Chocolate Financiers; elegant fluffy almond cakes with rich chocolate ganache decoration. Proper fancy.
Making something taste delicious isn’t too difficult. Throw enough butter at something and it’s destined for greatness. Making something look delicious is a different skill entirely.
It’s one I am not even close to perfecting, if we’re being honest. While I can guarantee to make, and teach you how to make, wonderful treats and baked goods, the aesthetics are something yet to be mastered.
Of course, looks are far from essential when learning new techniques. Nailing tastes and textures are always more important. In fact, many of our favourite foods are some of the least-photogenic. Oil-slicked sugared doughnuts, cheesy pasta bowls, our family’s Sunday dinners, late night kebabs. In fact, I like it that way.
However, when learning to make some recipes, there’s nowhere to hide when it comes to appearances. Much of the appeal of classic French patisserie is its cleanness, its neatness, and its simplicity. If you mess up, it’s noticeable. If you don’t have steady hands, it’s noticeable. If you over-cook anything by even a minute, it’s noticeable.
I’ve learned this the hard way in the latest series of YouTube videos I’ve been creating, in which I teach myself how to be a pastry chef without any formal training. Yeah, it’s not easy. I can’t even comfortably disclose how many tiny homemade jellies I’ve had to immediately bin.
Some recipes in Le Cordon Bleu’s Pastry book, the one I’ve chosen to tackle in full, are much more forgiving though. They allow you to practice all the enviable finesse of patisserie, without the stress of a single touch ruining everything. I’m looking at you, souffle.
The Chocolate Financiers you see before you are a prime example. Delicate, fluffy, almond-based chocolate cakes. Both light and bold in their flavour, under an addictive sweetness. Piped with thick, but still vaguely elegant, chocolate ganache. Oh, and some chocolate buttons on top. You can take the girl out of Britain…
These Chocolate Financiers are the kind of treats you can whip up fairly easily, but made them look like they took all day. Forgivingly fancy and surprisingly simple.
Most of the ingredients are regular fridge and cupboard fare, perhaps apart from ground almonds (hazelnuts would be even better). You’ll also find yourself with a few leftover egg yolks – which is never a bad thing in a world where custard exists. As ever, the only ingredients I’d recommend you to splash out on (if your budget allows) for these Chocolate Financiers is some nice chocolate. I don’t mean anything incredibly high end, but always try to use the best you can afford. Trust me, it’s the easiest way to make your bakes taste better with no extra effort.
As ever, I’d recommend Cocoa Runners for the best quality cooking chocolate. I used their cocoa powder in the financier batter, and their 63% chocolate to make the ganache, and decorate the finished financiers with. You can use code MaverickBaking10 for 10% off!
You’ll also need a wee financier tin for these Chocolate Financiers. These come in all shapes, sizes and materials. They are usually affordable, and can be use to make individual brownies or other small cakes or pies too! Financiers can also be made in a huge numbers of different flavours and textures, so you’ll get good use out of your tin.
I appreciate this isn’t your average Sunday afternoon recipe. However, I’d really recommend pushing out of your comfort zone in baking sometimes. It’s especially good in times of national restrictions (anything to break up the monotony sometimes eh?) and generally helps with kitchen confidence.
Whether you whip these up, or you just have a few minutes looking at the pretty pictures, I hope you enjoy. And don’t forget to check out the new episode featuring these financiers on the Maverick Baking YouTube channel soon!
Want to save these Chocolate Financiers for later? You can pin the image below:
To make these Chocolate Financiers, simply follow the recipe below:
Ingredients
For the chocolate financiers:
- 4 large egg whites
- 120g (scant 1 cup) icing sugar
- 50g (½ cup) ground almonds or hazelnuts
- 2 tbsp cocoa powder (I use Cocoa Runners’)
- 1 tbsp runny honey
- 75g (5 tbsp) salted butter, melted
- 30g (¼ cup) self-raising flour, or plain flour with a pinch of baking powder
For the chocolate ganache and decoration:
- 100ml (½ cup) double or whipping cream
- 100g (3 ½ oz) milk or dark chocolate pieces (I use Cocoa Runners’)
- Pinch of salt
- Milk or dark chocolate pieces to decorate (I use Cocoa Runners’)
Instructions
For the chocolate financiers:
- Preheat your oven – 200 C / 190 C fan / 400 F / gas mark 6.
- Grease the cavities of your financier tin with a little oil or soft butter.
- In a large bowl, whisk together your egg whites and sugar for 1 minute, or until well combined and a bit bubbly. Save the yolks for custard or ice cream!
- Whisk in the ground nuts, cocoa and honey until smooth and free of any lumps.
- Finally, stir in the melted butter and flour. You should have a smooth, liquid batter.
- Pour your batter evenly between 10-12 cavities of your financier tin.
- Bake in the preheated oven for 10-12 minutes. The financiers should be risen and firm to the touch.
- Remove the tin from the oven, allowing the financiers to cool for 10 minutes before removing them from their tin and cooling completely on a wire rack.
- Meanwhile, make your ganache and decoration.
For the chocolate ganache and decoration:
- Heat your cream – in a small saucepan over a medium heat or in the microwave – until gently steaming and hot to the touch.
- Add your chocolate pieces to the hot cream along with a pinch of salt. Allow to stand for 1 minute.
- Gently stir the mixture until you have a smooth chocolate sauce.
- Allow the ganache to cool and thicken into a soft but spreadable/pipeable consistency.
- Use a piping bag with a round nozzle to pipe blobs of chocolate ganache onto your cooled financiers. Otherwise, use a butter knife or palette knife to spread the ganache on.
- Decorate with some chocolate pieces.
- Enjoy!
BE A MAVERICK: why not push some raspberries into the batter before baking, and top these with some chopped hazelnuts?
These Chocolate Financiers will keep well in an airtight container for up to 3 days, but they are best enjoyed fresh! No need to refrigerate, unless you live in a warm climate.
