I was thrilled to see so many of you make the Glazed Donut Cake from last week! I was also thrilled to learn that so many of you also shared my great fondness for the early aughts classic romcom, My Big Fat Greek Wedding. I cannot vouch for the sequels…
This week’s recipe is a riff on a classic French treat, the financier. Financier are individual moist almond cakes made with browned butter, yum! Because of their size they have crisp, chewy edges and soft tender centers. Sometimes they have fruit or berries in them, sometimes some sliced almonds on the top. They are exceptionally cute and just as delicious.
They are also very easy to make. The batter comes together with one bowl and one pan (to brown the butter). You do have to separate eggs, which I usually do not condone for an everyday snacky recipe, but I trust you will find something to do with your precious egg yolks: ice cream? or lemon curd? Share your favorite ways to use egg yolks in the comments!
Instead of making individual cakes (which I find to be tedious, mostly because I hate washing little cake pans…), you can just plop all of the batter into one pan and go. The finished cake looks and tastes more elegant than the word “plop” suggests. The only tradeoff is that there is a bit less of that chewy edge, but they make up for it in ease and dishes, which is a sacrifice I am happy to make.
A little slice of this with an afternoon tea or coffee is just the thing to get you through the last few hours of a long workday, but this would also be a delicious dessert. You know I love an easy to make, multipurpose baked good that is very adaptable…
You can substitute the almond flour and almonds here with just about any nut you like. I tried a version with pistachios and frozen cherries that worked beautifully and tasted amazing. I bet hazelnuts or walnuts with sliced plums would be incredible.