Brown Cultured Butter Financier, (Candied) Orange Financier and other premium gourmet French bakes by Noix de Beurre, Japan

I've just discovered my new favourite Japanese bakery: Noix de Beurre. Currently, based on the taste and the ingredients used, this seems to be the epitome of French pastries. This is evidenced by how, apart from Gateau Festa Harada, this is one of the few department store brands with long queues of local Japanese lining up to make purchases.

Original Financier (actually a Brown Cultured Butter Financier)

I couldn't stop gushing about this with my family. This is absolutely my favourite financier ever, even beating out financiers by Chihiro Sweets Shop. That probably still remains my favourite financiers in Singapore, but you can only get Noix de Beurre in Japan currently, that I'm aware of.

The first thing that struck me was that there was an amazing sweet, buttery and nutty fragrance. And the taste was so perfect, complex, full and so well balanced. It was very buttery, but the wheat pastry taste also came out very strongly. The butter flavour was super rich, and I think the slight tanginess of the cultured butter blended in very well with the pastry the way sour cream creates an extra complex and balanced pop when used in pastries such as butter cakes or brownies. This was probably the X factor where it edged out Chihiro's financiers. 

Apart from this, there was also some other interesting element in the taste that I would describe as similar to bran or whole wheat pastries, a slight woodiness and maltiness. My mother described it as a brown sugar taste, so perhaps we were picking up on the same thing. After reading about the ingredients below, I'm guessing it is the brown butter taste, but it could also be from the special almonds and how they were roasted (read further below), or else even because of the blend of these 2 factors. I personally really loved this flavour as it felt very mellow and comforting, the way Bircher muesli is very mellow and comforting.

The salt was also just perfect in the overall balance - a very important factor in good pastries. 

Finally, the texture was excellent. After reheating, it was finely but satisfyingly crispy on the outside, but extremely moist and soft on the inside. And it wasn't in the least bit greasy, despite the prominent butter flavour. This is where it edged out Chihiro's financiers again, which was a tad stronger on the butter taste and also slightly greasier.

Now on to the ingredients. First, it is the only pastry I have tried that uses brown cultured butter from Japan (they basically used cultured or fermented butter and turned it into brown butter). 

For the almond powder, they used almonds from Marcona, Spain. Apparently, these almonds are known for their softer and crunchy texture due to their higher oil content, and a naturally butter sweet flavour that is apparently more intense but delicate than standard almonds. In the gourmet world, they are known as the "queen of almonds". The almond powder is also roasted.

Finally, they used cane sugar, which seems normal to me. 

Side Notes

I first tried all other pastries right out of the box without reading about the ingredients, because they were purchased fresh and didn't come with the usual printed ingredients list. Instead, there was a tiny slip of paper (images below) tucked within the box that I only read after I had tried everything.

I also reheated all the pastries in the oven optimally, so they were all appropriately crispy but not dry.

Orange Financier

This is essentially a candied orange slice embedded in the original brown cultured butter financier. Which sounds simple, but is actually the first time I've come across this concept and it turned out to be an incredibly delicious experience. Furthermore, look how beautiful the presentation of the financier is. 

The candied orange produced a wonderfully fragrant rich orange aroma, complex and citrusy with a clear but subtle rind bitterness that added depth to the overall taste. The pairing of this burst of complexity with the amazing original brown cultured butter pastry was extremely satisfying - a true party in the mouth. 

While the orange slice was sweet, when eaten together with the financier pastry, it wasn't too sweet, but it helped to balance out the very strong fragrance and was itself balanced out by the salt in the financier. It was overall sweeter than the original due to the candied orange.

It was also good that the actual financier pastry was not orange flavoured, because the orange slice was already so flavourful. The pastry actually helped to "absorb" or cushion the intense orange flavour so the overall balance was perfect. 

Finally, the orange slice also provided a nice chewy texture to the overall experience. 

In the product description in the menu (image below), they said that the white bits are arare sugar, or the type of crunchy sugar used in rice crackers. It is added as an "accent", presumably to make the texture or taste pop, but I hardly noticed them apart from the pleasing aesthetics. So it was mainly visual for me. 

I was surprised and impressed by how pleasant and satisfying this experience was, especially that all the orange flavour came from the perfectly-executed orange slice itself, which made it feel very natural and wholesome, compared to other financiers where juices or powders might be mixed into the dough and it feels like just a flavour.

Canelé

(I'll cover the other pastries briefly. They were all of outstanding quality, but not as unique as the financiers.)

