French Fridays with Dorie – Financiers

Tonight my friend Susan taught a Fancy French Desserts class at the store so I thought it was a perfect day to make this week’s recipe and share it with the students. Bonus: I only ate 3 instead of the 12 I probably would have eaten had I made these at home! Fancy they are not, but they’re definitely French so I thought they fit. I mixed the batter up at home and after about 4 hours in the fridge, I pulled it out and finished them off at work. I don’t have a special financer pan so I used a mini muffin pan at work and I think they turned out pretty cute. When Susan and I were talking to the class about them she described what they’re really supposed to look like (little gold bars) which would also be adorable.

I buttered and sugared the pan and crossed my fingers that they would come out alright.

I know I’ve said this before but cookie scoops are seriously a godsend. I used a small Oxo cookie scoop to fill these little wells and it was perfect. Keep an eye on the one in the middle though – I may have slightly overfilled it…

Other than the monster in the middle that overflowed a lot, these popped out of the pan super easy after running a thin knife around the sides. The sugary coating on the outside was delicious and made them a little bit crunchy and the inside was really dense and moist. Like I said before – nothing fancy but definitely delicious.

To make some of these little teacakes for yourself, get the recipe here on Dorie’s blog.

French Fridays with Dorie – Crispy Crackly Apple Almond Tart

It’s been kind of a trying day, so I’m going to be brief about this one. Well, maybe not brief. I don’t know that I’m ever brief really, but just not my usual self is all I’m trying to say. Work was…..work today. Sometimes I feel like my job is really fun and easy and other times it feels really soul-sucking and today was kind of a soul-sucking day. Add a little side-dish of personal issues and you have me right now: only one gin and tonic in and a Cheesy Gordita Crunch for dinner comin’ atcha! I mean things aren’t all bad or anything, it was just one of those days.

Yesterday is when I made this tart though and it was a much different kind of day. I had things together yesterday. I made a pork loin in the slow cooker which took some forethought and then I made this for dessert so it felt like a real accomplishment of sorts. I felt this one was kind of hard to photograph because everything is so damn beige. I tried to make the apples look pretty and I think I did alright. I used Honey Crisp even though they’re ridiculously expensive right now and I don’t regret it at all. They were sweet and delicious and completely worth the $3 a lb price tag. Stupid drought!

Though the process of putting this together was a little piddly, I really did enjoy it. Butter, sugar, apples, pastry? That’s my kind of party right there.

We ate this with some vanilla ice cream while it was still a little warm and it was mighty fine. Mighty fine indeed.

So as previously mentioned, Saturday is the run. Hopefully I will look less like Hannah from Girls

and more like Chris from Parks & Rec.

I googled hardcore to find a pic of Hannah sitting in the street after having ripped off her tennis shoes and thrown them but I came up with nothing. Hopefully I’m past that stage at least. We’ll see! Oh and if you haven’t watched Girls on HBO or Parks & Recreation on NBC you should start. Like now.