The Quest for Tea Cake Cookies: Making Financiers

What started this quest was the smell of Financiers baking in my oven, so it seems required that I share with you a little bit about these delicious little cakes and the recipe I used for making them.

Financiers are delicious French tea cakes. They are rich, buttery and soft, and the perfect size for a little bit of cake that you can eat anytime, anywhere. Historically, financiers were first made in a pastry shop in France that was near the Stock Exchange (hence the name?) as a quick dessert / snack for the busy business men who were the shop's customers. They are traditionally made in little rectangular shaped molds, resulting in cakes that resemble little "bars of gold," but you can improvise at home by using muffin pans, Madeleine pans, or any other type of small mold for baking. I used my new Madeleine pans for my financiers.

Which leads to an interesting question - what exactly is the difference between Madeleines and Financiers? Many would assume that the difference is merely what they are baked in - Madeleines being always made in the shell-shaped molds, and Financiers traditionally being rectangular and less commonly round. If this were the only difference, then wouldn't my use of the Madeleine pans mean I had in fact made Madeleines, even though the recipe was for Financiers? Both are tea cakes, both have a rich flavor and spongy cake-like texture...

Having made both I think there are some differences beyond the shape of the mold they are made in. At least for my own baking purposes, I have a different recipe for making Madeleines than for making Financiers, with different results. The financiers come out a little denser, more "nutty" in their flavor. In addition to including the financier recipe in this post, I'll later post another entry on Madeleines, and you can compare the two recipes (and their results) for yourself!

The basic recipe for financiers is fairly simple, except for its unusual ingredient - almond flour. Almond flour is what gives financiers the uniquely rich, "nutty" flavor. It's basically just almonds that have been blanched and then finely ground. (In fact, I believe that if you have a good food processor you could do this at home with blanched almonds.) If you have trouble finding it in your regular grocery store, you should be able to locate it at Whole Foods, specialty "gourmet" stores, or places that sell supplies for restaurants.

The great thing about financiers is that not only are they delicious just as they come, but they provide a wonderful blank canvas for adding embellishments and making them your own. For my financiers, I also made candied orange peels which I added to the tops of some of the little cakes for variety. You could alternatively add fruit, berries or jam.

Here is my recipe for Basic Financiers (*note - I read and tried a lot of recipes, and after trial and error, this is what worked for me):

Ingredients -
1 stick of unsalted butter, melted
1/2 cup of all purpose flour
1 cup of almond flour
1 cup of powdered sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
3 large eggs*
1/2 teaspoon
Additional powdered sugar for sprinkling on top

*many recipes call for egg whites. I used whole eggs and preferred the rich texture that resulted.

Directions-

Heat your oven to about 375 degrees. Using a pastry brush, prepare your molds or pan by brushing with melted butter.

Combine dry ingredients in a bowl first, and mix together thoroughly. Add eggs and melted butter and blend until smooth. Your batter should be creamy and pourable but not to thin. Spoon batter into your molds. I filled each Madeline mold in my pan almost to the rim. Remember, your goal is for the cakes to come out with a raised "mound" on top. Place in the oven and bake approximately 10-12 minutes, or until the tops are slightly browned. They are ready when the cake becomes springy to the touch. Remove from oven and cool on a wire cooling rack. Using a sifter or a wire mesh strainer, sprinkle additional powdered sugar on each cake. *If you are adding berries, candied peels, or something else to your financiers - remove after first 4-5 minutes, add the toppings, then return for remaining 5-7 minutes of baking.

Here's how I made Candied Orange Peels:

1/2 cup of Brown Rice Syrup*
Zest of two oranges - peeled into long "strips" using a peeler or paring knife

* I used organic brown rice syrup that I found at Whole Foods. It's better than using a corn syrup and sugar mixture!

Put rice syrup in a small saucepan and bring to a boil. Add orange peel and continue boiling until foaming. Remove from heat. You can leave the orange peel in the syrup for future use (I stored in a jar). For using on your financiers, remove the strips from the syrup (without draining all of the syrup completely off) and place a few strips on each cake.


And here was my finished product:

The Quest for Tea Cake Cookies: Doing Some Research

When I became obsessed with this idea of figuring out the recipe that my Grandmother would have used to make her Tea Cake Cookies, I do what many of us do - I turned first to google and the internet.

