Wheat-Free Apple Financier, Chestnut Financier and Bitter Caramel Leaf Pie by Minamoto Kitchoan

I have another little treasure trove of interesting Japanese-style French bakes to share about, with 2 financiers in unusual flavours and yet another interesting leaf pie pastry by Minamoto Kitchoan, which has a global presence including the US, London, Hong Kong, Taipei, Ho Chi Minh and Bangkok. While they may be a lesser known Japanese French patisserie, they have consistently featured interesting pastries and I've featured their castella rusks (in matcha and butter flavours), Blueberry Cheese Ball Shigure and White Peach Castella. Today, we have Apple Financier, Chestnut Financier and Bitter Caramel Leaf Pie. While I have come across many other apple and chestnut pastries, this is the first time I've seen them in financier form, and I've never heard of bitter caramel before, let alone in leaf pie form, so this was an interesting experience. For the financiers, I also discovered some interesting major differences in the ingredients list, which probably makes the financiers gluten free.
Wheat-Free Apple Financier and Chestnut Financier by Minamoto Kitchoan
Apple Financier

First, on to the Apple Financier. It is the lighter coloured financier with bits of macerated or sugared apple on the surface. 

What I noted first of all is that although this is definitely a financier because almond powder is used, the texture and overall fragrance really reminded me of a tea cake. It was moist, soft, smooth and very fragrant with the apple's flavour, much like a good buttery tea cake would be, whereas most financiers would be slightly firmer and more crumbly.

The apple fragrance was most interesting. It was nothing like the American sour and fruity apple, but very much like the floral, honey-like and fragrant Japanese apple, reminiscent of Aomori apples such as the Shinano Gold Apple, or the apple variety used to flavour Japanese shelf-stable candies such as Morinaga's Apple Hichew or Apple Yakult. This is a consistently Japanese apple flavour found in most authentic Japanese apple pastries, including this Kanjuku Yukidoke Apple Tart I reviewed earlier. 
Wheat-Free Apple Financier and Chestnut Financier by Minamoto Kitchoan - inside texture
And because of that floral sweet fragrance without the sourness or tartness, it pairs very well with the almond powder's nutty and slightly woody fragrance.

It had somewhat less of the almond powder crunch at the crust, although it was slightly crunchy and even had a bit of a sandy fine crisp upon reheating. 

The ingredients list (photo below) provides some clues about this - very interestingly, they use no wheat flour, but only rice flour of the non-glutinous variety. It's the first time I've ever had a wheat-free financier. This might also explain why the apple's fragrance seems so enhanced, because there is less of the wheat's malty body notes, and rice is quite neutral in its taste, so the apple's flavour fills up the entire palate. There's a chance that the rice also contributed a very slightly earthy flavour that blended into the almond powder's faint woody notes.

The use of rice flour instead of wheat flour probably also explains the difference in the crust texture, how it was less crunchy and with a lesser but more delicate sandy crisp.

The other interesting thing is that they used only egg white, not egg yolk, meaning that they removed any sulfurous notes from the pastry, which probably also explains how purely fragrant the apple came through. 

Finally, they also used apple sauce for the pastry, not just the apple bits, which helps to make the apple flavour so strong.

Overall, I probably would have still preferred a little bit more salt to balance out the sweetness. But because of how strong the apple's fragrance was, it balanced the sweetness in a different way. 

I can also see how this leans more traditional Japanese sweets in concept, where the sweets don't use as much salt, wheat or egg, avoiding malty wheat notes or sulfurous egg notes and leaning more towards neutrality, faint earthiness, complex floral fragrances and sweetness like their mochi-based bean desserts.

Chestnut Financier
Wheat-Free Apple Financier and Chestnut Financier by Minamoto Kitchoan - individual wrapper
This would be the dark brown financier in the two pictures above. This was another wheat-free financier, so it was probably also gluten free. It also used only egg white without the yolk, so it was similar in the pastry base as the apple financier, but because they used chestnuts, the flavour turned out to be completely different. 

While the apple financier covered lots of delicate floral and honey notes, this Chestnut Financier went in the other direction - it was very sweetly nutty, creamy and rich in its top notes with a vanilla-like fragrance. 

There were not much earthy or woody notes, despite my expectations of chestnuts. 

Similar to the apple financier, they had bits of sugared or macerated chestnuts throughout, not just on top, and also used chestnut sauce to enhance the chestnut flavour in the pastry. 

Finally, this photo has the ingredients list for both financiers. (Click to enlarge.)
Wheat-Free Apple Financier and Chestnut Financier by Minamoto Kitchoan - ingredients list
Bitter Caramel Leaf Pie

Finally, we come to the Bitter Caramel Leaf Pie. It seems to be a normal leaf pie but coated with some bitter caramel glaze, which you can see glistening in the photo below and with some darker spots towards the left side or when the glaze is thicker.

The overall experience was that it had many similarities to the normal leaf pie pastries that I featured earlier. They used wheat and butter for this, so there was that basic croissant-like pie pastry buttery flakiness.
Bitter Caramel Leaf Pie by Minamoto Kitchoan
The major differences in taste was that there were clear and distinct notes of caramel and also a certain unusual kind of bitterness that is reminiscent of charcoal burnt notes, except without any smokiness. The bitterness was akin to tannins in coffee, so just imagine a mild caramel with a bitter aftertaste like at the end of a sip or super strong coffee or tea. So I personally didn't really like it. Only the caramel notes were nice.

Furthermore, although it had faint almond florentine-like notes, the wheat and butter taste didn't come through as well as for other plain leaf pies. This is the main draw of leaf pies, so it was a disappointment.

The main difference in texture was that this was somewhat airier or puffier than the other standard leaf pies. It wasn't soggy at all, but it also wasn't as delicately crisp as other leaf pies. I wonder if the bitter caramel glaze ruined that crisp.

Looking at the ingredients list below (click to enlarge), I can't quite explain the differences, but perhaps it could be because they used milk instead of pure butter, which could explain the weaker pastry taste and the airier texture.
Bitter Caramel Leaf Pie by Minamoto Kitchoan - wrapper and ingredients list
Summary

The financiers were absolutely unique, interesting and well-executed as a concept overall, so I would highly recommend them. But I didn't understand the Bitter Caramel Leaf Pie at all, however, so it's a skip.

Minamoto Kitchoan has quite a number of locations across the US, UK and Asia, so if you happen to be in any of these cities, you should be able to get your hands on some of their unique financiers even if they might not come in the same flavours.

Discover other interesting financiers and pie pastries

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