Financiers (French tea cakes)

Have you ever had a financier?  These little tea cakes are very common in Paris and were one of the memorable things we snacked on during our trip there last Spring.  Made with browned butter, there is something very special about them.

Maybe part of their appeal is you don't expect them to taste so good.  They're rather simple and unassuming looking.  Traditional financiers are shaped in a small rectangular mold or loaf and when baked, their golden color makes them look like a bar of gold.  I found that in Paris, you see financiers in boat or basic muffin shapes (and they're usually next to the madeleines).  They look like a simple little snack cake but when you take a bite, it will very likely make you stop and take a second look at what you're eating because it's that good.  At least, that has been my experience...

An array of financiers on display at Angelina in Paris (sadly, I didn't sample these and wish I had...the "marron", or chestnut, ones look so good!)

Financiers from my kitchen - bake them in standard or mini muffin pans, or use small loaf pans or boat molds if you have it

These little cakes (sometimes referred to as cookies though I find it hard to think of them that way) pack a delicious moist flavor that's really unique.  The secret is the browned butter.  They're somewhat surprisingly made with egg whites, as well as ground almonds, which add nice texture and flavor.  Financiers come in an array of flavors from pistachio to chocolate or chestnut (as shown in the photo above) so you can get creative with the type of ground nuts you use.  You could even experiment with fillings like I did.  I hid some chestnut cream (that I "imported" back from Paris) into a couple of mine.

Financier with some chestnut cream stuffed inside.  This one was still warm from the oven and could've used a bit more time to set.

Now, back to the reality of making these in my own kitchen.  I wanted to recreate that memory of being surprised by how good they were when we tasted some from Ladurée and Le Bon Marche's Grande Epicerie (a mall with its own separate food hall) in Paris.  I used the recipe in Paris Sweets to make these.  They are easy to make and done right on the stovetop.  The only "trick" is to brown the butter and make sure it doesn't go over to black.

These homemade financiers did not disappoint!  They may just look like a bland corn muffin at a glance but they taste way better than they look.  The edges and tops are addicting crisp and sweet, while there is an interesting texture to them because of the ground almonds.  The best part - the cake is moist and flavorful; there is this almost mysterious caramel flavor to them (thanks to that brown butter).  I couldn't stop eating mine and I had devoured one before I knew what hit me.  Maybe it would've been better to make mini cakes, in mini muffin cups, in order to practice more self control.

The bad news is these are best eaten fresh, the day they're baked.  We had one leftover that we ate the next morning; it was still good but fresh is definitely better.  Now, the good news is you can keep the batter refrigerated for up to 3 days and bake them in installments.  I didn't have this problem (or luxury) because I made half the recipe, which turned out only 4 standard size muffin-shaped financiers when I was expecting 6.  So no leftover batter this time but I'll correct that error next time around.

Cooking class at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris

When we first starting planning our trip to Paris, I knew I wanted to squeeze in a short cooking class if possible.  My top choice was Le Cordon Bleu, for obvious reasons.

A search on their website quickly revealed a list of recreational classes and in the end, I signed up for a macaron class, specifically on making "violet macarons".  Though I adore macarons, I wasn't looking specifically for a macaron class since I felt I'd already come a fair way towards making them and there are so many other French pastries I'd love to see/learn how to make.  In truth, it was the only class that worked for our schedule and the timing was just a mere 5 1/2 hours after our overnight flight touched down in Paris from New Jersey.

Well, I very happily and excitedly arrived at Le Cordon Bleu Paris around noon the first day of our trip.  And I'm so glad I made it.  The class was informative, enjoyable, and an overall fun experience I won't soon forget.

The nearly 3-hour course started with us doning our fresh Le Cordon Bleu aprons (I think that alone was worth the price of admission for some of us) before heading upstairs to our classroom.  Chef Daniel Walter conducted the course, with help from a lovely translator, who provided the English for those of us who didn't speak French.  There were roughly a dozen students in the class and we all watched Chef Walter demonstrate the steps to making a batch of violet macarons shells, with a cassis (black currant) and white chocolate ganache filling.  Now in general, I am certainly more of a "conventional" chocolate or coffee macaron type person but I was excited to try a different variation.

