upper rims of the indentations.



2. In a medium bowl, mix the almond or hazelnut powder, sugar, flour and salt. Stir in the egg whites and vanilla or almond extract, then the browned butter.



3. Fill each indentation of the mini muffin tins almost to the top. Rap the tins sharply on the counter to level the tops, then bake for 13 minutes, until nicely browned. Let the financiers cool in the tins, then remove them, using a sharp knife to help release them, if necessary.











Recipe Notes

Storage: The financiers can be stored in an air-tight container for up to one week. They can be frozen for up to two months.

Related Links

Brown butter Old Fashioned Cocktail

How to make brown butter (Serious Eats)

How to make brown butter video (Simply Recipes)

Summer Fruit Tart with Almond Cream

What is almond flour?

 

 

Upcoming L’appart Events and Paris Trip Giveaway

 

December

I’ll be heading by train to Boston (yay – no airports!), for an appearance at Milk Street cooking school with Chris Kimball. That event is sold-out but there’s an open-to-all event at Flour Bakery + Café in Cambridge on December 13th with owner/baker Joanne Chang. If you plan to come, please RSVP so they know how many people to expect.

On December 19th at 7pm, I’ll in Brooklyn at Bedford Cheese Shop, in conversation with Ella Riley-Adams of Vogue.com…along with Romain! There will be copies of L’appart to sign for last-minute holiday gifts, and I suspect there may be cheese, too.

January

I’ll be riding the rails (or the glamorous bus) to Philadelphia for an event on January 12 at 7pm, at Barnes & Noble in Rittenhouse Square with my friends from Context Travel, who are offering a special Paris trip giveaway.

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Brown Butter Old Fashioned Cocktail

I recently did an event with Deb Perelman for our new books, L’appart and Smitten Kitchen Every Day. We’d both been traveling around, and not one, not two…but three times, we were in the same city at the same time, but didn’t see each other. One night, I was having dinner by myself before an event and after a two-hour slog through traffic, I needed a sip of something. While inching along on the clogged freeway, I’d sent her a text message, asking if she drank anything before events. She said no.

On my last book tour, I kept my coffee consumption to one cup in the morning, and no more than a small sip of wine in the evening, because I was balancing a lot of travel with a lack of sleep, and wanted to stay on an even keel for my events. So I heeded her sage advice.

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Supermoon Bakehouse

When I come to the states, with apologies to all who’ve urged me to check out a croissant, Kouign amann, or macaron shop, since I can get all those things pretty easily in France, I tend to stick with local favorites. I don’t think anyone from San Francisco is coming to Paris for a burrito, nor in anyone flying over from Brooklyn in search of the perfect bagel in Bordeaux.

Yet serendipity found me in New York at the same time as British baking pal Edd Kimber, so I decided to break my rule for SuperMoon Bakehouse, which is offering a decidedly different take on classic French pastries. I’m not a huge fan of fussing with tradition, when it’s only done for the sake of being audacious, but some of the pastries sounded intriguing enough to brave rush hour on the packed New York subway, to high tail it over there, early this morning.

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Chocolate Caramel Cake

I’ve got a number of chocolate cakes in my repertoire, from a super-dense Chocolate Orbit Cake to soft, warm Chocolate Dulce de Leche Cakes, from My Paris Kitchen. And they all share one thing in common: a lot of chocolate. I’m not much for adding things that detract from the chocolate flavor, so I shy away from adding raspberries or other fruits and berries, or layering them with cream, or what have you. I just like straight-on chocolate cakes.

That said (and what would the internet be with people contradicting themselves?), I do like caramel with chocolate – and for the record – coffee as well. So when I came upon a rich chocolate cake studded with gooey pieces of tender caramel, I knew I had to get on it, pronto.

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Le Creuset, L’appart, and My Paris Kitchen Giveaway

 

To celebrate the release of L’appart, and as a Thanksgiving week treat, Le Creuset is giving away a five-piece Signature set in Flame (my favorite color!) to a lucky reader. This Signature set includes a 5.5-quart Dutch oven and a 1 3/4-quart saucepan with lids, plus a 9-inch skillet.

You might remember my visit to the Le Creuset factory and foundry in France, where I stood and watched as metal was melted down and poured into molds. A few hours later, after a being glazed and baked to perfection, a gleaming pot would emerge. And now, you can have not one, not two…but three pieces of this iconic French cookware, that are truly built to last. (That’s coming from someone with a cherished collection of vintage pieces, carefully culled, mixed in with my newer ones.)

Also included will be signed copy of L’appart, as well as My Paris Kitchen, which I’ll personalize just for you.

The giveaway ends November 26th so hurry, and enter to win this gorgeous Signature set of Le Creuset cookware and signed copies of L’appart and My Paris Kitchen here!

 

Thanksgiving Recipes

Before I left for my book tour, I put a few blog posts in the queue. But just a reminder to the rest of you, who are probably a little more organized than I am, that if you want to find something in your “cloud” later, you need to make sure you put it in there in the first place. D’oh!

So while those posts haven’t made into the stratosphere, I took a dive into my archives and found a down-to-earth trove of Thanksgiving recipes to tide you over. These are tried-and-true treats from my repertoire, things I make over and over again, year after year, and I think you’ll like them too.

Cranberry Shrub and Cocktail

Start the holidays off right with this tangy shrub, a vinegar-berry elixir that’s great mixed with sparkling water for a non-boozy libation, or as a base for a bourbon-fueled cocktail. I’ve given options for both, which should please everybody at your holiday fête.

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Pumpkin Cheesecake with Pecan Praline Sauce

It’s that time of year again. And that only means one thing: time to start thinking about the holiday baking. In Paris, bakery windows fill up with Bûches de Noël (Yule log cakes) and bourriches (wooden crates) of oysters are piled up at the markets. The chocolate shops are crammed with people, buying multiple boxes as gifts, and people splurge on caviar and Champagne, one of the few things that go on sale in France during the holidays.

One thing you don’t see is the use of pumpkin in desserts. A tart or pie (or ice cream) made of squash might sound funny, especially to non-Americans, but helps to remember that pumpkins, and other squash, are technically fruit. One could also point out the classic Swiss Chard Tart from Provence (which is in a whole other category), and Melanzane al cioccolato, eggplant with chocolate sauce, which I like. (Which one could argue is good because it’s smothered in dark chocolate.) But I don’t think everything goes with chocolate: A friend tried the hot chocolate with oysters at a famed chocolate shop in Paris, and after her description, I wasn’t rushing over there to try a cup.

To get that last image out of your mind, I present pumpkin cheesecake with a pecan praline sauce, that has nothing not to like about it. Cream cheese and sour cream, a buttery cookie crust, and a brown sugar and bourbon-tinged sauce loaded with crunchy pecans. I’m in.

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It’s here! L’appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home

Life throws you a lot of curveballs. I used to say (and still do), “If you want to be comfortable, stay home.” And that’s where I wanted to be when I decided to buy an apartment in Paris. Long-time readers will probably remember the posts about the process, as I searched like a madman for a vintage factory lamp for my kitchen, as we drove across France for a French sink (that curiously, I learned aren’t readily available in France), and how when my ceiling was finally in place, I felt grounded, as if I was almost home.

Or so I thought. As a local architect told me when I was done (or when I thought I was done, see page 315), “90% of the renovations have major problems. The other 10% of the people are lying.” I had no idea what I was getting into at the time, and looking back, I’m still trying to figure how what happened, happened. But now that all is said and done, the stories of before, during, and after, are told in L’appart: The Delights and Disasters of Making My Paris Home, which is available today.

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