When I myself was quite small, there was nothing I liked quite so much as little things. I was fond of dolls, and would lovingly create tiny everything for the favorites in my possession: tiny clothes, tiny books, tiny tea parties and meals, and entire diminutive environments. I once, at about the age of ten, transformed a narrow vertical bookcase into a doll apartment building, complete with teensy hand-sewn cotton-filled futon mattresses for one of the rooms. I loved miniatures of all kinds, and would beg, borrow or make them myself in order to have the little things I needed to create miniscule worlds. I longed for bonsai trees so that my miniature spaces would be green, too.
Most of all I loved tiny food. As soon as I saw lady apples and seckel pears in the market each fall, I begged for them. "They'd be perfect for my dolls," I'd croon to my mother, hanging on her arm at the market pleadingly. I adored baby vegetables too, even if the scale wasn't quite small enough for my dolls. But the first time I ever saw petits fours, I really fell in love. They were the tiny square iced-cake ones with a bitty flower on top, and unlike every other one of their ilk I've eaten since then, they were as delicious as they were beautiful. Made in the excellent and authentic French bakery in the town where I grew up, they were perfect little layer cakes, made of genoise cake filled with buttercream, dipped in a layer of apricot glaze and iced in chocolate or pastel fondant frosting. And of course, they were the perfect party food for the petite dining room I had made in my bookcase doll's world.
When I saw that Jeanne was hosting a Sugar High Friday with tiny treats as the theme, I first thought of recreating those sweet little cakes of fond memory. But knowing in the midst of the tangle of several hellish weeks that I was going to be running late for this event (and I'm still hoping that I get this posted before our lovely host awakens from her slumbers, since she extended the deadline to whenever she wakes up on Saturday), I decided that I couldn't quite manage the multiple recipes that iced and filled petits fours would require. I decided upon two other treats: first, miniature Korova cookies. These required only that I defrost some frozen cylinders of dough made last weekend, and re-form them into tinier cookies for baking. I gave them the bit of dress-up that true mignardises require: a sparkly fragment of candied violet stuck on with an extra dab of chocolate.
My other treat required a little more ingenuity. It's a sort of scented almond baby financier cupcake filled and topped with a droplet of this summer's apricot curd, waiting in the freezer for a special occasion. What better moment than SHF?
The financier is made from my favorite scented madeleine batter, made with beurre noisette instead of plain melted butter. The apricot curd can actually be made in any season, and is almost as delicious made solely with dried apricots as it is with fresh. Assembly requires only that tiny cupcake cases in tiny muffin tins be almost-filled with the madeleine batter, and a half-teaspoon drop of apricot curd dolloped on top. The batter rises around the curd, which provides a tangy, creamy fruit center in the middle of all that fragile, fine-crumbed almond cake. These bake just like my original madeleines recipe, for 8-10 minutes at 400F. At serving time, you need only dollop another drop of curd on the top of the cooled cakelets for a pretty presentation.
I still love miniatures, but I no longer waste my tiny treats on dolls. It's fortunate that as small as these cakes may be, both recipes have a large yield. Little things as tasty as these demand multiple servings in a big-people world.
Filled madeleines is a brilliant idea. Did you make that up? Also glad to see you finally found a purpose for those candied violets from Paree. Maybe I bought them because I remembered (subconsciously) how much you loved those tiny gateaux from the Gourmet.
Posted by: Joe C | October 28, 2006 at 01:18 PM
Oh, Julie, Julie, Julie. No wonder I love you so. While I was never ambitious enough to build my own miniatures, I always loved to come across them at places like Peddler's Village in Lahaska, PA. I still remember being five years old and seeing a dollhouse with a miniature shower and clawfoot bathtube, four-poster beds, and a kitchen with a tiny little bag of Ceresota flour in one cupboard. I still get a little charge, thinking of it.
And of course you fully grok the genius of the tiny dessert. I love them myself, even after my short happy life in Famous Italian Restaurant Kitchen, where I spent what felt like hours cutting sheet trays of petits fours into 1cm x 2 cm pieces. Although I'll never say no to a nice big bowl of chocolate mousse, I might reconsider if, instead, I were offered a tiny little pot de creme, or a butter tart, or a plate of little cookies. (Have you ever made the Cappuccino Coins from the China Moon Cookbook by Barbara Tropp? If you haven't, you will. ;) These little beauties you have here, the Korovas and the financiers -- and Joe's right, those financiers are genius! -- well, I love them. I haven't tried them yet, but I already know I love them. They're that good, and so are you.
(Incidentally, your comment at PTMYB made me all teary -- in a totally healthy and self-actualizing way, of course. You will get your reward for this.)
Posted by: Bakerina | October 29, 2006 at 05:21 PM
Wow - these look great, especially the mini cupcakes filled with apricot curd. So you're sending a dozen of each over to my place, right? :o)
Thanks for such a great contribution to SHF!
