Lovely things come in small packages, that’s what my mum always used to say, she was right, look at these exquisite little chocolate cakes. Moist from the ground almond, flavoured with beurre noisette and vanilla, light and yet they have a crisp exterior. You cannot fail to love them.
When I’ve catered for parties over the years, these have always worked so well as an after dinner treat. I have made them with a number of different flavour combinations, pistachios or Seville orange marmalade and even raspberries work really well.
*The mixture will keep quite happily in the fridge for up to 5 days, alternatively you can freeze the baked cakes for up to 3 months. A very useful and delicious treat to have on hand.
Chocolate Financiers
Ingredients
- 30 g Plain flour
- 65 g Ground almonds
- 110 g Caster sugar
- 115 g Egg white approx. 3 large egg whites.
- 1 tsp Vanilla extract
- 15 g Cocoa
- 50 g 70% Dark chocolate
- 100 g Unsalted butter
Instructions
1. Ideally, make this mixture the day before you need it and refrigerate over night however I have baked the financiers after 3-4 hours in the fridge. Begin by making the beurre noisette or burnt butter. Place the butter in a saucepan and set the heat to medium, the butter will melt then foam, keep an eye on this stage, the foam will then subside and you'll begin to smell a nutty aroma, remove from the heat when the butter as turned a light golden brown, there'll be burnt milk solids at the bottom of the pan, strain and set to one side.
2. Chop the chocolate into small pieces and add to the burnt butter after it has cooled for 10 minutes along with the vanilla extract, stir until smooth. If the butter has cooled too much and the chocolate doesn't melt, pop it in the microwave for several seconds.
3. Combine the flour, ground almonds, cocoa and sugar. Pour the butter mixture into the dry ingredients and stir.
4. Finally add the egg white, stir well, cover and place in the fridge over night.
5. Preheat the oven to 180C. Grease and lightly flour the tin and fill them with the mixture and bake for 12-14 minutes. Remove the cakes from the oven and cool in the tin.
Notes
If you would like to flavour these chocolate financiers, here are my suggestions.
- Add 1 1/2 Tbl Seville orange marmalade, chop the orange peel if it’s chunky. Cut back on the caster sugar in the recipe by 20g and omit the vanilla extract.
- Top with a raspberry just before placing in the oven.
- Top with unsalted chopped pistachio nuts just before placing in the oven.
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