Weekend baking

My last weekend of freedom before I return to employment again!! Having asked my friend to buy me some financier moulds from Paris, I decided to have a bash at making these myself for the first time.  There is a blog called Canelle et Vanille which I follow from time to time (also on my blog list) - the author is a Basque ex-pat living in the States who also comes from a family of pastry chefs. The blog is bound to cheer you up on a dreary day because the photos are always amazing and full of life and colour. Anyhoo, one of the recipes which was posted up around Christmas time was for chocolate and kumquat financiers - they looked pretty yummy so decided to try this recipe out. Despite not using an entirely correct method, they turned out OK and they also went through my friend as an acid test (he made financiers daily as part of his stage!) - I half-passed the acid test, the taste was OK but the financiers needed to be cooked for a little longer, until the edges are brown :)

My other piece of weekend baking was also inspired by another blog which I read, Chocolate and Zucchini. The author, Clotilde, has published a couple of books, one of which is a gourmet guide of her hometown Paris - a great source of information and great eats for me last year. The other is a recipe book and this was where I found the lemon sable cookie recipe I tried. Very easy to make and quite tasty but might need to cut down on the amount of salt next time and still a bit unsure about the icing which was probably not tart enough for my liking.

It was nice to be back in the kitchen baking - almost therapeutic in a weird sort of way and the unmistakable aroma of something baking in the oven is bound to bring a smile to your face :)