Posted by: Jeanne | October 29, 2006 at 05:38 PM
These are perfect for grown ups and dolls alike!
My Dad made me a dollhouse when I was little and I used to hoard tiny bits of food for them to eat in there.
Posted by: Brilynn | October 29, 2006 at 07:22 PM
Hi Julie - there really is something about little things. I've always been smitten by mini ketsups or mini Coke bottles, esp when there's an original around for a side by side comparison! Have you seen photos of those grape-sized kiwi's kicking around? I saw them on Albion Cooks albioncooks.blogspot.com
Posted by: vanessa | October 30, 2006 at 12:41 PM
Oh brother dear, how I miss ALL of the pastries from Le Gourmet. Is it only that they are infused with the special savor of nostalgia, or were they truly as wonderful as I remember? Thanks again for the candied violets -- I think they look particularly lovely against the dark cookies. BTW, since you recently had a chance to taste the goodies created for this event, perhaps you'd like to let our readers know how they were...
Bakerina m'love -- cappucino coins? When is our next baking day? I'll mix up the dough and get the mise en its place, while you're studying...
Jeanne, had I but known that only recently you were in my hemisphere, I would have Fedexed you a box of goodies post-haste...
Thanks Brilynn -- the tiny treats are so evocative, I'm almost ready to go search out my dolls...
Hey Vanessa -- I have to check out those kiwis! It's been far too long since I was over at Albion Cooks, whose lovely author Catherine was one of the folks I met in the Bay Area this summer.
Posted by: Julie | October 30, 2006 at 12:59 PM
Ok, I can take a hint. And I just took a bite -- several bites in fact -- of both a financier and a Korova cookie. Delicieux, les deux! Now the financier/filled madeleine is a tricky bit of business and requires further research to achieve technical perfection, as we discussed yesterday -- but the flavor and tenderness are perfected already. The Korova cookie is a triumph of cocoa intensity, and yes, those flowers are cute.
You miss Le Gourmet not only for nostalgic reasons but because the cakes and pastries made there were first rate in concept and execution. They would be considered superb and sophisticated today -- so they were far ahead of their time in White Plains ca. 1965. (Those morons never knew how lucky they were. There's probably a Dunkin Donuts there now.) Le Gourmet's chocolate cakes with the paper-thin shards of bittersweet chocolate over the frosting -- to name just one favorite -- those were pure genius too.
Posted by: Joe C | October 30, 2006 at 01:52 PM
Oh goodness, those look so delicious and I'm not a huge sweets fan. Yumm!!!
PS I love, love, love that quote at the top of your page. In fact, it's the headline at my old food blog. :)
Posted by: Yvo | October 30, 2006 at 04:29 PM
Bro, there were two Le Gourmet cakes that were covered with dark chocolate shards, remember? One was their classic chocolate layer cake, iced with a true chocolate buttercream and covered with those shards. The other was called a "chocolatine", and it was, to my mind, the first dacquoise that any of us ever tasted -- dense, crisp-chewy nut meringue layers layered and covered with a dark chocolate mousse, and again, dressed in chocolate shards. They also had the first chocolate truffles any of us ever had, and they sold little bags of Marcona almonds, decades before anyone else on these shores ever even saw them. Oh for a chocolatine cake -- or for the Chanticler bakery's Rum Ring, filled with dark chocolate bits, drenched in rum and glazed in more chocolate...
Yvo, thanks for stopping by and commenting. Always great to welcome another food blogger to the NY community. I hope you'll come to the next potluck.
Posted by: Julie | October 31, 2006 at 12:15 PM
Your memory is amazing. Especially for pastry. I haven't thought about that rum cake for decades but man it was great. Why don't you make that?
Posted by: Joe C | November 02, 2006 at 09:41 AM
I have to say, if one is going to get kicked out of the Time-Warner Shopping Plaza for eating contraband food, one could not do better than your Korova cookies and Apricot Financiers. Thanks for bringing these wonderful treats to our Writing Marathon. I still have your container and a Korova cookie left. I'm saving it for when I get home tonight to celebrate it being, um, Friday.
Joe B.
Posted by: Joe Bellacero | November 03, 2006 at 10:03 AM
Julie,
They look so perfect and gorgeous! I love what you did with the Korova cookies:) and the madeleines are so clever too!
Posted by: Anita | November 06, 2006 at 08:46 PM
Bro, I'll work on the Chanticler chocolate rum ring. You have a birthday coming up in a couple of months, so hang tight..
Joe, I'm so glad you liked the treats. The Writing Marathon was a great day -- I'm looking forward to the next one.
Anita, any compliment from you regarding pastry is a great compliment indeed.
Posted by: Julie | November 08, 2006 at 09:36 PM