May 22, 2008

HAZELNUT FINANCIERS

In my last post I used hazelnuts in a pasta and spinach dish. Well after having made that, I had plenty of hazelnuts leftover and was dying to make some use of them. When I opened the fridge I saw we had one lonely egg, probably crying out my name, and without thinking twice I cracked that egg and decided to go ahead and make a small portion of financiers. Financiers are delicious pastries traditionally made from almonds, eggwhites and other good stuff. I have always loved almond based sweets- just to state a few: amaretti, nougats, marzipan, amygdalota (please see Peter’s great post on this one) but I realized that hazelnuts may turn out as delicious.

If the name “financiers” contains the word “finance” in them, then it may be for a reason. Legend says that financiers were created by a patissier called “Lasne”. He wanted to come up with a delicacy for finance men that would not leave a mess behind or leave their hands all greasy and covered with crumbs. Today, you can find financiers alongside madeleines, brioches, croissants etc in almost any boulangerie and patisserie in France. They are wonderful plain or with fruits, chocolates and other sweet ingredients. Previously I have also substituted almonds with pistachios and what is great about financiers is that with a base recipe you can play around almost infinitely with the flavours and choice of nuts. I do need to admit though, that the hazelnut variation turned out to taste amazingly good, and for the sweet tooths out there do indulge and enjoy them with a bit of Nutella for a total hazelnut experience!

Recipe for hazelnut financiers:

2 egg whites
60 g fine sugar
10 g flour
10 g fecule
50 g ground powdered hazelnuts
25 g butter

Making it:
Preheat oven to 180C. In a bowl whisk the egg whites and gradually add the sugar (as if you were making a meringue). Then add the flour, fecule, and powdered hazelnuts. Mix well. Follow with the melted butter and mix. Fill in your moulds with the batter and bake for 15 mins.

Bookmark and Share

11 comments:

Peter G | Souvlaki For The Soul said...

So much nut cooking in the blogosphere!...These look great Marianna and very easy. I like the base recipe so I can add other ingredients as well.

Peter M said...

Marianna (that's with a rrrrolling Greek R), you nutty gal!

I love hazel nuts and the financiers look divine, very resourceful of you.

If I may ask, what is "fecule"?

Anonymous said...

i adore hazelnuts! especially with chocolate. they look great. i really am craving cakes so bad now but i can't bake em for a while...new house rule. sob.

Bakerette said...

Marianna, I'm so glad you found my blog because I totally love yours. These financiers look incredible!! About the Macarons, I am so excited to hear about what happened with yours, maybe we can compare notes...my e-mail is on my blog under "contact", if you feel up to giving it another go, let me know, Basma.

Susan from Food Blogga said...

Hazlenuts often get overlooked, don't they? You really make them a star here! Your financiers are just lovely.

Deborah said...

These look divine. And I never knew where their name came from!

Nina Timm said...

I egg! and you create this.....you're a genius, Marianna. Well done.

Anonymous said...

Delicious! Hazelnuts are my new favourite nuts.

test it comm said...

Nice photos! The hazelnut financiers sound really good!

Cannelle Et Vanille said...

Can't go wrong with hazelnut financiers! LOvely photos!

Helene said...

Love financiers and hazelnuts financiers totally make sense!