Chef Walter thoroughly demonstrated each step of the macaron making process.  He was professional, humorous, and informative.  I really adored him.  After he showed us how to make the macarons, it was our turn.  Ingredients were laid out in front of us and two other assistants swapped out equipment and provided help when we needed it. 

So for almost three hours, I watched and learned, shared a few laughs, mixed up my own batch of violet macarons, and got a batch of tasty treats to take with me.  The recipe for the macaron shells we used during the class was very similar to the one I use at home and the taste and texture was likewise similar to what I expected.  I picked up a few tricks and Chef Walter showed us a couple of interesting techniques such as brushing edible gold powder on the macarons and spraying chocolate on a separate batch of chocolate macarons.

I think my macarons came out pretty well.  My husband says they were the best he tasted in Paris (of course...*wink, wink*).  I thought the combination of white chocolate ganache with the black currant jam was an interesting and fairly easy technique to do at home.  The chef mentioned we could do this with a variety of fruit from say raspberries to mango, which is a very intriguing thought and opens up a host of possibilites for the adventurous...

One of my violet macaron creations. The topping is chopped candied violets

At the end of the class, we were each presented with our certificate of completion (another wonderful momento) and I left, armed with a box of macarons and thrilled that I'd been able to attend this class.

My husband and son met me in the lobby (they'd gone exploring and getting lost for the last three hours) and we set off to really begin our vacation in Paris...but not before I stocked up on a couple more souvenirs to go with my newly acquired Le Cordon Bleu apron and dish towel.

Thank you, Le Cordon Bleu, for a wonderful experience!

Lemon tart - inspired by Paris

You'd think that after coming home from Paris, I'd be filled with inspiration on the baking front.  That actually wasn't the case.  When I first got back, I wasn't feeling much motivation to go into the kitchen although I was craving many of those wonderful pastries we ate while we were there.  I kept wishing we were still in Paris and could walk to a pâtisserie to pick up an amazing croissant, tart or eclair.

But I'm happy to report that those initial feelings of lethargy passed fairly quickly.  Reality set in.  I do not live in Paris (but very close to New York City, which is not too shabby either) and I still love to putter around in the kitchen, playing with flour.  If anything, the trip has given me more focus - to take my time and make what I think my family and I would really like to eat and explore. 

Now, I sit here with some ideas and inspirations from Paris.  The first thing I did was make this lemon tart, or tarte au citron since we're in a French mood.  I talked about the delicious lemon tarts I tasted in Paris and I now know why the French are known for their citrus tarts.  The flavor of a lemon tart is decidedly lemon, rather than sugary sweet.  I really wanted to recapture and enjoy that flavor again so I made this lemon tart recipe from David Lebovitz, who I consider a great, approachable source on pastry and French living.

One of the things about French pastry you notice right away is the artistry.  It's not just cake but many of the creations are miniature works of art as far as flavor, textures, and the layers involved.  At the same time, though, the French excel at simplicity, using high quality ingredients, not messing around with it too much, to create something delicious.  I find that duality really interesting.  For me, I'm certainly more at home sticking with the simple but delicious, which brings me back to this tart. 

I started with what I think is the simplest tart shell there is and filled it with a fairly modest amount of lemony lemon curd.  The whole thing is quite simple to put together, especially if you do what I did and make the tart shell (up to a month) in advance, store it in the freezer, and have it ready to bake the day you plan to put the whole thing together.  The lemon curd is simply cooked over the stovetop, with an equal ratio of 1/2 cup of lemon juice to sugar so that you have a delightfully lemon result.  Most recipes call for a lot more sugar and I'm happy to report that the end result here was not too tart and the taste was very reminiscent of the tart I ate from La Maison Paul so it really brought back a happy memory for me.