All this time, I had never heard of anyone else talk about "tea cake cookies" so I had assumed this was something my Grandmother had made up, or that even if she hadn't made up the recipe, this is just what she called them. I didn't think, therefore, that searching for tea cake cookies would get me anywhere except to recipes for Madeleines, which isn't what I'm looking for (although I do love Madeleines, and will post later about how they fit into this quest). I started out searching for phrases like "yellow cake like cookies." Those results weren't very helpful, as there appear to be a lot of recipes out there for cookies that use yellow cake mix from the box as an ingredient and these recipes were all I found with this search.

After trying out different variations of similar phrases, I finally decided to just search for tea cake cookie recipes, and for "southern tea cakes," since obviously whatever my Grandmother was making would have been something that was most likely traditionally southern. (note: the thought did cross my mind that maybe this was a recipe she got from the Wisconsin relatives, but usually when she was making something that came from "the north" she made a point of saying so, so I doubted it).

That is what lead me to a whole world of information about Southern Tea Cakes and their history. eHow.com's description of these cookies is as follows:

A Southern tea cake--which looks like a large yellow cookie--is light and fluffy, not too sweet and generally not iced.

Read more: Definition of a Tea Cake | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/facts_7159252_definition-tea-cake.html#ixzz1Kqgl9Nzs

There were so many websites with information! Who knew there was such a rich and diverse historical background to these little delightful cookies?! I devoured the information like the cookies themselves - if I can't ask Grandmother why she started making these things, I can still find out about their history in general!

The blog for the Itawamba County Mississippi's Historical Society includes a great post on tea cakes, which points out (as I suspected) that even if you grew up eating these cookies in your mom's or grandmother's kitchen, most likely you won't find anything about them in the recipe box, because the recipe was an southern "culinary tradition handed down orally." Tea cakes are among the many different food items currently being reviewed and collected as part of the "Southern Baking Traditions Oral History Project" as part of the Center for Public History at West Georgia College. Hm, either my Grandmother forgot to "hand it down" to my generation, or we just weren't paying attention when she did! Either is clearly possible!

The most interesting website I came across is called The Tea Cake Project. I was completely captivated by the very first lines on the page:

Remember back to your childhood, when you went over to your grandmother or aunt’s house and she served warm, delicious tea cakes? It was like a lovely, warm bite of hope, optimism, and the promise of a better tomorrow—all in one cute little tea cake.

Why yes! I do remember that warm, delicious bite of the cute little tea cake! That's exactly what I am looking for! I read on and on, and signed up for information about how to order the Tea Cake Project's Cookbook (I'm sure I'll be trying out lots of those recipes to determine which is the closest match to what I remember).

According to the Tea Cake Project's "Background on Tea Cakes" (in which they refer to "Southern food historians" - wouldn't that be a great job?), these soft little cookies originally derived from an English recipe in the 18th century, and the recipe was passed by word-of-mouth for generations. Southerners apparently made the cookies their own with additional ingredients, and mostly had them for special occasions (instead of daily for afternoon tea). The wealth of information on the Tea Cake Project's website is devoted mostly to the African American heritage associated with these cookies, calling it "the national cookie of African Americans." As
they point out, "tea cakes are soul food, and as we know, soul food is rich and wonderful tasting."

Many other bloggers and food writers have had lots to say about southern tea cakes, and what is striking is the theme of evoking strong childhood memories from these delicious little cookies.

On the "Never Enough Thyme" blog, Lana, another blogger from a small town in Georgia, says in the prelude to her recipe for tea cakes the following:

It’s not a cake, but it’s not quite a cookie either. It is certainly not overly sweet – just barely enough sugar to call it a dessert, actually. They’re delicious with a cup of coffee or a glass of cold milk. And, if you grew up in southwest Georgia, you can take one bite of a teacake and in your mind you’re five years old again.

Hmmm, I think it's time to get back into the kitchen! I'm feeling the need for a warm, delicious little bite of hope and optimism right about now!

What a WEEK!

This week has been an incredible journey for me, and through it all God has shown me several things. My work week began with dealing with the aftermath of a double homicide in Butts County last weekend. Through several phone conversations with the victims family and meeting with her daughter and son-in-law, God has shown me again why He has placed me where He has. No matter how frustrated the day-to-day gets, I'm there for a reason, and that reason is so I can help people like this.

