Chocolate Financiers
From 'Bouchon Bakery' by Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel
Financiers are delicious little cakes made with almond flour, brown butter, and egg whites. These French desserts are known for their crackly, slightly crispy exterior, and soft interior. The chocolate financiers caught my eye as I was flipping through the ‘Bouchon Bakery’ cookbook. I knew I had to try them right away.
The key to the chocolate financiers is definitely the butter. Melting and reducing the butter until it is golden brown, then mixing it into the batter contributes to the nuttiness of the cakes. Although it added a few minutes to the prep, browning the butter was well worth the (little) extra effort. The recipe asked for a mixture of 100% unsweetened cacao and 70% bittersweet cacao but, I only had 67% cacao dark chocolate on hand. I used what I had, and the cakes were still plenty chocolaty without being too sweet.
I didn’t have mini muffin tins to make the 16 financiers the recipe called for, so I used a regular muffin tin and made 9 cakes. To compensate for the larger muffin tin size, I baked the cakes a few minutes longer than the recipe indicated. They still turned out well baked and yielded the signature slightly raised and crispy exterior. Overall, I was very pleased with how these little chocolate financiers turned out. Maybe I should try the regular financiers next… Stay tuned for more!