Hello there!
I don’t know where you’re reading from, but if like me, you live in the Northern hemisphere, you’re probably sitting in a warm room while staring at the falling snow outside… in other words, it’s freezing!
As the famous saying goes: “when you run out of soups, bake financiers and have some tea”.
Ok, I might have invented that one, but IT IS true.
Miss Soup myself didn’t feel like drinking soup all weekend so I decided to go for something sweet something really sweet (yes, sweet tooth… another surprise). I had a bunch of almond powder, whole almonds, halved almonds and almond butter in the kitchen, so it seemed natural to bake something where one of these would be the main ingredient… and that’s how I ended up with financiers.
Financiers are French almond cakes and easily one of my favorites patisseries: that moist and firm texture coupled with that strong almond flavor is to die for!
I wasn’t keen on spending one full day trying out for the perfect recipe, so I went with the safest route and decided to follow Linda Vongdara’s recipe out of her book “A l’école de la patisserie vegan”, which I gifted myself for Christmas.
I just tweaked the quantity of sugar as the frosting is already quite sweet.
These vegan financiers are just as good as the ones you find at your local French patissier.
For the frosting, I combined white chocolate and hibiscus syrup.
I still have a lot of dried hibiscus flowers from my trip to Ghana (cheaper and better quality).
I l-o-v-e Bissap (a tea-like beverage made from the infusion of hibiscus and lemon), so I decided to turn some into a syrup so that I don’t have to make Bissap each 2/3 days from scratch.
If you’re feeling extra gourmand, once you financier and the frosting have cooled down, add a few droplets of hibiscus syrup to the financier… you won’t regret it!
Without further ado, here’s the recipe.
If you are interested in more Vegan sweet recipes, check these out:
- Gluten-Free Crunchy Peanut Butter Granola
- Vegan Banana and Oats Snack Cake (Gluten Free)
- Vegan Sweet Potato and Peanut Butter Brownies
Bon Appetit!
Almond Financiers with Hibiscus and White Chocolate Sauce
Course: DessertCuisine: Vegan30
financiers15
minutes50
minutes3
hoursIngredients
- Financiers
50g Coconut oil
50g Vegetable oil
160g Soy milk
1 tablespoon Apple cider vinegar
90g Brown sugar
60g Almond powder
150g Flour
5g Baking powder
1 teaspoon Almond extract
1 Pinch of Salt
- Frosting
130g White chocolate
40g Vegetable oil
1 tablespoon Hibiscus syrup (or strawberry coulis)
- Hibiscus Syrup
1l Water
300g Sugar
100g Dried Hibiscus flowers
50g Mint leaves (optional)
Peel of 1 Lemon
Directions
- Hibiscus Syrup
- Combine the water, hibiscus flowers, mint, and lemon peel in a large saucepan over medium heat. Bring to a boil, leave boiling for 15 minutes.
- Remove from heat and strain to filter the hibiscus flowers. Keep the liquid.
- Pour back the liquid into the saucepan. Place on medium heat.
- Add the sugar and bring to a boil.
- Leave boiling for 10-15 minutes, stirring continuously, until it starts to thicken.
- Remove from heat and let cool down.
- Financiers
- In the microwave, melt oils together.
- In a large bowl, combine milk and vinegar. Add in sugar, almond powder.
- In another bowl, sift the flour and baking powder. Stir this mixture into the milk mixture.
- Add in the oils, almond extract and salt.
- Pour the batter into a pastry bag or a zip bag. Seal tight and store in the refrigerator at least 3 hours, even better overnight.
- Remove bag from the refrigerator.
- Preheat oven at 240°C.
- Pour the batter into the financier mold.
- Cook at 240°C for 5 minutes then an additional 11 minutes at 220°C.
- Remove from oven and let cool down for 15 minutes before removing the financiers from the mold.
- Dip half of a financier in the frosting and set on a plate to cool down. Repeat for all financiers.
- Serve at room temperature or cold for better enjoyment.
- Frosting
- If you don’t have a double boiler, use a saucepan and a metallic bowl which fits on top of the pot.
- Add 3-4 cm of water to a pot and add a bowl with the chocolate on top.
- Bring to boil, reduce heat and stir chocolate until it melts. Add in 1 teaspoon of hibiscus syrup and stir.
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