Of all the pastries in France, one of my favorites is the financier. Enriched with nuts, and moistened with butter, every bakery in France offers their own version of 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, which appeals to people in the financial world. Another is that people in France are known to indulge in an afternoon sweet stop at their local bakery, called a 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 ever 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, I repurposed it 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 no need to fret 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.

Print

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.

Course Dessert

Cuisine French

Keyword almonds, financiers, french pastry

Servings 24 financiers

Ingredients

• 1 cup (140g) almond or hazelnut flour
• 3/4 cup plus 2 tablespoons (180g) sugar
• 5 tablespoons (45g) flour
• generous pinch salt
• 4 large egg whites at room temperature
• 1/2 teaspoon pure vanilla or almond extract
• 2 1/2 ounces (75g) brown butter slightly warm (liquified)

Instructions

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

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?

Meet my new favorite chocolate cake recipe! It’s rich, chocolatey and indulgent, and secretly somewhat wholesome. Almond flour forms the base, which is why this cake is wonderfully tender and well-suited for gluten-free eaters. The cocoa powder largely covers up the almond flavor, though. It’s simply delicious.

This cake is plenty sweet but not too sweet, so it’s perfect if you enjoy dark chocolate. You can play up the almond factor by topping it with sliced almonds for a fun everyday snacking cake, or turn it into a special birthday treat by spreading frosting on top. I prefer this one to most bakery cakes!

The recipe is easy to stir together by hand. I’ve made it with our five-year-old’s help several times. I don’t think you could mess it up if you tried. If you’re familiar with Italian torta Caprese or French chocolate financiers, this cake reminds me a bit of both.

The post Chocolate Almond Cake appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

One of the first lessons I learned, right after I moved to Paris, was to never, ever be on time for a dinner party. When i got my first invitation to a dinner party, my hosts told me, “Come at 8pm…which in Paris, means to come at 8:20 or 8:30pm.”

Subsequently, when I have guests for dinner, I expect them to be at least 20 minutes late, although there’s much debate on how late you’re actually supposed to be. But if you’re on time, or early, your host likely won’t not be ready and you’ll probably catch them by surprise.

It’s a tricky balance when you’ve inviting people for dinner, since you want make sure when everyone’s at the table, dinner will be ready and perfectly cooked. If your friends show up very late, and you’ve made something like pork roast, which can take a while to bake, but will dry out if overcooked, you’re sunk.

So one technique I rely on is braising. Braising is cooking something long and slow, which softens cuts of meat and poultry, and infuses whatever you’re cooking with flavor. In the case of a tagine, a North African dish that benefits from braising, your cooking the meat in a broth of onions, aromatics, and spices, which all come together after a stint in the over to make a perfect one-pot meal, that’s can be kept warm in the oven until everyone is at the table.

In Paris, with so many Arabic and North African butchers around, it’s easy to find cuts of meat that lend themselves to slow-braising, and tagines are quite popular in France. When I wrote my book, My Paris Kitchen, someone wrote to me, wondering why I had non-French recipes in my book. Just like people in other countries, such as Americans who make Mexican and Asian foods at home, or Dutch people who eat rijsttafel, an Indonesian meal composed of many side dishes, French people regularly eat a variety of foods from other cultures, especially in Paris, which is a melting pot, where you can enjoy couscous in Belleville, dosas in the Indian quarter, and Vietnamese noodles in the thirteenth arrondissement. But really, you can get all those foods in just about every corner of the city.

Tagines are simple to make, and once you’ve made one, you’ll wonder what took you so long to make one? You’re basically just browning the meat in a Dutch oven or large pot, then sautéing an onion with spices and seasonings, adding a few spoonfuls of tomato paste or a can of tomatoes, some stock or water, then braising it in the over for a few hours.

This is my basic recipe that I make often. It works great with a lamb shoulder, which you can have your butcher cut into pieces for you. If you can only get a whole lamb shoulder, you can skip the sautéing step and just braise the lamb shoulder whole. If you can get lamb shanks, this recipe works well with four of them.

I like to serve it with pearl couscous, which you can see above. It’s basically pasta pearls, and goes by several different names. Regular couscous is also an option, as is rice-shaped pasta, known as orzo

Print

Lamb Tagine

You can substitute a cut up chicken for the lamb. If using chicken, reduce the oven time to 1 to 1½ hours. I also like to add prunes, raisins or dried apricots or cranberries to the tagine, during the last 20 minutes of cooking.

