Happy Easter!
I love Easter eggs. Dyeing, hiding or making them. I’d add hunting but apparently I’m too old much like for trick-or-treating. I like that both involve a search for some type of treasure which is similar to the way I specifically go out to find pastries. Yes, that is my grown up way of participating in my childhood past times.
This post is one of many documenting my week in Paris, a present to myself for graduating pastry school in the fall of 2012. Every moment was spent eating and one post wasn’t enough. It’s now a short novel. Kidding. I hope.
It was so cold, sooo very cold on this particular morning. Hovering around the mid 40’s, the weather wasn’t exactly great for all the walking I needed to do in order to stick to my pastry schedule. Nevertheless I toughed it because it’s Paris and bundled in three layers of clothing, gloves and a scarf I made my way through the Bastille (12th arr) and Montmartre (18th arr) neighborhoods and ended up having some of the best food on my trip.
Financiers are bite-size cakes once made for bankers to eat on the go without getting crumbs all over their suits. The traditional rectangular bar mold resembles gold bars. I have yet to invest in the mold so I used a mini muffin pan to make little cakes so tempting to pop in my mouth one after the other.
Being that it is the first day of Spring, I know I’m getting a little ahead of myself by making decorated pumpkins but I just couldn’t wait another 6 months to sculpt these.
The madeleine’s adorable shell shape somehow lures me to take a bite every time I see the petite French cake, only to be disappointed by it’s dryness. The one version I do like comes from Ble Sucre in Paris but there is a ton of butter and it’s coated in a glaze. Traditionally the cake’s only addition, if any is a dusting of powdered sugar. I’ve experimented with a couple madeleine recipes in the past but after my attempt this week, I will definitely be making them much more.
