Galit and I were introduced to these small French cakes by Karine Vigaelles. A financier is a small French cake. Financiers are light, moist and springy, with a crisp, eggshell-like exterior. They usually contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavouring. The distinctive feature of the recipe is beurre noisette (brown butter). Financiers are baked in shaped moulds, usually small rectangular loaves however for this recipe we use heart shaped moulds. This recipe, of course, features French Glacé Cherries and Pistachios. Galit now produces them and I devour plate loads of them. Delicious.
French Glacé Cherries and Pistachios Financiers
Light, moist and springy, with a crisp, eggshell-like exterior
Ingredients
- 100 grams flour
- 100 grams ground almonds
- 240 grams caster sugar
- 170 grams unsalted butter
- 240 grams egg whites about 4 egg whites
- A big drop of vanilla essence
- 100 grams pistachios roughly chopped
- 100 grams French glacé cherries halved or quartered
Instructions
- Preheat the oven to 210º (Fan Oven 190º)
- Make a "buerre noisette" i.e. melt the butter in a sauce pan over medium high heat; let it burn slightly and turn golden brown. Be careful not to let it colour too much.
- Add the flour, ground almonds and sugar to a large baking bowl
- Mix
- Add the warm butter
- Mix well
- Add the egg whites and the vanilla essence
- Mix well
- Sprinkle the pistachios and French glacé cherries over the mixture
- Mix just enough
- Pour the batter into a greased baking moulds
- Bake until golden (15 to 20 minutes)
- Let the financiers cool down (~5 minutes) in the mould before taking them out.
- Cool on a rack
- Serve
Notes
Instead of putting the pistachios and French glacé cherries inside the mixture you can sprinkle them over the mixture once inside the moulds.
You can freeze them.
You can freeze them.