Financiers
Small almond cakes made with brown butter and egg whites, baked hot so the edges crisp. Named for the gold-bar shape and the district that ate them.
Photograph credit: Financier sur une grille de refroidissement (19214843930) by Nicolas Buffler from Guilherand Granges, France · CC BY 2.0 · Wikimedia Commons
Beurre noisette is the entire flavour, so the butter must be taken past melted to genuinely nutty and brown — it should smell of hazelnuts and the solids at the bottom should be the colour of dark toast. Pull it off the heat a shade before it looks right, because it keeps cooking in the pan. Resting the batter overnight is the other thing professionals do and amateurs skip: it hydrates the almonds and improves the texture noticeably.
What People Ask
How long does Financiers take to make?
20 minutes of preparation and 15 minutes of cooking, plus 2 hours of resting the batter, so allow 2 hours 35 minutes from start to finish. The method also needs time for cooling completely, which it does not time, so treat that as a minimum. The recipe serves 12.
Photograph credit: Financier La Regi by MiguelAlanCS · CC BY-SA 4.0 · Wikimedia Commons · this resized copy is shared under the same licence
The Method for Financiers
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Melt the butter in a pale-bottomed pan and cook it over medium heat until it foams, then subsides, and the solids turn deep brown and smell nutty — about 6 minutes.
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Pour it immediately into a cold bowl to stop the cooking, and leave to cool to warm.
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Whisk the icing sugar, ground almonds, flour and salt together.
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Add the egg whites and whisk to a smooth batter — they go in unwhipped, straight from the shells.
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Whisk in the warm brown butter, including the dark solids, and the vanilla.
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Refrigerate the batter at least 120 minutes, or overnight.
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Butter and flour financier moulds, fill them three-quarters full, and bake at 200°C / 400°F for 14 minutes, until risen with crisp brown edges and a soft centre.
Related guide: Prep, cook and total time.
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Tips That Matter
- Take the butter properly brown. It is the whole flavour.
- Egg whites unwhipped, straight in.
- Rest the batter. Overnight is better than two hours.
Pairs Well With
Coffee · Raspberries · Tea
Storage
Three days in a tin, though the edges soften. They freeze for 2 months.
Financiers Nutrition
Per serving, calculated from the ingredient list with USDA FoodData Central figures (SR Legacy). A calculation, not a laboratory analysis: brands, cuts and how you measure change the real numbers. How the figures are worked out.
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Compiled by Turab
Checked by script for timings, diet labels and nutrition arithmetic. How the recipes are checked. Found a mistake? Tell us.
First published ; last changed .
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