Pear Financiers Recipes

PEACH FINANCIERS

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 400 degrees F. Generously butter a 12-muffin mini-muffin tin. Add a pinch of flour to each cup; shake to coat bottoms.
• Melt butter in a saucepan over medium heat. The melted butter will get foamy. Keep pan moving to prevent burning, but continue toasting butter until it turns golden brown, about 4 minutes. Remove from heat.
• Whisk egg whites and sugar together in a large bowl. Whisk until sugar dissolves and egg whites get thick and foamy, 2 or 3 minutes. Mix in almond meal, flour, vanilla, and salt. Whisk in browned butter.
• Fill muffin cups almost to the cop. Tap pan to eliminate any air bubbles.
• Bake 5 minutes. Remove pan from oven, and top financiers with small pieces of peach. Transfer pan back to oven. Continue baking until browned, 10 to 12 more minutes.
• Let cool at least 10 minutes before removing from the pan.

FINANCIERS (FRENCH ALMOND TEA CAKES)

Steps:

• Preheat your oven on 160'C/325'F and grease a Financier Pan (see note 1). Optionally, flour the pan too.
• Mak the Brown Butter: place your butter in a small saucepan and turn on low to medium low heat. Cook until the butter has completely melted and starts to get foamy. Keep on cooking, occasionally stirring, the melted butter starts to turn golden and releases a nutty aroma, and you can see small brown specks at the bottom of the saucepan (see note 2). It should take about 5 to 8 minutes. Set aside to cool down.
• In a large bowl, sift together the Flour, Almond Meal, Icing Sugar and Salt. Mix to combine.
• In a separate bowl, lightly whisk the Egg Whites until slightly froathy (see note 3).
• Add the cooled Brown Butter, Egg Whites and Vanilla to the dry ingredients. Whisk until just combined.
• Place the batter in a piping bag and pipe into a Financier Pan (or simply spoon/scoop it). Spread with the back of a spoon if needed, then top with Flaked Almonds (optional).
• Bake for about 20min, or until lightly golden. Take out of the oven and leave for about 10 minutes before removing from the financier pan (see note 4). Leave on a cooling rack until cold

PEAR FINANCIERS

Steps:

• Make the browned butter: Melt 1 stick butter in a medium saucepan over medium-high heat and cook until it begins to bubble. Reduce the heat to medium and cook, swirling the pan, until the butter turns golden and smells nutty, about 3 minutes. Remove from the heat and let cool.
• Whisk both flours, 1/2 cup brown sugar and the salt in a medium bowl. Beat the egg whites in a large bowl with a mixer on high speed until stiff peaks form; stir in the vanilla. Fold in the browned butter and the dry ingredients, then cover the batter with plastic wrap and refrigerate 1 hour.
• Preheat the oven to 350˚ F. Butter a 12-cup muffin pan. Melt the remaining 2 tablespoons butter and combine in a large bowl with the pears and remaining 2 tablespoons brown sugar; toss. Divide the batter among the muffin cups; top each with 3 pear slices. Bake until puffed and golden, 12 to 14 minutes. Let cool 5 minutes in the pan, then remove to a rack to cool completely. Dust with confectioners' sugar.

CRANBERRY PEAR HAZELNUT FINANCIER

Steps:

• Preheat oven to 350°F. and butter and flour a 9- by 2-inch round cake pan.
• Spread hazelnuts in a shallow baking pan and toast in oven until they begin to turn pale golden, 7 to 10 minutes. Cool hazelnuts completely. Discard any hazelnut skins that rub off easily. Increase oven temperature to 400°F.
• Peel and core pear. Chop pear coarse and in a bowl toss with cranberries and 1/4 cup sugar.
• In a food processor grind nuts with remaining 3/4 cup sugar, flour, and salt until fine.
• In a bowl with an electric mixer beat whites with a pinch salt until they just hold stiff peaks and fold in nut mixture gently but thoroughly. Fold in butter and vanilla (the batter will deflate) and spread batter evenly in cake pan. Arrange fruit mixture evenly over batter and bake in middle of oven 40 to 45 minutes, or until a tester comes out clean.
• Cool cake in pan on a rack 5 minutes and invert onto a plate. Cool cake, fruit side up, on rack until ready to serve.
• Sprinkle cake with confectioners' sugar and serve warm or at room temperature with whipped cream or ice cream.