Chocolate-Almond Financiers

I think I'm getting an obsession to gluten-free baking and cooking. It sounds weird, I know, but seriously, I'm always looking up new recipes and information and trying to learn as much as I can about it and I think I buy a new type of flour every time I go to the grocery store (hehe sorry dad...). Oh, and when I'm eating I randomly think about how I COULDN'T eat that food if I had a gluten allergy. I'm a weirdo, I know, but ANYWAYS, the good part about this story is that my dear friend Emily who has celiac disease gets to sample some of my recipes and experiments and I get to feed some of my curiosity. Win-win right? Oh yeah, and all of youuu readers get to hear the stories and see the pictures (the semi-decent ones at least) and you get the low down on some gluten-free recipes. I'd say this is a pretty good deal.
So are you now totally excited for this recipe from Gluten-Free Girl??? Well, to tell you the truth, I wouldn't get TOO excited since I didn't think these chocolate financiers were as amazing as I'd been all hyped up about, BUT they were still very nice, especially if you like brownies. They reminded me a lot of brownies with a crunchy exterior and a crumbly, nutty interior. I love how they were really quick and easy and used up some of my extra egg whites, but I think next time I'll follow some other bloggers' advice to brown the butter for extra flavor and maybe some vanilla extract will be added as well. Any other ideas for how to make these babies "pop" a little more would be much appreciated, but in the meantime, these really are a nice little GF treat that anybody would love to try!

(Oh, and for those of you who are wondering, like I was, a financier is just a mini cake-like thing that has a batter made with nut flour, egg whites, and butter (usually browned). So these don't really have to be any particular shape or design.)

INGREDIENTS:

§  1 stick butter

§  1 cup almond meal/flour

§  ¾ cup powdered sugar

§  4 Tbsp cocoa powder, Dutch-processed if possible

§  1/8 tsp salt

§  1/3 cup egg whites

§  ¼ tsp almond extract

§  ¼ tsp vanilla extract

§  Extra powdered sugar for dusting

PREPARATION:

1.       Cut off 2 Tbsp of butter from the whole stick and place in small microwaveable bowl. Take the remaining 8 Tbsp and place in a saucepan or skillet over medium heat. Cook the butter in the pan until it has melted, stopped foaming, and has browned lightly. While the butter is cooking, melt the other 2 Tbsp in the bowl in the microwave. Set the browned butter aside to cool and use the 2 Tbsp of butter to grease 12 financier molds or a mini muffin tin.

2.       Preheat the oven to 400 F. Combine all of the dry ingredients in a medium mixing bowl (this can be done with a fork or whisk, a stand mixer is not necessary unless you make a large batch).  

3.      Stir in the egg whites and the extracts until smooth and then gradually add the browned butter and stir until uniform.

4.      Spoon a heaping Tbsp of batter into each mold (or fill the muffin tins about 2/3 full) and place the molds on a baking sheet and place in the middle of the oven and bake for 10-15 minutes, until the cakes are puffed and slightly springy to the touch. 12 minutes was perfect for me. The edges might look a bit dark, but that’s okay.

5.      Remove from the oven and cool completely on a wire rack before removing from the molds/tins. Before serving, dust the top lightly with powdered sugar.

Makes about 12 cakes.

I just used a fork to mix this batter up and

 it worked fine, easy clean-up!

I used these fun little molds for my financiers,

but a mini muffin tin willwork fine too, just

adjust the amount of batter you use and

the baking time as needed. Also, if you use

molds with fancy edges, make sure to clean

them out REALLY well so that no gluten is

hiding in the ridges from a previous use

Fill them up pretty full so that they bake

over the edges and form a grip for you to

remove them once they are cooled and

that way you don't have to ruin the edges

Baking them on a sheet pan just makes

everything much easier

The edges are a little dark,

but that's okay, you want them

a little crispy so that there

is contrast between the exterior

and the crumbly, cake-like

interior

The powdered sugar dresses these cakes

up a little bit and makes them more

interesting, but you could also try a

drizzle of ganache or whatever else

you think would be pretty

Add some of these to your GF tea-time snack spread!