Blueberry and Vanilla Financiers

downtonabbeycooks

4 years ago

Today’s recipe is from my new cookbook Ellen gave me. I cut the amount of butter which was Lord D approved in our household, and will experiment with making a version with applesauce, replacing all butter. If you can’t make it to London this summer, then enjoy making tea treats at home.

This is light, moist teacake, similar to sponge cake, and usually contains almond flour, crushed or ground almonds, or almond flavoring.

The name “financier” is said to be derived from the traditional rectangular mold, which resembles a bar of gold. Some say that it comes their popularity in the financial district of Paris surrounding La Bourse du Commerce (the former name of the Paris stock exchange). Either way they are wonderful.

Blueberry and Vanilla Financiers

Course Afternoon Tea

Cuisine As Seen on Downton

Prep Time 15

Cook Time 20

Total Time 25

Servings servings

Calories 161kcal

Equipment

Friand pan

Ingredients

1/4 cup butter melted and cooled
1 tsp. vanilla extract
1 cup icing sugar
4 medium egg whites
1/4 cup all purpose flour sifted
3/4 cup almond flour
medium lemon zested
1 cup blueberries

Instructions

Preheat the oven to 375 F/190 C/gas mark 5
Grease a nine hole friand tray. You can also use muffin tins.
Slice the vanilla pod in half/lengthways. Use a knife or a teaspoon to scrape the pod to extract the vanilla seeds. Add them to the icing sugar.
In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy.
Fold in all the remaining ingredients.
Spoon into your prepared tray and push a few blueberries into each cake
Bake for 20 minutes until golden and a skewer comes out clean.
Leave in the tray for 5 minutes, then transfer to wire rack to cool. Dust with icing sugar before serving.

Notes

*I didn’t have any ground almonds on hand, but you can make your own if you have almonds on hand. Just put them in a food processor. I had whole almonds so I first had to blanch them for a minute in hot water, then rinse in cool water which helps remove the skins.

Nutrition