Raspberry and Lemon Curd Financiers
sounds fancy, but actually so easy to make!
Welcome back to The Foodloveletter! So glad you’re here.
So let’s talk about financiers. Sounds fancy right? Since I’m a total nerd for history and foreign languages, allow me to geek out here for a moment.
A financier (pronounced feenawnsieh) is a small French almond cake, flavoured with beurre noisette (literally ‘hazelnut butter‘) AKA brown butter. The egg whites, a central part to the recipe, give it a crisp exterior and a light, moist crumb.
There are two popular theories on how these little cakes got their name. One is that the traditional rectangular shape resembles a bar of gold, especially with its crisp edges and golden colour. The second being that the cake became popular in the financial district of Paris, because they could easily be kept in a banker’s pocket without getting damaged, as a snack for later. Mmm snack for later, I like this idea…
I’ll be honest with you and tell you it was pretty hard to put this newsletter together. There’s been A LOT happening in my life in the last month, and now that it’s finally happening, I can share a bit more with you.
I’m moving. No, not to another street, or another suburb or another city even. But to another country, another continent altogether. I’m excited to tell you all about it once I’m there, but in the meantime… wish me luck. I’m writing this to you as I pack, prep, plan and rearrange my life.
This is so perfectly me though, as I’ve always been a wanderer, curious to understand more about life and myself. Freedom and adventure are some of my core values, and I hope to share more of this part of myself with you as this newsletter grows.
Do you yearn for those travelling days too? When travel becomes more of an option, which place is at the top of your list?
So now to the recipes.
Before you worry about where to find small rectangular cake moulds, I’ll tell you that I just use a muffin tin. You can use a cupcake tin too. You could even use a bread tin and once baked, cut it into bars. Go wild. But not so wild that you use a silicone mould, it just doesn’t give the same crisp exterior, in my opinion.
This recipe is an adaptation of Ravneet Gill’s recipe for brown butter and chocolate chip financiers, which you can find here. Please do check out her recipes, there are so many good ones!
I was also inspired by Rachel Khoo’s TV show, The Little Paris Kitchen, where she makes raspberry and lemon curd madeleines, filling the raspberries with lemon curd while still warm. Although the show is from several years ago, I still find it so inspiring how she managed to pull off a cooking show from her teeny tiny Paris apartment. Makes me remember that you can do pretty much anything if you set your mind to it.
Similar to the last newsletter, this one has a main recipe and another *optional* recipe. I put that word between asterisks because although the lemon curd recipe I’m going to give you is technically optional, I HIGHLY recommend not leaving it out, as these financiers are just not the same without it, and, AND, there are so many things you can do with lemon curd (put it on your breakfast yoghurt, ice cream, eat straight from the jar, gift to someone really special - be warned, they will want more - etc).
The lemon curd recipe is also adapted from Ravneet’s amazing cookbook The Pastry Chef’s Guide, a really good one if you’re into baking and you want to get the basics right, mixing and matching them to form your own creations.
I promised you process shots for this newsletter, but sadly there just wasn’t time this month. If you have any questions on the method, just leave a comment or give me a shout at mia.everson@gmail.com.
As mentioned last month, I’ll be adding what feels right, and music always feels right. I’m definitely feeling French and fancy while I think of these beautiful little almond cakes, so I’ve included a really great playlist by Florence Given, who you should definitely follow on Instagram.
xxx
LEMON CURD
makes approx. 350g
1/2 gelatine leaf (you can find them at most grocery stores)
60ml lemon juice, plus the zest
125g sugar
80g butter
2 eggs
1. Soak gelatine in a little cold water.
2. Put the juice, zest, sugar and butter in a small saucepan or pot and place over a low heat until the butter is melted and the sugar dissolved.
3. Whisk the eggs lightly in a separate bowl.
4. Slowly pour the warm lemon mixture over the eggs, while constantly whisking. Pour everything back into the pot and place over a low-medium heat. Cook for 10-15 minutes until thick enough to coat the back of a spoon. Remove from the heat.
5. Squeeze the excess water out of the gelatine and mix it into the curd until completely dissolved.
6. Transfer to a bowl or glass Tupperware and cover the surface directly with plastic wrap (otherwise it’ll form a skin, and we don’t want that).
7. Keep in the fridge once cooled to room temperature.
RASPBERRY AND LEMON CURD FINANCIER
makes 12
120g butter, plus extra for greasing
150g icing sugar
70g ground almonds
75g cake flour
1 tsp baking powder
Pinch of salt
200g egg whites
Zest of 1 lemon
160g fresh raspberries
50g flaked almonds
1. Melt the butter in a saucepan on a low heat, until it turns amber brown on colour and smells nutty. Set aside and allow to cool until no longer hot to the touch.
2. Sift all the dry ingredients into a bowl and stir to combine. Add egg whites, brown butter and lemon zest.
3. Stir gently with a spatula until combined. Keep the batter in the fridge for at least one hour or overnight.
4. Generously grease 12 muffin tin holes with melted butter, then dust with flour.
5. Preheat your oven to 160C fan/180C no fan.
6. Remove the batter from the fridge and stir to loosen up slightly. Divide the batter into each muffin hole.
7. Top the batter with 3 raspberries for each cake, with the open end of the raspberries facing upward, pressing each one down gently into the batter. Sprinkle with a generous amount of flaked almonds.
8. Bake for 18-12 minutes, until a skewer comes out clean when inserted into the sponge. Remove from the oven, take out of the moulds and place on a wire rack.
9. Allow to cool for about 10 minutes, then pipe your lemon curd into each raspberry until filled to the top.
10. Will keep in an airtight container for up to 2 days.
WHAT I’VE BEEN UP TO
Churning out brown butter choc chip cookie dough, preparing for a big life change, reading Food Fix by Mark Hyman and thinking hard about the future of our food, advocating for birthday TART, recipe and menu development for an amazing local guest farm restaurant that’ll be relaunching next year, dying my hair orange and still not regretting it.
As always, please feel free to connect with me via email or Instagram, please do share when you’re making these recipes and don’t forget to tell your friends about this newsletter!