When it comes to the filling, I highly recommend using organic lemons if possible.  Take a sniff of the organic variety and you'll know what I mean.  Before making this, I wrestled with whether or not to make a bit more of the lemon filling.  Ultimately, I decided to stick with the recipe and make the modest amount, which I think is perfectly suitable to everyday eating.  For me, the relatively thin layer of filling was just right.  I didn't walk away from the table feeling like I over-indulged.

Incidentally, I highly recommend a cup of hot coffee to go with a slice of this tart.  My husband and I were sharing the last slice I'd tucked away in the fridge one morning (yes, morning) and it was particularly delightful with coffee.

Sweet Eats in Paris and my Top 10 List

When I think about my recent trip to Paris with my husband and our six-year old son, I use words like "amazing, wonderful, beautiful..." to describe it.  But I need to add another word as well and and that would be, delicious.

I knew heading into this trip that I was going to spend a good amount of time delightfully sampling the renowned pastries (and other food) Paris has to offer.  And we did eat a lot, taste-testing our way in between the sightseeing and walks around the city.

I have to admit I had this fear I'd come back from our five-day trip 5-6 pounds heavier but miraculously, all that walking must've paid off.  I never felt weighed down during the trip as I nibbled on croissants, macarons, eclairs, and crepes.  I insist food must have no calories in Paris - at least not for the first 4-5 days as a busy tourist.  If I stayed a bit longer and started lingering at those lovely outdoor cafes, it might be a different story. 

It also helped that the three of us would share the treats, buying just a single item of different things so we could have a couple bites of each and try as many things as possible.

Before going on our trip, I bought a little journal to take with me and in it, I wrote down a list of "must-go" places and "must-eat" things.  I did my homework, partly from having bought David Lebovitz' pastry app, and I think we managed to check off most of the items on my list.  But since we were in Paris not only to eat but to also take in the sights, there were many, many places I'd read about but didn't get a chance to visit.  And as I'd look at the pastry cases in the shops or at the Galeries Lafayette's food hall (very close to where we stayed in the 9th arrondissment), I wish I could have tried everything knowing it would very likely taste extremely good.

And speaking of looking and shopping, the pastries and chocolates were really a feast for the eyes, miniature pieces of art.  It was almost enough just to look at them.  Pictures were not allowed in many places so my photographer (that would be my husband) couldn't take nearly as many photos as we would've liked but what I saw and tasted will stay with me for a long time.

And when it comes down to taste, we were not disappointed.  Quite simply, most of the things (in particular, all the pastries) we tasted were utterly divine.  The word "pure" comes to mind.  The pastries tasted like what they're supposed to be as opposed to being just sweet or tasting of sugar like what, I dare say, we often find here.  A lemon tart tastes like lemon - not so tart that it makes you grimace but strong enough to assert itself and be the star of the show.  The croissants were like none I've ever tasted.  I fell in love with them and I'm speaking as a person who does not particularly like croissants.  The Parisian pastries somehow manage to taste light as opposed to heavy, clean as opposed to cloying.  I'm afraid I'll never be able to replicate what I tasted there.  Not only do I lack the skills (and some pastries were really intricate pieces of art), I also wouldn't be able to get my hands on the quality of diary products they use.

They say that the French hardly bake at home.  The only things they make are relatively simple items like yogurt cake, chocolate mousse, and rice pudding.  If I lived in Paris, I wouldn't bother either.  It'd be silly considering the abundance of deliciousness just waiting for you at your local pâtisserie.  The treats are not cheap but definitely worth saving your euros for.

Macarons everywhere!

There's so much to talk about, I've compiled a list of the Top 10 favorite eats I had the chance to try in Paris in the link below.  But first, a few words on macarons.  They were everywhere.  I love macarons but honestly, I was getting a little macaron'ed out after a while, particularly with all the other tempting offerings around. 