Early Thursday morning middle Georgia was struck by tornadoes - incredibly powerful tornadoes. Butts County was hit by storms a couple of times over the last few weeks (though nothing like as strong as this storm), and storms raged in North Carolina near the homes of Bert, Stephanie, Alison and Stephen, and I thought, as I do most times "wish I could do more to help" as I prayed for those affected, gave a little money, etc. When those kind of tragedies occur, I occasionally think "if I was able to go..."

Shortly after I arrived at work on Thursday morning, I got a text message from my friend Wanda Moncrief. She had decided that she was going to take some food to Griffin and asked if I wanted to ride with her. Thus began our 3 day journey. Something (or someone!) made me suggest Barnesville rather than Griffin. I know that Griffin had been hit hard, but felt like since Barnesville was smaller and more cut off from media attention, they might not get as much help.

Our original idea was to take a few cases of water, some sandwiches, and a few other items, drop them off and leave. We were feeling pretty good about ourselves! I for one never realized when I sent that text to Wanda saying that I'd go with her just what the Lord had in store for us, but by the time we left that afternoon, I knew that whatever it was, it was much bigger than either of us knew!

Wanda began to work her phone and send me updates by text.....WOW! First she found out where we could go in Barnesville. The first indication I had of this being bigger than we planned was her next text...."I've gotten $69 in donations and Fredalyn Reeves is bringing stuff to the house to take." I thought, "that's good". So, asked her to stop by the office on her way to Sam's, and I took a little money of my own, got a couple of more donations in the office, and got us up to a little more than $100. I was feeling pretty good about myself and Wanda.

Over the course of the next three days, we colledted over $700, many cases of water and food. We had restaurants, individuals and stores in Jackson, McDonough and Monticello donating cole slaw, chicken, tea, ground beef, desserts, diapers, wipes and I don't know what else. God has revealed Himself through it all. With the money we were able to purchase not only everything we needed for their dinner Saturday night, but purchased the items they needed for breakfast today, and at the end, we handed in $270 in cash to further help

He gave us strength and stamina that neither of us knew we possessed. He showed Himself in small, tender moments - a few of which I'll share. It was overall one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I want to say I look forward to another opportunity, but of course I don't want another storm like this one, or this much hurt and damage.

I was blessed by the little girl who came into the gym where we were serving volunteers after school on Thursday. She looked to be about 6 years old, and came in with her mother. They apparently had only a few minutes really before they had to be somewhere else, but she wanted to stop and help. I got the impression that this was her idea, and that her mother was like so many of us with small children, on a schedule and needing to get to the next stop. Anyway, she wanted to do something....so, she helped an adult volunteer put tablecloths on each table, and then she left. She had done a part, and who knows? Maybe it lit a fire in her.

I was blessed by another little girl, maybe 8 years old, who came in Friday with a bag filled with ziploc bags of cookies that she had made herself. And by the family who came from Covington with a couple of HUNDRED sack lunches - sandwich, apple, chips to pass out through the SA canteen.

And, I was blessed by the National Guardsmen - over 200 of them who had volunteered to come to Lamar County. When I first arrived, I thought "they're all old!" (like my age and older), and then thought that was because the young ones were overseas. By Friday, 175 more had arrived and they were all ages, from all over the place (saw at least 2 I knew from Jackson) there to do whatever they needed to do.

This is getting long, but I want to share one more thing. We worked with an incredible S.A. worker, Wanda Browning. As we were setting up on Thursday, she wanted table covers in the worse possible way. My initial thought was "that's sort of silly, but whatever....". And, when the table covers were donated and brought in - they were THANKSGIVING ones, and I had the same thought. But one of the first soldiers who came in said "HEY! we've even got table cloths!" We had been warned that they would leave their blates, etc strown around, make a real mess, but they didn't. I don't know if it was the presence of those turkeys on the cloths or what, but they cleaned up after themselves! Wanda B. later told me that she wished she had flowers for the table - and you know me. I started wishing for it too. Saturday morning before I went to Barnesville, I did my usual Saturday morning thing, and went to yard sales. God was at work again. The first yard sale I went to had 5 bud vases for sale for 10 cents each. Guess how many tables we had set up in that gym? 5, of course. So, they got flowers on their tables last night, and today.

It was such a rewarding experience, and I saw God's hand over and over. I thank Him for using me and blessing me with all that I saw and experienced.