Financier (how to use eggwhites)

[PPoppy]

Le Financier is a traditionnal french cake, perfect to use eggwhites,
really famous for coffee breaks between businessmen in France.
It's the men's cake... (the name comes from its gold bar shape)

This cake can be enhanced with some raspberries for exemple
(put a few rasberries in the mold before putting in the oven) or pears
I hope you'll like it, it's one of my favourites !
For around 10 individual financiers (~4inch x 1.6inch)


You will need :
3 eggwhites
3.9 oz of white sugar (110gr)
2.5 oz of grounded almond powder (70gr)
4tbsp of slightly melted butter (2.1 oz / 60gr)
- 20 seconds in dice in the microwave or in a casserole to reach hazelnut shade, without cooking -
1.6 oz of flour (45gr)
1tsp of apricot marmelade
- I don't always put some, just when I have some -

Mix with a fork or a whisk eggwhites and sugar for 1 minute
- and apricot marmelade if you have -
Add the almond powder, mix with a wooden spoon, then add the slightly melted butter
- that you've put in a casserole or in the microwave to melt it gently, without cooking -
It has to be smooth and homogeneous
Add the flour little by little by doing growing circular movements from the center of the bowl

Turn on the oven at 450°F
Let the dough rest in the bowl for 10 minutes
- if you put it in the oven when really hot, it helps the contrast crust outside/soft inside -
After 10 minutes, put it in your mold/cakepan, almost full
- butter them if they are not in silicon -

Put in the oven at medium high and turn down the oven at 350°F
Let it cook 25 minutes
Depending on your mold, it can go to 35 minutes of cooking

One more time, metallic molds are quicker to cook the cake, so be aware.
They have to be real gold, especially on the edges

Turn out the cakes when it got a bit cooler
- exterior gets harder, so it's easier to turn them out -
They are better the day you've made them, don't try to keep them a long time !

 

[jennyema]

Why is it "the men's cake?"

 

[PPoppy]

Because it's often served for businessmen coffee breaks, or in high class pastry/coffee shops in France for them. I don't know exactly how it happened at first, but that's how it is. Th original recipe is french, then the swiss shaped it in a gold bar and made it the "financial cake"

That's all I know

 

[chocotuile]

Have you ever tried browned butter financiers? The browned butter heightens the overall flavor of anything else you add to the financier, like the almond powder and marmelade. I adore financiers, especially in autumn (browned butter somehow doesn't seem quite summer, does it?).

jennyema, love your catch phrase!

 

[jennyema]

Because it's often served for businessmen coffee breaks, or in high class pastry/coffee shops in France for them. I don't know exactly how it happened at first, but that's how it is. Th original recipe is french, then the swiss shaped it in a gold bar and made it the "financial cake"

That's all I know

So women don't go to those places? Or do business?

Sorry but that seems more than a bit sexist.

 

[chocotuile]

I think it's because 200 years ago, men were the bankers working in the financial industry. It is outdated but if you don't think about it in modern context, and more of a historical one

 

[PPoppy]

Oh my ! don't yake it like, it's one of my favourite cake and there is no sexist place like that in France
It was an historical context that's all, just like chocotuile said ^^'

I don't even know browned butter actually ^^' when you melt it in the casserole it gets brownish...

 

[chocotuile]

"yake"? Not sure if that is a typo or not.

Brown butter actually originated from France (beurre noisette) and pretty much means what it sounds like; butter burned on low heat. It gets this caramel, hazelnutty (therefore the "noisette") flavor that's really delicious when used in baking. One of my favorite cookies is a play on chocolate chip cookies, but using beurre noisette as the butter and butterscotch chips instead of chocolate chips.

 

[PPoppy]

Take xD
Well that's actually what I do ^^' I didn't know the english name
I didn't use it at first, but I've read a recipe from a chef who explained it for the financier, so I tried. That's why I propose both ways to use the butter in the recipe. Should I change the terms of hazelnut shade by brown butter ?

 

[chocotuile]

Ah, so we were talking about the same thing the entire time!

 

[PPoppy]

yep

 

[texherp]

I like your blog. The artwork is really nice : )

 

[PPoppy]

Thank you