Almond Financiers-Would you like them as well?

A financier is a small French cake, often mistaken for a pastry. 

The financier is light and moist, 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).Other ingredients include egg whites, flour, and powdered sugar. 

Financiers are baked in shaped molds, usually small rectangular loaves similar in size to petits fours.

The name financier is said to derive from the traditional rectangular mold, which resembles a bar of gold. Another theory says that the cake became popular in the financial district of Paris surrounding the Paris stock exchange.

Financier pans are traditionally rectangular, but other shapes are not uncommon.
As adapted from Wikipedia

Recipe as adapted from OKASHI by Keiko Ishida

Ingredients:

(yields about 16 cakes, or depending on the cake moulds used)

 50g Pastry flour/Top flour

5g corn flour

1/2 tsp baking powder

130g egg whites

(about 2~3 eggs depending on egg sizes)

130g sugar (i use 100g)

50g ground almonds

1/2 tsp vanilla extract

a pinch of salt

130g unsalted butter

Method:

1. Preheat oven to 220C. Lightly grease 16 small cake moulds, each about 5.5 x 7.5 cm, with a little softened butter and place them on a baking tray. Sift flour, corn flour and baking powder together twice.

2. Place egg whites into a clean bowl and beat lightly. Add sugar and mix well, followed by ground almonds, vanilla extract, flour mixture and salt, mixing well after each addition. Be careful not to overmix. Set aside.

3. Brown butter in a small saucepan over medium-low heat, whisking frequently until fragrant and golden brown in color. Pour into a mixing bowl and place into a larger bowl half-filled with iced water to stop the butter from cooking further and burning.

4. Add the browned butter to the egg mixture and mix well. Transfer the batter into a piping bag fitted with 1-cm palin piping tip. Pipe batter into the prepared cake moulds.

5. Bake financiers for 10-15 mins until they are light golden in color. Remove the cakes from the moulds and cool on a wire rack before serving.

Financiers will keep in an airtight container at room temperature for up to 5 days, or for up to 1 month in the freezer.