Today was financier round 2. I returned from class this morning feeling defeated so I opened up Rose's Heavenly cakes and decided to bake something before my next class. Of course I still have a slice or two left of the Genoise Rose so I felt bad baking a super fancy cake or one that deserved to be enjoyed at a party, etc. Plus I had a time limit. I went for the financier style vanilla bean pound cakes since they seemed quick enough and little!
The thing about these is that they aren't really financiers. I partially glad because that meant that i didn't have to drive to the store to get some almonds but partially sad because the smell of almonds roasting in the oven is fabulous.
First things first: the vanilla bean.
For some reason I've gotten into quite a few conversations about vanilla beans lately and the people who happened to be listening in on these conversations have always been curious about how it all works. Does it look like a coffee bean? What do you do with it? Why is it so long? If you're really curious about those questions, then you can look it up, but for now I gave a little picture demo to answer the question, "What do you do with it?"
Step 1: Slice the bean in half, making sure not to cut all the way through the bean.
Step 2: Using the knife, carefully scrape the beans into the sugar/whatever you making.
Step 3: If scraping the beans into sugar, you have to use your hand and blend them into the sugar. It's really clumpy if you don't.
The rest was pretty normal. Mix your dry ingredients, mix your liquid ingredients, then slowly mix them together.
Once the batter was made, I piped it into the mold since it might be a little tricky to spoon it in. That definitely ended up being a good decision. I think I might have made too many though because looking at the recipe now, I see that it is supposed to make 10. I made 12. oops.
Finally, it's ready for the oven! With silicone, you have to put the mold on top of a wire cooling rack and then put that on top of a baking sheet so that it stays stable in the oven and so that you can remove it easily.
I ended up having to bake them for about 5 minutes extra because they weren't browning properly. I have no idea why. Once they came out though, they were pretty good. As soon as they were plated, I definitely had my share of them.
For the rest, I decided to give them to my neighbors. I put them in little party bags with some ribbon and a tag and then went door to door and delivered them. It was actually really fun and I got to get to know my neighbors a little bit better!
Tasting results: I haven't heard from my neighbors but hopefully they liked them. They are definitely my favorite out of the financiers that I have tried so far.
Rose's Heavenly Cakes
Financier Style Vanilla Bean Pound Cakes- page 322
These look delicious. I loved this recipe.
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