So, after meeting with the financier’s distant cousin the Friand, we finally get to play around with this French classic. The batter itself is very versatile and can even handle fresh or even frozen fruit being folded through without the texture being compromised. If you didn’t want to use ground almonds, other ground nuts would work just as well (just don’t swap the whole quantity of almonds as it may make the cakes bitter), you can be quite playful with this one!
RECIPE:
FINANCIER
220g UNSALTED BUTTER
85g PLAIN FLOUR
100g GROUND ALMONDS (for future baking development you can swap in 20g of chopped pistachio/hazelnuts into this mixture to change around with flavours)
250g ICING SUGAR
200g EGG WHITE
1 STAR ANISE (Freshly Grated)
2g FINE SALT
12 FRESH BLACKBERRIES
TO DECORATE
100g WHITE CHOCOLATE (High quality, higher cocoa as others will be too sweet and knock the flavour balance right off. RIGHT OFF I TELL YA.)
12 MORE FRESH BLACKBERRIES
BEFORE YOU START…
Preheat your oven to 180c (fan oven, 185-190c for other, less powerful ovens)
Prepare your baking tins (muffin or a Yorkshire pudding tin will do), spraying or greasing with oil before setting aside.
METHOD:
FOR THE FINANCIER …
Melt in a pan on a medium heat until it goes golden brown (The butter will foam when cooked, so make sure to keep stirring. The white milk solids will turn golden in colour at the bottom of your pan so it’s worth keeping an eye on it). Once it smells nutty remove from the heat and decant into a heat-proof bowl to stop the cooking.
Cool until just warm to the touch before using (If your butter is too hot it will cause the egg to coagulate, the gluten to form in the flour and the almonds to release their oils- all not desirable outcomes IN FACT. THIS IS CARNGAGE.)
Mix all the rest of the ingredients together until smooth. Once the butter has cooled, fold into the rest of the ingredients. Set in the fridge for at least 2 hours. Once the mixture is ready, pipe into your prepared moulds (just over halfway), dot each with a blackberry and bake for 10-12 minutes or until risen, golden and when a knife comes out clean (try to test the cake and not the blackberry hidden inside!).
Leave to cool before unmoulding from your tin- you may need to run a knife around each before unmoulding to help it along.
While the financiers are cooling, melt the white chocolate in a Bain-Marie, leave to cool before use.
TO FINISH: When the cakes have cooked and cooled, dip/drizzle with your melted chocolate and decorate with your remaining berries. These cakes will keep lovely and moist for a few days, just make sure to keep them at room temperature as the fridge will dry them out.
