Ravishing Rosemary

What happens when rosemary has a heated affair with beurre noisette, confectioner's sugar and corn?

At first glance this looks no different than any other financier. Soft and springy with a lovely golden brown crust. But take a bite and you can taste a melody of flavors, mysteriously teasing yet perfectly marrying the moist flavor of browned butter and almonds. Cleary unusal. But absolutely right in every way. Rosemary and corn. It is the perfect late-summer pairing.

I find it very difficult to follow directions. I'm always thinking -- Wouldn't it be better this way? Or how would adding this change the recipe?? For example, still unhappy with any financier recipe, I decided to create my own. How did I arrive at this rosemary corn financier? First, I baked four or five different versions of financiers, chose the things I liked best about each one, combined them and continued to tweak and change until the consistency, airy-ness, crispness and buttery-ness became what I envision to be a perfect financier.

But, of course I had to take it one step further. Lately I've been experimenting with infusing different flavors into brown butters, and I still had a few sprigs of the rosemary I had just purchased left, so I threw some in the pot. Soon enough, rosemary's fragrant, evocative scent lured me back to the stove where I stood over the pot deeply inhaling her sweet aroma. And then I thought, what better to go with rosemary than corn.

The cake? Delicious. With these two additions, this recipe has easily become my favorite financier.

Browned butter gives these cakes their amazing caramel and nutty notes, as well as adds richness and depth to the cornflour in this recipe. I used a finely ground cornflour, not a cornmeal, to replace yet still mimic the texture and lightness of the cake flour traditionally called for in financier recipes. Fresh rosemary is also essential in this recipe, so do find some rather than using the dried rosemary in your spice collection. Although the intensity of the rosemary is muted here, serving as a tantalizing subtlety to the browned butter, almonds and corn, it still adds an elegant character and complexity.

Notorious for bringing dessert, I also made and brought some of these to a bon voyage party for a pre-Le Bernardin co-worker last night at Alta. Congratulations on your new position and life, Eve! You will be greatly missed! There was definitely a lot of moaning and groaning at the table once I passed around these delights. And I even offered some to our waiter.

...he came back for thirds.





See more of the Pastry Princess' dessert recipes!

gilded fork, dessert, recipe, pastry, princess, Monica Glass, chef