The financier is a rich little tea cake (you can bake them in any shape pan, though) that gets its richness and flavor from browned butter and ground nuts.
Though traditionally made with almonds, I've had great success with using pistachios, walnuts, and (my personal favorite) pecans. The recipe is straightforward, and the batter will keep in the fridge for two or three days if you are all of a sudden called away to go to the reading of your recently departed rich uncle's will.
What You'll Need
375 g. 10x sugar
135 g. nut flour (use a food processor and whir them up until they look like coarse flour)
135 g. all purpose flour
4 g. baking powder
3 g. salt
375 g. egg white
200 g. browned butter
35 g. corn syrup
How to Do It
To learn how to brown butter, go here.
If you've premade and refrigerated your brown butter, melt browned butter--no need to boil it.
Remove from heat and add corn syrup. Set aside.
In the bowl of your stand mixer fitted with the paddle attachment, mix all dry ingredients thoroughly.
With mixer on low speed, slowly add the egg whites until incorporated. Scrape the bowl.
Turn mixer back on low and drizzle in the butter/corn syrup mixture. Mix until incorporated. This batter will keep in the fridge for a couple of days if you don't want to use it right away.
When ready to bake, spray your pans (little pans--3" or so--are good because these cakes are very rich) with pan spray and fill them about 1/2 to 2/3 full with batter. These are lovely plain, but you can (and should) add any kind of fruit to the pan as well--just press the fruit into the batter. Cherries are good, but so are peaches, plums (any sort of stone fruit) as well as blueberries, raspberries.....you get the idea. If you want to use a firmer fruit, like apples, I would suggest sauteeing them a bit to soften them up.
Bake at 325 degrees, F until golden brown on the tops and risen. If you press on the tops, they should feel fairly firm. In a commercial convection oven on low fan, these guys take about 16 minutes in 3" pans, so adjust your times according to pan size.
Enjoy these; they are delightful!
