Financiers, friands y madeleines: pastelitos muy queridos
El pastel Financier se suele hornear en pequeños moldes rectangulares que, según se dice, se asemejan a lingotes de oro, lo que alude al distrito financiero parisino.
Financier or friand?
financier is often baked in small rectangular cake moulds, said to resemble bars of gold - a link to the Parisian financial district. The financier as we know it was made popular in the 19 th century by a baker whose shop was near what was then the Parisian stock market. His financiers were based on little almond cakes called visitandines, which had been made for centuries by French nuns.
buerre noisette – browned butter) is folded in. The batter is usually cooked in a rectangular mould (you’ll see both bar-shaped and shallower, wider rectangular versions). The result is a soft, dense cake with slightly crisp edges and a rich, slightly nutty flavour from the almond meal and the browned butter.
The nutty nature of the friand gets a boost in this peanut friand recipe.
friand is the version that you’ll often see in Australia. Also made with egg whites, almond meal and melted butter, our friands have a similar texture to financiers, although there are a two main differences. You’ll usually see them made in oval-shaped moulds, creating a cake that’s taller than a typical financier, and they are often studded with fruit, such as raspberries, blueberries or cherries. In France, a friand (a “delicious thing”) is more commonly a savoury pastry, although friandise means a sweet delicacy, or something dainty.
Anneka Manning’s financiers recipe, which makes delightful cherry-studded cakes in little brioche moulds (pictured below).
The Cook Up with Adam Liaw, is another excellent of how good these little almond cakes are. Adam Liaw declared them “C'est le meilleur financier j'aie mangé de ma vie” – the best financier he’s eaten in his life! (And for those who need to bake or eat gluten-free, Reid notes that you can change the plain flour in the recipe for gluten-free plain flour.)
Madeleines
Guillaume Brahimi’s recipe is flavoured with vanilla bean, lemon and beurre noisette.
these tips from Hyoju Park and Rong Yao Soh of Melbourne’s Madeleine de Proust.
orange-glazed madeleines (pictured below), says they are even better the day after baking.
madeleines à la crème au citron), or making them in wonderful shapes including bananas (try these gluten-free chocolate banana madeleines) and ginger bears (filled with spiced genache and covered in caramelised white chocolate shells, although also delicious just baked and served in any shape). Find tips on filling madeleines here.