You can vary the spices depending on what you have or can get. The saffron is optional since that can be more difficult (and expensive) to obtain, but I like the flavor of it in a tagine. Sometimes I use tomato paste in my tagines, and other times I add a can of crushed tomatoes.

I put a jar of harissa, North African hot sauce, on the table, for guests who like a little spice with their tagine. (And hosts like me, who like it too!) A favorite brand of harissa in the U.S. is made by NY Shuk.

Course Main Course

Cuisine Mediterranean

Keyword tagine

Servings 6 servings

Ingredients

• 1 lamb shoulder cut into 4 pieces
• 1 1/2 teaspoons kosher or sea salt plus more, to taste
• 1 medium onion minced
• 2 1/2 cups (600ml) chicken stock or water
• 1 teaspoon ground ginger
• 1 teaspoon ground cumin
• 1 teaspoon ground turmeric
• 2 teaspoons paprika
• 1 teaspoon ground cinnamon
• freshly-ground black pepper
• 1 small bunch fresh cilantro tied with a string, plus a few sprigs for garnish
• a pinch of saffron threads (optional)
• 2 tablespoons tomato paste or one 14 ounce (400g) can crushed tomatoes
• Harissa for serving

Instructions

• Massage the pieces of lamb shoulder with the salt.
• Heat a few tablespoons of oil in a Dutch oven over medium-high heat, and sear the lamb pieces very well, turning them only after they’re nicely browned (this step adds flavor to the tagine.) As you cook the lamb pieces, don’t crowd them in. If your Dutch oven isn’t big enough to cook them all in a single layer at the same time, brown the lamb pieces in batches.
• Preheat the oven to 350ºF (175ºC). Once the lamb is browned, remove the pieces from the pot and set them on a plate. (If there is a lot of fat in the pan, you can remove some of it, but leave a film of it in the bottom of the pan.)

  Add the chopped onion to the pot and some of the stock (or water), then scrape the bottom of the pan with a flat wooden spatula to release the flavorful browned bits. Add the spices, the rest of the water, the bunch of cilantro, the saffron, if using, and the tomato paste or crushed tomatoes. Give everything a quick stir to mix everything together.
• Cover the pot and bake in the oven for 2 1/2 to 3 hours, turning the lamb over in the liquid a few times during baking. The liquid should just be simmering gently. If it’s boiling, turn down the heat. Add more liquid if necessary while it's cooking so the meat is half submerged in liquid. When the meat starts to fall off the bone, that’s when it’s ready. Taste the liquid and add more salt if desired.
• Pull the meat off the bones. Spoon the meat and some juices into bowls over a bed of couscous or pearl couscous (pasta). Garnish with a sprigs of fresh cilantro.

Notes

To serve, remove the cilantro and discard. Squeeze some lemon juice into the liquid and add more salt, if desired. Serve with rice or bulghur, along with juices from the tagine. At the table, make sure you have a tube of harissa handy, the fiery Moroccan hot sauce.

This hearty lentil curry recipe is perfect on a cool day. Featuring tender lentils and plentiful veggies, it’s nicely spiced with curry powder and cumin. Curious about the spice level? I’d classify it as mild. The dish is lightly creamy thanks to some coconut milk, but not heavy.

Make this curry when you want to warm up and eat your vegetables as the same time. I tested this recipe five times with a variety of vegetables and love the final combination of onion, bell pepper, carrot, potato and cauliflower. You could treat it as a light main dish or a vegetable side dish.

If you’re a fan of dal makhani (the classic Indian lentil curry) or lentil soup but want to try something different, give this dish a try. It yields quite a bit, so you can freeze individual portions for later in the season.

The post Lentil Curry appeared first on Cookie and Kate.

Let’s get cozy with cornbread and chili! I’m so excited about how this cornbread recipe turned out. It’ll be my go-to from here on out. It has the same irresistibly crisp edges and subtle brown butter flavor that I love in my honey butter cornbread recipe, but magically tastes even more like corn.

This wholesome cornbread is gluten-free because it uses almond flour instead of regular flour. It’s an easy and nutritious swap that yields amazing cornbread. Does it taste like almonds, you ask? Not at all—the cornmeal is the star of the show here.

If you’re simply curious to try it, or looking for a gluten-free or lower-carb cornbread, this recipe is for you. I hope it becomes your new favorite, too.

The post Gluten-Free Cornbread appeared first on Cookie and Kate.