We sampled macarons from Ladurée, Pierre Hermé, Jean-Paul Hévin, Angelina, La Maison du Chocolat, and Sadaharu Aoki.  For the most part, we bought no more than 1-4 macarons at each place to sample and mainly stuck with classic flavors of chocolate and coffee (my and the little one's favorite flavors, respectively), with the exception of Pierre Herme where we also tried the chocolate-caramel, salted caramel, and rose-vanilla combinations.

I was really hoping to try a chestnut or mint-chocolate flavor at Ladurée but sadly, they were not to be found.  I wanted to be more adventurous at Pierre Hermé (France and maybe the world's most famous pastry chef), whose known for his very inventive macaron flavor combinations, but even if I'd been willing to try a foie gras or ketup macaron, it wasn't among the offerings at his shops I visited.

The macarons we sampled in Paris didn't particularly knock our socks off.  Maybe because there were so many delicious pastries competing with it.  We thought the macarons were fairly comparable to what we can get here in the States, particularly in instances like Ladurée where the New York offering is very comparable.  The standouts we tasted were the chocolate-caramel and salted caramel macarons from Pierre Hermé.  They not only had great flavor but a good texture/body and bite to them. 

The one thing I wish I'd been able to eat in Paris is pastry from Pierre Hermé.  We stopped by two locations (in addition to two other shops within department stores) but they didn't carry pastries and we just didn't have the time to make a specific trip just for it.  So while I wanted to try the Ispahan (Hermé's famed creation combining rose, raspberries, and lychees based upon a structure of macaron shells and buttercream), I settled for a rose macaron and some of his chocolates instead.  Maybe it's alright that I missed the Ispahan because I learned that, as I suspected, I do not like the flavor of rose.  I'll be sticking mainly to the classics for some time to come.

But back to macarons, our favorite macaron tasting in Paris actually goes to the coffee macaron we bought from Angelina.  I really fell in love with this place for several reasons, including the very friendly staff.  When it came to the macaron, theirs was just a little crisp at first, with a gentle chewiness within that I favor and miss from many other macaron offerings.  Maybe most people prefer a softer macaron but I love a more chewy texture.  I think a lot of the texture depends on how long the macaron has been "aging" or "ripening", if you will, in the refrigerator and it's not surprising to find textural differences between flavors from the same shop.  As I learned from the macaron class I took at Le Cordon Bleu (more on that in another post!), storing the macarons in the refrigerator adds humidity and that affects their texture.

Now can you guess where this display case in the picture below comes from?

It's McCafe!  Yes, as in McDonald's (this one pictured above taken from one along the Champ Elysees).  And no, we did not eat at McDonald's while we were in Paris but I was interested in a peek at the McCafe offerings after reading about it here.  And on our last day in France, right before we hopped back on the train from Versailles back into Paris, I noticed another McCafe.  We decided to stop in and get a chocolate macaron just to see - why not, right?  They only cost about $1.25 each.  Now, I love myself some McDonald's french fries (here in the States) so I'm not out to knock McDonald's.  But when it comes to that macaron, it was not my favorite, to put it mildly.  The texture was good at first bite.  It had the chewiness I like but the flavor was non-existent.  No chocolate flavor at all; I'm not really sure what it tasted like.

Chocolates

No discussion of Paris would be complete without mention of its superb chocolates.  Boy oh boy, there are some serious chocolates in Paris.  In particular, I was really wowed by what I tried at Jean-Paul Hévin and Patrick Roger.  As a huge hazelnut lover, Paris is the place to be.  Not only is Nutella everywhere like peanut butter is here but the chocolates with praline/hazelnut in some form were always knockouts.  

With so much to eat and so little time, I packed a small stash of chocolates to take back home (the benefit of visiting while the temperatures are still cool).  We're steadily nibbling our way through the stash and I'm wishing I'd bought more.  For one, I could use more of these bars of Chocolat Bonnat.  Once again, we're talking pure excellent chocolate, not sugar.  The "Venezuela" 75% cacao bar is amazing.  It's dark without being bitter.  The texture is so creamy and luscious. 

