Financiers

While at a vide-grenier, the French equivalent of a car boot sale/garage sale, I stumbled upon a set of shiny new financier moulds. They were still in their original packaging and had a faded price tag from when Francs were still in use and Le Bon Marché was called Au Bon Marché.

On my return, the first thing I baked were these tiny little petits fours. I used a recipe for perfect financiers (almond cakes) from Nathalie Benezet, author of Le Petit Paris (USA | UK | India). I followed the recipe pretty much exactly as given. The only variation was that I added a quarter teaspoon of pistachio paste into half the batter for the pistachio flavoured financiers.

You will notice there isn’t any baking powder in this recipe – financiers usually don’t need any. These are meant to be small, slightly dense cakes that are very moist from all the almond powder in it. This recipe can be used as the perfect base for any variations you’d like to play with. While I used it with raspberries, blueberries and chocolate, you can make these your own by  adding citrus zest, a wee bit of matcha powder or even swap the powdered almonds with hazelnuts. Also, you don’t have to have the exact same moulds – any small cake moulds will do. Depending on the size you use (mine were tiny), you will have fewer cakes and the baking time will increase. Look for a beautifully golden crust on the cake and your financiers are ready!