Small Cakes: Petits Fours II

School has begun, so my time for baking has decreased.  Thus, this was actually done over the course of several days, but to keep posts to a more manageable amount I am combining them so that each post will have at least 3 recipes.  Let's get right to it with the Raisin Petits Fours on page 59.

The sugar, eggs, and vanilla initiate this recipe by being whisked together to form a loose batter.

The batter is thickened up with the addition of the baking powder and flour.

Finally, the butter and raisins are added in to complete the batter.

I spooned these out onto a baking sheet and threw them into the oven as my opening bid.

The idea behind petits fours is that these are supposed to be dainty.  My American-sized cookies did not fit that bill.  They were delicious, but far too big.

I've learned to not spoon out the second round of petits fours until I have some "feedback" from the first tray.  Here is the second tray, much more appropriately sized.

Fluffy!

These are super delicious!  The vanilla really comes through, they have great texture, and the raisins add a bit of surprise in each bite.  On top of that, the ease of this recipe adds to the possibility of a repeat appearance.

What the heck was that?
Meh.
Interesting, glad I tried it, but won't go back to try this again.
Good, but not repeat-worthy.
Very good, with some modifications this could be seen again.
This is company-worthy.

Next up (really a few days later) was a recipe called Sachas on page 59.

I stated in an earlier post that I like to read ahead to see if there are any goofy ingredients that I need to acquire in advance or research how to make.  Thus far, I have been able to make all of these ingredients as I have not been able to find them in the store, such as the candied cherries or candied citron peel.  What I failed to find pre-made, or even the ingredients to make by hand, was the candied angelica.  You can read about this weird ingredient here, but know that this was the first time I had to purchase something online as I had no way of getting it otherwise.  

I also got to use the almond paste that I made in the previous post, which is softened by mixing in more egg whites.

The recipe calls for chopped almonds, but I decided to have smashed almonds instead.

This took very little time to accomplish.  I love using mortars and pestles.

Drop a piece of angelica into the batter.

Turn the angelica in the batter until it is well coated, which I discovered was less messy using two spoons instead of your fingers.

Drop this into the almonds and roll around until coated.

Start placing these on the baking sheet.

The lack of uniformity is part of their charm.  

I made these on a night when The Bride had a friend over, and the feedback from both was quite high.  These had three different textures: crunchy outside from the almond bits, slightly chewy in the middle layer from the almond paste, and then sweet and sticky in the far interior from the angelica. The Bride even declared these "company worthy" which was surprising.  Later, I took them to school and gave the bag to my teaching partner.  I had intended them to be shared with the rest of the teaching team.  They weren't. 

What the heck was that?
Meh.
Interesting, glad I tried it, but won't go back to try this again.
Good, but not repeat-worthy.
Very good, with some modifications this could be seen again.
This is company-worthy.

Finally, this morning I woke up and walked downstairs.  The Bride was sitting on the couch enjoying her morning coffee, which reminded me that the next recipe I had to make was the Coffee Petits Fours on page 59.

As you can see in the picture above, I had to make more almond paste.  In the picture below, you can see my substitution: instant coffee dissolved in a minimum amount of water to replace coffee extract (that I couldn't find anywhere).

This recipe had problems.  The directions tell you to "shape" the batter on the baking sheet, but this stuff was WAY too runny.

I tried thickening it up with more almond paste, but that barely worked at all.

The batter still continued to ooze, refusing to hold any short of shape.

You are supposed to sprinkle on coarsely chopped almonds, but I got a little fancy and used almond slivers.

Towards the end of the baking time on the first sheet, I saw that my "feedback" was not going to be awesome.  These clearly needed to be thickened much more than what they were.  Though it is not called for in the recipe, I turned to flour.

See?  The first batch, while tasting okay, looked a mess.  They managed to ooze out even further.

Here is the second batch, with the addition of flour.  These were significantly improved in taste, texture, and appearance.  The Bride, however, noted that the coffee flavor wasn't very pronounced.  This made sense because I had added much more almond paste to the recipe than what as originally called for, and then added flour to further complicate the matter.

So, I added more coffee to the remaining batter for the third round.

Here is the side-by-side comparison of the three.

The third product was the best so far, but was a little overdone for my taste.

I decreased the baking time for the fourth and final batch.  Overall, this recipe has a lot of upside, but clearly requires some major tinkering.  I still think it needs more coffee flavor, which seems to bake off while in the oven.

What the heck was that?
Meh.
Interesting, glad I tried it, but won't go back to try this again.
Good, but not repeat-worthy.
Very good, with some modifications this could be seen again.
This is company-worthy.