Mini Gateaux Breton

I don't really have too much to say about these rich, buttery little cake/cookies.  They're ridiculously easy to make, taste mostly of butter and rum (if you used rum, of course), and are quite nice to have around.

My mise en place shot shows that I used some imported butter from Normandy, Beurre d'Isigny, which is 82% butterfat rather than either the 80% or 86% options discussed in the recipe.  Of course, the Gateaux Breton are from Brittany, but Normandy and Brittany are next-door neighbors, so I thought it was close enough.  (Definitely closer than Wisconsin).

Is it the step of toasting and then grinding the almonds that bans the recipe from the Q&E list?  Because, honestly, that step is not long and hard.

This is the pretty French butter.  Its color is exactly what you think of when you think of "butter yellow."  It's also almost exactly the color of my kitchen walls.

The step of rummaging through my odd liquor cabinet with an ordinate number of fruit-flavored liqueur bottles (shades of Heavenly Cakes) was time-consuming, but only because the bottle of dark rum that we brought back from St. John years ago was hiding in the back.  There was almost exactly a tablespoon of rum left in the bottle.  I think our cat raids the liquor cabinet when we're gone.

Such a tiny amount of cookie dough!  Should I have doubled the recipe?

Maybe it's weighing the little balls of dough and tapping them down with your pinkie finger that stops these gateaux from being quick and easy.

I had enough dough left to make five more gateaux, but I didn't have another mini-brioche pan, so I used one of my financier pans.  Also shades of Heavenly Cakes!

Oddly, the brioche-shaped gateaux took another ten minutes past the recommended baking time to finish baking.  The ones in the financier pan finished right on time.  I can only guess that my pan produced smaller but taller gateaux, and it just took them a while longer to bake all the way through.  My pans have more and smaller scallops, and the finished product is not quite as cute as the picture in the book (although they're still plenty cute).  And fun to eat too--at least they were.  Definitely on the Q&E list for eating!