You are not alone if you have never heard of a financier; until a week ago, neither had I. My husband and I had brunch at a local french bakery, and they had these amazing little “muffins.” Come to find out, they were in fact a french cake, a financier. My husband requested that I learn to make them…so I took on the challenge, and the result was delightful. A financier by definition is a light, moist teacake, similar to sponge cake, and usually contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring. The distinctive feature of the recipe is beurre noisette (brown butter). Financiers can be made with many different fruits or flavors, but with blackberries in season, I took the opportunity to make bake perfect mini blackberry financiers.
- ½ cup plus 5 tablespoons unsalted butter
- 1 cup sliced almonds or 1 cup ground almonds (almond flour)
- ½ cup all-purpose flour
- 1½ cups plus 2 tablespoons powdered sugar
- 5 large egg whites, at room temperature
- 2 tablespoons honey
- nonstick vegetable spray or mini muffin liners
- 2 cups fresh (or frozen, thawed) blackberries, halved
- Melt butter in a medium saucepan over medium heat. Simmer until browned bits begin to form. Continue to simmer frequently scraping up browned bits at bottom of pan, until dark brown, but not burnt, about 6-7 minutes. Do not take your eyes off the saucepan has the butter can burn in an instant.
- Scrape the butter and the browned bits into a medium bowl and let it cool for about 5 minutes.
- Next, process almonds and flour in a food processor until nuts are finely ground. (I used ground almonds/almond flour - also 1 cup)
- Transfer to a medium bowl, whisk in 1½ cups plus 2 tablespoons of powdered sugar.
- Add egg whites and mix until smooth.
- Fold in honey.
- Fold browned butter into batter.
- Cover and chill for 1½ hours.
- Place the rack in the middle and preheat oven to 375 degrees F.
- Coat muffin cups with non-stick spray, or use muffin liners for easier release. Fill cups to ¾ full and press 2 blackberry halves into the batter.
- Bake until cakes are golden brown and just cooked through, 15-16 minutes.
- Let cool in pan for 10 minutes, and then remove cakes from pan.
- Dust with powdered sugar just before serving.
I didn’t know what a financier was, but now I want to make them. They look delicious!