Berry Financiers/Friands

(this is a long post, please keep reading, you will not want to miss any of it ….. delicious news)

(photo taken by Sara Remington)

After months of searching high and low and endless talking about how hard it is to find digital classes up in the Bay Area, we took the matter into our hands.  We looked at the resources in front of us.  We have so many friends who work professionally in a creative space, from photography all the way to film making;   we sat with them explained the situation and the playground was born - Digital Media Playground.  We are going to keep the workshops, small and intimate.  We feel the best way to learn is by actually doing what you want to learn.  We won’t sit you in a room, hand you a manual and fly through a session.  You will get to work  side by side with the instructor.  You will ask the questions.  You will learn.  We are currently populating the calendar with an agenda;  but we currently have some exciting workshops scheduled with some very talented photographers.   We are starting off with  beginning photography, studio shooting and food photography workshops.  We personally know each photographer who will be teaching and can tell you right here and right now …. you will be learning a lot!!!

Our featured workshop for May will be with Sara Remington (the photo of the berries was taken by her).  I am really excited that Sara will be teaching this hands-on workshop about food photography.  I mean, have you seen her drool worthy photography?  She currently has 15 books out there featuring her work, the most recent being:  The Big Sur Bakery Cookbook and My Nepenthe:  Bohemian Tales of Food, Family and Big Sur .  Sara believes in shooting organically, with ingredients and natural settings.  If you want to learn how to shoot stunning photographs as well as how to style them, then this is the class for you.  I caught a glimpse of the agenda a couple weeks ago ….. I am so excited for all of you.  You are going to learn so much!!!   You will not want to miss it!  To sign up and for more information please visit this link.  Or if you have any questions please do not hesitate to drop me an email or tweet me.   As well be sure to check out some of her most recent work from shoot in Greece;  but, prepare to become very hungry from these fantastic food scenes.

Now on to these delicious financiers….

I am so happy that berry season is lurking around the corner!  Literally just waiting to burst into our lives.  We are big berry eaters this time of the year, all the way to the last bite.  Lenny and I don’t discriminate, we love them all, blackberries, strawberries, raspberries, oallie berries.  You name it, you will find throughout the season over at Chez Us.  Not only are they the perfect ingredient, but they are the perfect snack.  Come over on a weekend and you will find a big bowl of them on the counter.

I have fond memories of berry picking and summer is just not summer without a trip to the berry farm to pick.  Since I don’t have kids to torture, I drag MEM (they do love it) and we pick berries and we eat berries.  I love their little berry covered faces and fingers.  All the way home we talk about how we are going to use the berries;  ice cream, muffins, sauces for ice cream or the best way …. stuffed into our mouths!  It really is a great way to bring the season into our kitchen.

I had some leftover egg whites the other day and needed some new creativity, so I put a tweet out.  Normally I make macarons;  but, Pim convinced me (which was not very hard to do) to venture over to Dorie’s kitchen and to make her financiers.  If you are not familiar with them, financiers are a little square French cake.  They were created by a French pastry chef by the name of  Lasne in the nineteeth century.  They are made of egg whites, ground almonds, sugar, flour and a lot of butter (the first time I misread the recipe and added 3 sticks).  It is not quite time to hit the berry farm;  but, I did manage to find a few pre-season raspberries that looked great and were slightly sweet.  As well I had a few blueberries laying around, so I decided to add a little berry kiss to each of the financiers.  As well I did not have the square little pans that are normally used and could not find them in San Francisco.  Pim said  to use a muffin pan which worked perfectly.  These little cakes are delightful and you will definitely be seeing them more often over at Chez Us.

Recipe:  Berry Financiers

(click the above link for a printable & down-loadable recipe)