Part 1: A sweet bite of the Big Apple: Financier Patisserie, NYC

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You know those days when all you feel like having in the day is dessert. Nothing else matters but the urgent need to satiate that sweet tooth that’s gone out of control, and is begging for a slice, scoop, dollop, chunk of something seriously decadent.

Well, on those days, these are some of the many New York bakeries that I’d love to package up and bring back home to Dubai.  

Financier
a French pastry shop, cleverly named after the rich almond cake bar of the same name, as well as its first location in the Financial District.

Financier's counter of goodies

My first pick of the day was a dense chocolate walnut slab with a thick top coat of thick chocolate ganache, moist to the core in a way that coats your tongue with velvety chocolate cake crumbs, and an occasional salty walnut to further amplify the sweetness till your taste buds are driven to the brink of a colossal chocolate death.
My decadent chocolate-walnut choice. Pre-devouring stage.

Mid-devouring stage, as I dig out spoonfuls of chocolate-soaked cake covered by more dense chocolate ganache

Most people would wash that kind of dessert down with some sort of detoxifying drink. But why take up precious stomach space in a bakery with water or tea? I’d just ‘wash’ it down with a non-chocolate, lighter and fruitier dessert: like this wonderful pastry (whose name I’m blanking on) that was a mix between different pastries I love – the powdery sugar-sprinkled streusel of a crumb cake on top, smooth surface of a well-buttered pound cake, and the glazed syrupy stuffing of an apple galette.
My way of detoxifying after an intense chocolate cake: a fruity 3-in-1 combination of an apple galette, crumb cake and pound cake

I’d also once been gifted a truly magnificent, raspberry-glazed cake for my birthday by two Financier-crazy girlfriends (Mary and Rads, you ladies rock!) – tangy berry glaze, light layers of cake, and a creamy mousse layer sandwiched in between.

Gotta love the French’s generosity with butter and cream.

Want more sweet stuff? Check out Part 2: A sweet bite of the Big Apple: Sunburst Espresso Bar, NYC

Financier Patisserie
3-4 World Financial Center, Battery Park City,New York, NY 10281 (check website for other locations in Manhattan)
Phone: +1 (212) 786-3220
www.financierpatisserie.com

CategoriesCity Cuisine French New YorkTags,

Author: InaFryingPan

With a family legacy of ingenious cooks, a nutritionist and chef-extraordinaire mother, and a father who introduced me to steak and caviar when I could barely reach the table, I had no choice but to acquire a keen awareness of food during my childhood years in Dubai. But it was only after I found myself on a college campus in Philadelphia – far away from home, too cheap as a student to spend on anything other than pizza, and with dorm rooms that had little rat-holes of kitchens if they even had them at all – when I developed a heightened appreciation of food. An appreciation of food that I once ate every night at the dinner table in Dubai, but that was now an entire ocean away. I lusted for the culinary treasures that lay outside the stale walls of my college dining hall, hijacked friends’ kitchens to try my hand at something, anything , remotely edible, and greedily raided different websites in search of highly-rated restaurants. With my move to New York to work for a consulting firm that secretly harbored self-professed foodies, my appreciation transformed into a passion, an addicition. I felt like everyone around me in New York was talking about food: where to get the best cupcakes, pizza slices, banh mi, kati rolls, pho, fried chicken, and every other food item out there that is just a plain old dish in some part of the world, but that’s become hyped to unforeseen proportions in New York. What fuelled my addiction over time was travel to different cities, both for work and play, which gave me unfettered access to the culinary havens of not only New York, but also of DC, Virginia, Chicago, Houston, Vegas, Austin, Seattle and even a little city called Bentonville (Arkansas!). After 9 years away from home, I’ve finally taken the leap to come back to Dubai – with not just an awareness, but genuine appreciation and passionate addiction for what I’d taken for granted as a child. Mom, I’m back to reclaim my seat at your dinner table, and to rediscover this city with its ever-expanding menu of international flavors.

4 thoughts on “Part 1: A sweet bite of the Big Apple: Financier Patisserie, NYC”

  1. Eliza says:

    How is it that your reviews on dessert places are 1/4th the size of main course food? Hey, dessert is food too… I demand more reviews on chocolate cyanide, and strawberry vanilla flavored lethal injections.

    Reply
  2. Eliza says:

    Forgot to mention that your pictures make up for everything. But still, we (I) want more.

    Reply
    1. the iliveinafryingpan says:

      Point duly noted! I’m definitely going to be posting up more of my dessert escapades, and will keep in mind that you dessert lovers need more sweet gory details :) Check out the (also short) review on Sunburst at https://iliveinafryingpan.com/restaurantreview/part-2-a-sweet-bite-of-the-big-apple-sunburst-espresso-bar-nyc/ and stay tuned for my review on the Milk and Cookies bakery in NYC (super long, just for you dessert-a-holics out there!!) as well as this mammoth Spanish spicy-chocolate tower I attacked in Seattle. So don’t despair, more sweet stories to come!

  3. Pingback: Part 3: A sweet bite of the Big Apple: Continuing…my Milk and Cookies saga | The Foodonymph

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