Financiers with Gold Leaf
April 12, 2017
“financiers”
These are my small golden almond cakes, glazed white and topped with zest and flecks of gold leaf, stacked on a gold-rimmed plate.
The financier is a small French cake made with almond flour, egg whites and beurre noisette, which is butter cooked until the milk solids turn nut brown. The story goes that a nineteenth-century Paris baker near the stock exchange shaped them like gold bars for his banker customers, hence the name. They should be crisp at the edges and moist in the middle, with the toasted, nutty flavor of the browned butter up front. And gold leaf on a cake named for financiers is a good joke, if I say so myself.
This article is written in Corey’s voice for this tribute site, based on his captions and blog. His own words are the quotes above.
Brown Butter Financiers
Financiers are small French almond cakes made with egg whites and browned butter. They are credited to a 19th-century Parisian pastry cook named Lasne, whose shop stood near the stock exchange and who baked them in the shape of gold bars for his banker customers, building on an older almond cake made by the Visitandine nuns of Lorraine. A good one has crisp, dark edges and a moist, nutty center.
Ingredients
Batter
- 170 g unsalted butter (3/4 cup), plus soft butter for the molds
- 180 g powdered sugar (1 1/2 cups)
- 100 g almond flour (1 cup)
- 70 g all-purpose flour (1/2 cup plus 1 tablespoon)
- 2 g fine sea salt (rounded 1/4 teaspoon)
- 180 g egg whites, room temperature (from about 6 large eggs)
- 5 g pure vanilla extract (1 teaspoon)
Citrus glaze (optional)
- 120 g powdered sugar (1 cup)
- 25 to 30 g fresh lemon or orange juice (about 2 tablespoons)
- Finely grated zest of 1 lemon or 1/2 orange
Method
- Melt the butter in a light-colored saucepan over medium heat and keep cooking, swirling often, as it foams. When the foam subsides, the milk solids on the bottom are hazelnut brown and the butter smells nutty, pour it into a bowl at once, scraping in the browned bits. Cool until warm but still liquid.
- Sift the powdered sugar, almond flour, all-purpose flour and salt into a bowl and whisk to combine.
- Add the unwhipped egg whites and vanilla and stir with a whisk until you have a smooth paste. Mix only to combine; the whites should not be beaten to a foam.
- Pour in the warm brown butter in three additions, stirring until each is fully absorbed and the batter is glossy.
- Press plastic wrap onto the surface and refrigerate for at least 1 hour and up to 3 days. Rested batter bakes with a better dome and a more even crumb.
- Heat the oven to 400°F (200°C). Brush the molds generously with soft butter, then pipe or spoon in the cold batter to fill each about three-quarters full.
- Bake for 12 to 15 minutes for standard molds, or 10 to 12 minutes for mini muffin size, until the edges are deep brown and the centers spring back when pressed.
- Rest for 2 minutes, then unmold onto a rack while still hot so the crust stays crisp.
- For the glaze, whisk the powdered sugar with the juice and zest until it is thin enough to brush. Brush it over the tops of the warm financiers and return them to the turned-off oven for 1 to 2 minutes, until the glaze sets to a thin, translucent shell.
Chef’s notes
- Butter goes from brown to burnt in seconds. Use a pale pan so you can see the color of the solids, and get it out of the hot pan the moment it is ready.
- If the financiers are greasy or have a dense layer at the bottom, the butter was added too hot or too fast and the batter did not emulsify. Add it warm, in stages, stirring until smooth each time.
- Sticking is nearly always a mold that was not buttered thoroughly. Metal molds give the crispest edges; silicone releases easily but browns less.
- Financiers are at their best within a few hours of baking, while the edges are crisp. The batter keeps well, so bake only what you need.
Drawn from the methods of
- Pierre Hermé, Maison Pierre Hermé Paris
- Ferrandi Paris, French Pâtisserie (2017)
- Thomas Keller and Sebastien Rouxel, Bouchon Bakery (2012)
Corey has not published his own formula for this piece. This reference recipe is compiled from the published methods of the chefs and bakers listed above, written in our own words.
