Chocolate Financiers - French Almond Petit Four Cake

So today again I was in a mood to bake and something with almonds was a good idea. Did I hear you ask why..well, my son Adi detests anything that is nutty. He just can't stand almonds, cashews and in order to give him his daily dose of almonds I keep trying various tricks. Some of the almond dose desserts that I try to have handy includes a carrot and almond cake, crunchy nutty ladoos etc. Well he hates them all but I guess, gives in to my aggression . I realised sometime back that if these nuts were combined with cocoa or chocolates then he relishes it and the tables turn; my challenge then become hiding them from him (I can live with that!) Chocolate cakes and anything to do with chocolates or cocoa is always welcome in my house.

Did you know that Hershey, Pennsylvania, the streetlights along "Chocolate Avenue" are in the shape of Hershey Kisses. That was just a small trivia ..so coming back to the financiers, I class the chocolate financiers amongst the fudge'y brownie family. This is open to debate!!!

The financier a French chocolate sweet is light and moist and contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring. The interesting bit about this cake is brown butter - butter that is boiled to get a caramelised colour and flavour. The other interesting bit is that only egg whites are used.

It is an absolutely delightful treat with your evening coffee or tea. Okay so here goes the 'how to' part of it...

Ingredients

140 gm unsalted butter 120 gm almond flour 30 gmall-purpose flour 22g unsweetened cocoa powder 3 egg whites 150 gm confectioners’ sugar 50 gm chopped walnuts Melted chocolate & extra chopped walnuts for decoration, optional

Method

1. In a thick-bottomed sauce pan add in unsalted butter. And over medium high heat, melt the butter and bring it to a boil. Keep cooking. When it just starts to brown immediately transfer the butter into a heat-proof cup and let it cool. 2. In a mixing bowl, sift in ground almond, all-purpose flour, unsweetened cocoa powder. Add a pinch of salt and whisk to combine. Set aside. 3. In another mixing bowl, add in egg whites and now warm brown butter. Whisk to combine. Sift in confectioners’ sugar in three portions. Each time you add the sugar, whisk until smooth. 4. Now pour the dry ingredients into the wet all at once and fold. 5. Scoop the mixture into muffin or financier molds.I didn't have a financier mold handy therefore used cup cake molds. 6. Bake in the preheated oven at 180° C for 20 mins or until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cake comes clean

I just used chocolate ganache with chopped almonds and walnut as topping