The canelé was, in short, also one of the best I've ever tried. Firstly, the canelé texture is often the most difficult thing to get right. Even at upmarket authentic French places, it can sometimes come across as slightly rubbery, too soft, and/or not crispy. I never used to like them as a result. But this one was absolutely perfect, and is one of the first canelés I've liked. After reheating at least, the external skin was very delicately crispy! Not even crunchy, like other decent canelés I've had, but more on the crispy side, and subtly so! Look at how thin the outermost crispy layer is. And the inside is very moist and not rubbery at all. (It should be much clearer if you click to enlarge.)

Next, the rum flavour was very overpowering, in a good way. It was much stronger than the vanilla or custard taste. I actually felt like my mouth and throat were a tad warm after eating half of it. This would be a great gift for liquor, rum or even Irish cream lovers (as the custard-liquor combination reminded me of Irish cream).

Finally, check out the lovely in-store display.

Galette Bretonne (cookie)

Like the financiers, this also had a lovely rich buttery almond and wheat taste. But like the canelé, the rum taste was very prominent. It wasn't as prominent as for the canelé, as the almond and wheat taste came through clearly. The rum blended with the almond nut taste in a very interesting way, much like a liquor-filled marzipan chocolate.

The other thing that was unusual, was that it seemed to come across as very slightly on the drier side, so it seemed slightly powdery. Visually, as you can tell, it looked a tad too brown as well, so that may have been related to the slight dryness. But it was probably intended - it reminded me more of the sandy powder texture of some butter cookies or crumbly Chinese cookies, so there's absolutely nothing wrong with it and it was pleasant. The Japanese description also described this texture exactly as shittori (which means tender or soft, or possibly crumbly for cookies). It's just not a texture I would associate with a French pastry, so it could have been a unique innovation by the patisserie. 

Interestingly, they also used cultured butter for this, so it's also my first time trying a cultured butter Breton cookie. But this time, they sourced the butter from Normandy, France. It is apparently famous for having one of the (if not the) best tasting butters in the world due to the exceptionally high butter content in the milk produced by its cows, due to a combination of ideal climate and pastures, and the cow breed.

They also used Guérande salt (from Guérande, Brittany, France), which is apparently aromatic because it is natural sea salt that is not rinsed or refined.

Madeleine Maman

I think the name is grammatically wrong in French, but it probably means Mom's Madeleine. Given that it is cupcake-shaped rather than the traditional shell shape, however, it might be a fusion or cross with the British Madeleine.

This was also overall very pleasant, just not particularly unique or outstanding after having tried everything else above. 

In short, it tasted like a very moist and rich eggy sponge cupcake. It seemed relatively eggier in taste than other madeleines I've had. There were also strong notes of vanilla and cream.

When reheated, the outside was actually very slightly crispy, which is not very common for madeleines. The inside was soft and fluffy, however, like a good sponge cake. You can also tell by how fine the bubble holes are, compared to other sponge cakes which have larger spongy holes. (It might be clearer if you click to enlarge.)

The ingredients were again interesting. They used cultured butter as well (unstated origin), and also sour cream. I wonder if this combination enhanced the egg taste. But minimally, it was probably why it tasted rich with the vanilla and cream notes. 

Noix de Beurre Menu & Product Descriptions

As mentioned, I didn't have the official ingredients list due to these being freshly baked, but I got the info from the menu and product descriptions below. (Click to enlarge to see the words and prices.)

Pretty Store Scenes

Look how pretty the store is!

Packaging for Galette Bretonne and Madeleine Maman

Finally, just a quick note that if you purchase the madeleine and Breton cookie, they come hand-wrapped individually, as below, unlike the financiers or canelé. The galette is on the right and the madeleine is on the left.

Discover other amazing and unique snacks

• Chihiro Sweets Shop
  Cultured Butter, Hazelnut and Earl Grey financiers
  Part 2 - Pistachio and Dark Chocolate financiers
• Gateau Festa Harada
  Ruskology 101 - Original Butter Rusk and Hors d'oeuvre Rusk Sommelier by Gateau Festa Harada
  Leaf Pie
  Tigresse (almond powder cake with chocolate ganache)
  Maple Financier
• Annou Satsumaimo Sweet Potato "Oimo Financier" by Imokawa and Minamimachi Coffee, Tokyo
• Japanese Yellow Sweet Potato Paste Snacks by Specialists: Wakasayahonpo's Potato House and Unagiimo