I had financiers in a pastry shop in Montreal, never heard of them before, but they were really good. Turns out that fancy little rectangular tin isn’t just for looks; it’s literally where the name comes from. Financiers were created in 19th-century Paris by a baker named Lasne, whose shop sat near the stock exchange, and he deliberately reshaped an older nuns’ recipe called visitandine into small gold-bar-shaped rectangles to appeal to the bankers nearby who needed something quick and clean to eat between trades.
Taste-wise, it’s pretty close to what you’d expect from an almond cake. It’s very moist, kind of like a hybrid muffin and cake, and the pear and almond combination in this version works really well with that base.
(Experiment 239) Financier pear almonds
Ingredients
- 4 egg whites
- 1 pear peeled and diced
- 60 g flour
- 60 g almond flour
- dash vanilla extract
- 120 g icing sugar
- 75 g melted butter
- some sliced almonds
- optional Chocolate chips
Instructions
- In a stand mixer, put the eggs in and whisk until they form peaks. Add all the remaining ingredients and keep stirring until well combined.
- Preheat oven to 350F. You could use a large tin but here Iām using a muffin tin. Just more practical to have an individual portion at hand. Top with some sliced almonds and cook for about 15minutes.
- Let cool 10 minutes before removing it from the tin.