Please click below to read my "Paris Top 10"!

My trip to Paris

Apparently, the third time really is the charm.  I finally made it to Paris, a city I've wanted to visit for a long time.  I've never been much of an adventurous traveler, usually preferring familiar surroundings and home, though I find that changing as I get older.  Before this, there were two previous attempts to go to Paris that just didn't pan out.  The first time, I was going as part of a work trip to Europe.  I was just out of college, back in the day when corporate jets were still commonplace, and I was looking forward to traveling (at least a part of the way) in style.  Long story short, my boss was needed in New York at the last minute and we canceled.  The second time - a couple of years later - my husband and I had our tickets booked and hotel reserved for a romantic getaway to the City of Light...when I found out I was pregnant!  My doctor strongly suggested I cancel my trip so I did.  It was a good decision because I ended up with the worse of my morning sickness during that time.

Well...fast forward a handful of years and we finally made it - to Paris!!  And with our six-year old son in tow.  Call us daring (or delirious) for taking him but it never crossed our minds not to until several people started to ask why we were taking him with us.  I have to admit that for the first couple of days, my husband and I would whisper wistfully about how romantic it would be if we were on a couple's getaway but, all in all, it was an amazing experience to share with the little guy.  We made a lot of memories and I hope some remnant of them will stay with him.

I waited too long to go to Paris.  The city was everything I expected and more.  It was a lot to take in and I told my husband my eyes were hurting because of how beautiful it was.  I could just stand or sit somewhere for hours soaking in the surroundings.  But since this was our first time in Paris, we didn't have the luxury of staying in one place too long.  We packed as much sightseeing and taste-testing (more on that next time) as we could into five days.  We checked a lot of things on my must-see and must-eat list but we really could've used a few more days (at the very least) to explore some more, at a more leisurely pace, and to revisit a couple of favorite discoveries.

When it comes to places, there were too many highlights to name individually.  In general, the city was just a sight for sore eyes.  The Louvre was an utterly amazing place, whether it be the grounds, the bold pyramid out front, or the museum itself. 

My son was enchanted by Leonardo da Vinci and the story behind the Mona Lisa.  One night he actually said "Mona Lisa!" in his sleep.  He asked if there were more of da Vinci's paintings at the Louvre and we ended up going back the next day and discovering a special exhibit on da Vinci's work and painting of Saint Anne.  We all learned a lot about da Vinci on this trip and I was happy to see so much genuine interest on something other than videogames from my little one. 

And the statue of Winged Victory has got to be the most beautiful piece of sculpture I've ever seen.  Venus di milo was special too but I think my son just liked saying her name.

Without a lot of time to stay indoors at any one place, we walked miles and miles everyday despite the rain we had for about a day and a half of our 5 day trip.  We also hopped on the metro and took boat rides along the River Seine - the little one was more than happy to take a load off with those modes of transportation. 

Besides the Eiffel Tower, the Louvre and a couple of other museums, we visited Notre-Dame, the Opéra Garnier, and the Luxembourg gardens on a rainy afternoon (still gorgeous).  I loved "the islands" or the Ile St. Louis part of Paris; we went there twice and left our own love lock  on a bridge.  On one sunny afternoon, we spent time taking a walk along the Champs Elysee to the Arc de Triomphe.
And on one early morning, we journeyed to the Sacré-Coeur basilica on the Montmartre hilltop.  It offers an amazing view of Paris, even when the weather was not ideal.

Beyond the city, we hopped on the RER to visit Versailles on the last day of our trip.

Versailles was a must-see for me (and for everyone else, judging by the crowd).  I've always wanted to see the palace, the grounds and gardens, and the Hall of Mirrors for myself since those history classes back in high school.  I think my old high school teachers would be proud.

I didn't want to leave but five days later, we had an early morning flight back home.  Thanks to my husband who took about a thousand photos, I have plenty of memories to look back on though I suspect they'll stay vibrant in my mind for some time without any help.