Pistachio financiers

Just in case I haven't yet persuaded you to use your leftover egg whites to make financiers, here I am again with another version.  I went with pistachio this time.

Is it just me or do you also gravitate towards things pistachio-flavored when you go to a bakery or pastry shop?  Is it the color?  Or maybe just that it's a little bit more unusual, a flavor we're less likely to make at home?  Whatever the reason - when we go to a bakery, it's always chocolate, coffee, and pistachio that we go for (and hazelnut as well for me)!  Like with macarons - we can never resist trying a pistachio one and for some reason, we always end up raving about it (whereas chocolate macarons can be unpredictable and even disappointing)!

I went with my favorite financier recipe from Paris Sweets and simply made a little change using mostly ground pistachios instead of almonds in the batter. I could have swapped out all the almonds with pistachios but decided to keep a little bit of almonds in the batter to anchor the whole thing.  I was thinking about macarons and how even if you're making a flavored macaron, like hazelnut for instance, you often still use a bit of ground almonds to balance out the higher fat content from the other nut.  I don't think that's a concern when it comes to financiers but I was in the mood to mix things up.

I like making the batter the night before (or up to 3 days ahead) and baking these tea cakes fresh for breakfast the next day.  My fellas love them!  I generally prefer savory when it comes to the first meal of the day but this is one sweet item I enjoy savoring over breakfast.

So...pistachio financiers with a cup of coffee for breakfast, it was! They were just delicious.  Now, I know you have no problems using up any egg whites you might have for omelets and whatnot but...please...give financiers a try one day if you haven't already.  I don't think you'll regret it!

Hazelnut financiers

Oh, I love financiers!  I've sang their praises before and I'm here to do it again.  It's pretty startling to me how something so plain looking could taste so surprisingly delicious!

Their deliciousness has a lot to do with browned butter. I say that as a person who does not automatically swoon at the sound of those words.  All I know is that the browned butter really works and packs a ton of flavor here.  In financiers, it creates the most delicious flavor, a nuttiness that's accentuated by a generous amount of ground nuts.  In this case, I used hazelnuts instead of almonds.

Even though I am in no way any sort of professional blogger, I still like to try new things so I have something to post and write about here (not to mention, have something new to taste and discover).  That said, I do frequently make our family favorites - most of which are recipes I've discovered thanks to starting this blog.  Since I made financiers the first time last September, it's been one of my favorite ways to take adventure of extra egg whites (from, say, making ice cream).  And I love this recipe from Dorie Greenspan where you essentially stir the batter together over the stove-top.  It just requires a little patience or advance planning since the batter needs to chill for at least an hour.  I usually put it together in the evening to bake the following morning so that we can enjoy fresh baked financiers for breakfast.  They are golden, crisp (the edges are so crisp!), and just scrumptious freshly cooled from the oven!

So in the interest of posting something "new", I thought I'd revisit financiers and make a hazelnut version.  I love hazelnuts and baking with nuts in general (my son seems to take no offense to the presence of nuts when they are ground up).  Financiers usually come in a variety of flavors - from almonds, hazelnuts to pistachio, chestnut and chocolate - so there are plenty of variations to try.  I was really tempted to try pistachio (for some reason, I'm always drawn to that flavor when I buy treats) but I had hazelnuts on hand and it never disappoints me.  And considering how the French call browned butter, beurre noisette, or "hazelnut butter", hazelnuts are a natural partner.

I also thought I'd make mini financiers this time.  We all love things, particularly desserts, in miniature, don't we?  I baked the little guys in a mini muffin tin.  They are done in about 10 minutes when they puff up, spring back lightly to the touch, and the sides are golden.  Let the little cakes cool to room temperature and enjoy them - those golden corners are crunchy against the moist and very flavorful center.

I added a dab of Nutella to a few of my mini hazelnut financiers.  They're actually better without it since the Nutella flavor is strong and, believe me, you want to enjoy the full flavor of the financiers themselves.  I do love stuffing the regular almond financiers with chestnut cream.  I think that works really well because the sweet nuttiness of chestnut cream is milder.  

Last minute cake

I'm calling this "Last Minute Cake" because it is, seriously, so easy to put together that you can make it at the last minute, on a whim, or whenever the need arises.  It's actually a lemony almond cake - a simple, casual, everyday cake you might just pick up and snack on or have with a cup of tea.

Making this cake really requires very little to no advance planning.  It helps to have a lemon and some sliced almonds on hand (and I very often do, luckily) but I think the recipe is adaptable and you could play around with what you have on hand.  As far as the batter goes, it gets mixed by hand within a matter of minutes.   I decided to make this one Saturday night recently when we decided to stay in for dinner.  It was already about 3 o'clock in the afternoon and I started getting some tomatoes ready to roast for pasta and dessert was on my mind.

This was one of the easiest recipes I could think of and comes from Dorie Greenspan's book, Baking: From My Home to Yours.  It's actually called Swedish Visiting Cake in the book, referring to the source of the recipe, a friend of Dorie's whose mom would whip this cake up when she saw guests arriving.  That made me consider calling this "Unexpected Company Cake" too.  But what really attracted me to this cake was the description of it as "soft, chewy, moist and reminiscent of cakes made with almond paste."  I love almond paste so I knew I had to try this recipe one day.

With just the 3 of us for dinner and plenty of dessert-making in my future, I divided the recipe in half and made a teeny 6-inch cake.  The cake is meant to be baked in a 9-inch cast iron skillet (that you can serve the cake directly in), which I don't have (need to work on that).  But you can also make this in a buttered cake or pie pan so again, it's quite versatile.  Without any chemical leaveners (i.e., baking powder/soda) in the recipe, the cake is fairly thin.  The texture is moist in the center, contrasted with a crisp top and edge thanks in part to a scattering of almond slices and some granulated sugar on the surface.  Lemon zest adds freshness to the buttery flavor and almond extract together with the almonds contribute the almond flavor.  It's not quite as moist and robust in flavor as a true almond paste cake but it is similar! 

You just can't beat how easy this cake is to make.  I had it done that Saturday night in well under an hour from beginning to end.  After we enjoyed our pasta with roasted tomatoes for dinner (I couldn't resist including a picture of it here), a small wedge of this cake was a nice way to end the dinner on a sweet note.

Another bonus point for this cake is it keeps well so you can wrap it tightly and enjoy it over the course of about 5 days.  I love cakes like that!