Chocolate Financiers made in an unsual and hopefully easier version.
I used unsweetened cocoa powder in place of dark chocolate. And baking soda in place of baking powder for cakes.
Using baking soda together with an acid compound (in this case buttermilk) is pretty common in the US but not over here, as we normally use baking powder for rising.
I like using buttermilk because it gives that moisture that often lacks in these kind of cakes.
In the financier classic recipe buerre noisette (brown butter) is used. I tried using it as well but the intense flavor of the cocoa powder was covering it, making it redundant. I opted for a more simple melted butter.
This is a chocolate financiers easy recipe and the ingredients are easy to find.
Home made buttermilk
Whip 250g of cream until it turn into butter, it should take about 20 minutes. The liquid part that separates is buttermilk. Filter through a strainer and press the solid part to squeeze all the juice out.
From 250g of cream you should get about 120g of buttermilk.
To make these little chocolate financiers I used a mold for mini-muffins. It is possible to use a mold for normal muffin, just add a couple of minutes of baking.
Chocolate Financiers
Ingredients
- 120 g almond flour 4.2 oz
- 190 g confectioner sugar 6.7 oz
- 75 g unsweetened cocoa powder 2.6 oz
- 160 g egg whites 5.6 oz
- 120 g buttermilk 4.6 oz
- 100 g butter 3.5 oz
- 70 g flour 2.5 oz
- 10 g baking soda approx 2 tsp (0.35 oz)
- pinch of salt
- confectioner sugar for sprinkling
Instructions
- Preheat the oven at 220° C (428° F).
- Melt the butter.
- In the bowl of the stand mixer fitted with paddle attachment (or in a large bowl using a whisk) combine almond flour, confectioner sugar, cocoa powder and salt.
- Add the egg whites. When they are incorporated add the buttermilk.
- Drizzle in the melted butter while the mixer is going.
- Sift together the flour and baking soda, and add them to the mixture.
- Transfer the batter in a pastry bag without tip.
- Fill each cup of a mini muffin mold to ¾ of its capacity (they will raise during baking).
- Bake at 220° C (428° F) for 5 minutes. Then lower the temperature to 200° C (392° F) and bake for another 6 minutes.
- Take out of the oven and let them cool off 10 minutes before placing each finacier on a cooling rack.
- Sprinkle some confectioner sugar before serving.