Bea’s Bars of Gold
Even when I’m happy with a recipe that I have, I am always willing to try new ones to see how they compare. This weekend, it was the world of financiers that I ventured into again.
The same type of baked good, the result was vastly different to what I had expected - not that this is a bad thing!
The usual recipe that I used to create these little golden delights (they are meant to be bars, but as I lack the equipment, I just use mini muffin tins) is one by Clotilde from the famous Chocolate and Zucchini blog, however, months ago I had seen a post by Bea at La Tartine Gourmande about the same mini-cake, though the recipe was quite different! The results looked amazing, so I wrote the recipe down in my little ‘must try’ book, and promptly forgot all about it.
Until this weekend. Whilst giving the pantry a bit of a clean out, I found a half-used packet of hazelnut meal and then recalled that Bea’s financier recipe called for this particular ingredient! Since I could think of no other way to use it up, I stopped cleaning and started baking 
The crumb is vastly different to my regular recipe, but both are delish and loved by my family
The texture of these is a lot thicker, cakier and slightly drier than Clotilde’s recipe, but they’re also softer on the outside as Clotilde’s always develop a sugary crust enveloping a fluffy, cloud-like interior. Whilst I wouldn’t call them a new favourite, I definetely do love these as well, and will keep both in my repetoire to be made again in the future
Plain Vanilla Financiers (from Bea at La Tartine Gourmande)
Ingredients (makes about 30 in mini muffin moulds)
4 egg whites at room temperature
1 cup almond meal
3 tbsp hazelnut meal
1/2 cup + 1 tbsp plain (all-purpose) flour
135g butter
1 1/2 cup pure icing sugar
1 tsp vanilla extract or paste
1. Sift togeter flour and sugar, then mix in the almond and hazelnut meals.
2. Melt butter in a small saucepan, continuing to heat it till it browns. Filter out the milk solids using a coffee filter, then add the clarified liquid to the dry flour mix.
3. Beat the egg whites till foamy (just before the soft peaks stage), then add to batter and gently mix in till combined. Set aside to rest for at least 1 hour.
4. Preheat oven to 180 degrees C, and prepare baking containers - if using financier moulds then butter then and dust them with flour. If using non-stick silicone moulds, just give them a very light brush with some room temperature butter. Spoon into moulds till 3/4 full, then bake for 15-20 minutes, or till tops are lightly golden.
5. Cool in the tin, then pop out and enjoy
Soft, thick and delicious, these would be the perfect treat for a tea party
Technorati Tags: financiers, friands, muffins, recipes
If you enjoyed this post, please consider to leave a comment or subscribe to the feed and get future articles delivered to your feed reader.
Comments
Kat These look great and hazelnut meal, never heard of it before, always learning something new!
Bea at La Tartine Gourmande How lovely. I am glad to see you tried the financiers and more even, that you liked them! Well done!
Lis They look delicious! Perfect poppers for snacking in my humble opinion! heee! Glad to hear you got out of the rest of the cleaning. 
Ellie Kalyn - Ooo, sounds quite interesting! I’ve never used any sugar replacements in my cooking before, but it would be a good way to cut down on my calorie intake!
Kat - Hazelnut meal is exactly like almond flour, except made out of hazelnuts 
Glad you like the look of these!
Brilynn - Good idea! I have no raspberry jam, but strawberry might suffice for now
Bea - Thanks And thank you for posting such deliciousness - I must get round to trying more of your wares!
Lis - They’re dangerous, the perfect size for popping into your mouth means that every time you walk through the kitchen, you leave chewing on one of these 
Ari (Baking and Books) These look and sound delicious! I’ve seen something similar in my Paris Sweets cookbook but havent given it a go yet.
ilingc Hey… I’ve never tried hazelnut meal before. I’ve seen them at the shops but didn’t occur to me that you could do the same thing with them as the almonds (duhh silly me!)
Quick question, ever wonder why some of the friands break/crack a little at the top when they come out of the oven and some of them don’t? I’ve been trying to figure it out and can’t work out why? The only thing I can think of is maybe I stirred the batter too much and there’s too much air in the mixture? What do you think?
Ellie Peabody - It should be easy enough to find, try the same are in your grocery store where you find the ground almond powder
Krista - They’re quite tasty The photos are nowhere near Bea’s amazing photographs, but thanks for the compliment
Ari - Ohhh, you should definetely give these a try! They are most delish and wonderful with a warm drink
Iling - It has a slightly different consistancy to the almond meal, it’s a tiny bit coarser and drier, but I think they can be used kind of interchangeably. I sent you an email about the cracking thing
Helen Now, if you use the big guns…I love Financiers. They are so tender, flavorful, and so easy to (over)eat. Looks great, thanks for sharing the recipe!
Ellie Helen - My pleasure These are definetely easy to overeat - to the point where I’ve asked my mother to hide them from me so I don’t keep munching on them!
I’ve used almond meal a little for baking, and this looks interesting to try. I’d substitute whole wheat pastry flour and use Splenda to make it fit my diet, so that would be an interesting experiment.