Sleeping late and sneaky tricks

Sweet Almond Financiers

"If you bake it, he will come."

These are words of infinite wisdom, although I'm not sure that anyone of infinite wisdom has actually said those words. Except for me. Just now. I've got wisdom, sure, but perhaps of the more finite variety.
But on a lazy sunday morning when you want to get your significant other to get out of bed there are 2 ways to do it which fosters joy and contentment in the household.
1. Bacon
2. Baking

No meat eating man will sleep through the smell of bacon frying nor will he be able to resist something sweet puffing up in the oven.

So perhaps now I have just revealed why I cook bacon for breakfast every Saturday morning.
I will admit that this act alone has improved my relationship with G in a way that cannot be measured. The man gets his bacon, and I get an early riser for a partner.
You may think: "What's the big deal? Sleep in a little."

If only it were that easy. I am officially allergic to sleeping in. Except for that one summer when I was twelve and I slept in every day until 2pm, stayed in my pajamas the rest of the afternoon reading the Sweet Valley High series and then happily climbed back into bed later that same night. That was the most forgettable summer I have ever spent.

This past weekend, long after the bacon was consumed there was napping. Plan A had already been executed. It was completely illogical to fry up more bacon. There was nothing to be done but resort to Plan B. The secret weapon: sugar, flour and eggs.

I decided to try this recipe for Sweet Almond Financiers. It had only 5 ingredients, and miracle of miracles, all 5 of them were in my kitchen at that very moment.
My first taste of financiers has only been in the last few months since living in Paris, so this was a big moment for me. I was assimilating, doing what the locals do (or what I imagine they do at least), and hoping the neighbours would be impressed by the sweet scent of homemade financiers drifting out into the hallway. Oh, I mean, I was hoping to wake up my boyfriend from his nap. I was only baking because I had to. I don't really enjoy it.
Right.


Sometimes I play with my food

So I baked. And then popped one swiftly into my mouth. It was moist and chewy with a subtle almond flavour, not overly sweet, with crispy, caramelized edges and a flaky top.
Unfortunately they were nothing like the financiers that I have tasted here which are more like mini muffin/sponge cake type things.
But I liked these alot. They were easy to make and got G up from the couch with a yawn, a stretch and a "What are you making?"
Mission accomplished.

The financiers consist of flour, icing sugar, almond flour (aka finely ground almonds), eggs and butter. This Williams-Sonoma recipe suggests using a 6-well silicon fluted tart mould. I used a lightly buttered non-stick, non-fluted, mini tart/muffin pan, which made 12 financiers.