Friday, August 21, 2015

Peach Financiers – Because French Bankers Hate Dirty Money

There are many different techniques used for making financiers, but as usual, I’ve chosen the easiest one. I would have been happy to try those other more complicated versions, but fortunately, I enjoyed this one so much, there’s no need.

I mention in the video that these are called “financiers” because they’re rich, and look like gold bars (if you use the traditional rectangular molds). Well, apparently that’s not quite right.

Word on the “rue” is that there was a bakery next to the Paris stock exchange that made these small almond cakes so bankers could enjoy them on the way to work, without getting their fingers dirty. I assume this is accurate, since I read it in the YouTube comments.

Anyway, not only is this an easy recipe, but it works beautifully with pretty much any summer fruit. Berries are popular, as are other stone fruits. Just don’t use too much. It’s merely a garnish, and adding too much could effect the texture and cooking time. I hope you give these delicious peach financiers a try soon. Enjoy!


Ingredients for 12 small cakes:
3 egg whites
1/2 cup white sugar
1/8 teaspoon salt
1/4 teaspoon vanilla extract
1/2 cup almond meal (or finely ground almonds)
3 tablespoons flour
3 oz unsalted butter (6 tablespoons), toasted to a golden-brown
12 small sliced of peach
- I used mini-muffin pans, so you'll have to adjust your time if you used regular muffin tins, or other molds.
- Bake for 5 minutes at 400 F., then top with fruit, and continue baking until browned, about 10-12 minutes.

17 comments:

Unknown said...

Hello! Would it be alright to use corn meal instead of almond meal?
Thank you :D

Jeffrey said...

Looks great Chef John. Would this work if you poured all the batter into a small bread mold and dotted the top with fruit?

The Heimish Chef said...

"You are the Richard Gere of your financier?"
I think I need to take a shower :)

Unknown said...

"Because I wanted to taste one"

YOU ALREADY DID. There were 12 in the molds and only 10 on the plate.
You are sneaky Chef John, but your fans see EVERYTHING.

Chef John said...

Only 10 fit on the plate, and 2 sat on the table.

Unknown said...

Damn.
But no one would have blamed you. Just look at these!

Anonymous said...

Leftfield question.... After you buttered the muffin tin, could you have used white sugar instead of flour? I am not a baker, but these look perfect!

Krystal said...

Next time for runny batters pour the batter into a liquid measuring cup and then pour the batter into the muffin tin :) I love all your recipies Chef John

Kitchenwitch said...

What's the purpose of the regular flour in this? In the interest of grain-free baking, would you expect this to work with all almond meal?

Unknown said...

I am slightly confused Chef John. I heard you discuss the tappa-tappa, but did you sneak in a few shaka-shaka's on us?

Hyung said...

I usually here fie-nan-SEER in English, but the more French pronunciation is something like fee-nongs-YAY, except that the middle syllable actually just has a nasal a instead of the ng.

MissMargarita said...

Chef John,

Can you please make mozzarella stuffed green chile tacos?! Thank you!!!



-=FIXXXER=- said...

Hello Chef John,
I will break my diet for this Recipe! but my question is, Would it work if I used a Bundt Cake pan or this only works for cup cakes?

Leo2 said...

Chef John, When I prepared the butter it did become dark as your video demonstrated but there was quite a bit of particulate matter in bottom. This came out with a tea strainer but created a muffin quite a bit darker than yours. I used apple, peach and banana to top these muffins. Although final product was not the nice browned color you had it had an amazing taste (probably the almond meal/flour). Will try this again but next time believe I will not cook the butter as long (believe that may have been my mistake). Great flavor everyone liked them and agreed the peaches were a better topping. Will continue to work this recipe. Thanks for posting and making your videos.

Rosalie Lingo said...

I just made a double batch of these and did them in normal size muffin tins. They turned out amazing. I highly recommend this recipe. I didn't do the five minute pre bake and many of my peaches sunk to the middle (mostly because I was lazy and didn't want to fuss with them) but they turned out a nice little fruity surprise when you bite into it.

MamaM said...

Hello dear sir. Mama here. LX (my son I told you about) loves peaches and we want to try these but, alas, the hubs is allergic to nuts.... NUTS I SAY! Im not quite ready to collect on the insurance policy yet, so is there an alternate to the almond meal? Otherwise, I should memorize the prison meatloaf recipe. We both died laughing at the shiv/dishwasher reference. Im telling ya, its the only time I can get him to watch a cooking video is if its yours.

Unknown said...

Can I make it and than save it for one week later? How can I save it? Thanks