Pistachio & Lemon Financiers
Everything looks cute when miniature, and cakes are no exception!
Financiers, originally small, French almond cakes made with brown butter, are those small fancy cakes I see on the rare occasion I’m treated to a high tea at some fancy establishment.
I’ve made my little financier cakes using pistachios ground up to a nut flour and love the flavour and texture they give.
There’s something about the pale green colour of pistachios that makes me smile. Using them in cakes and as a substitute for other nuts when cooking adds something quite special.
There’s a lightness in the texture of these cakes, and the addition of the ground pistachios makes this happen.
Less flour and more nuts in this recipe lifts the mixture and gives the finished cakes a lovely mouth feel, and the addition of lemon, zest and juice, moistens the recipe too.
Go on, give them a go and enjoy the sweet life!
What You Need
175g Butter – Softened - Plus more for preparing the moulds
175g Castor Sugar
150g Pistachio
75g Plain Flour
2 Large Eggs
1 Tsp Vanilla Extract
Zest of 2 lemons
2 Tbsp Lemon Juice.
Chopped Pistachios for decoration
Place the pistachios in the food processor and whizz until they resemble a rough flour
Icing
200g Full Fat Cream Cheese
50g Butter – Softened
100g Icing Sugar – Sifted.
Zest of 1 lemon
Add all of the cake ingredients to the food processor to bring together
How It’s Done
Heat the oven to 180c
Rub butter inside the financier moulds – See Tip Box
If not using financier moulds, use cup cake cases or even small cake tins
Once the insides of the cases are covered in butter, sprinkle flour inside to coat the inside of the moulds. – See Tip Box
Set the prepares moulds aside until needed. – See Tip Box
Place the pistachios into a food processor and let the machine run until the nuts resemble a rough flour, don’t over process – See Tip Box
Add all the remaining ingredients to the food processor and let it run until it comes together into a batter.
If the batter seems too dry, add a little more lemon juice – one teaspoon at a time
Such a beautiful colour to the batter
Place the cake batter into a piping bag and pipe into the prepared financier moulds, filling the moulds 2/3rds. – See Tip Box
Place the filled moulds into the hot oven and bake for 15-20 minutes – Until a toothpick inserted in the middle of the cakes comes out clean. – See Tip Box
Once baked let the cakes aside to cool in the moulds for 5 minutes before taking out of the moulds, transferring to a wire cooling rack to cool completely before decorating.
I piped the mixture into the prepared moulds
Icing
Place all of the softened butter and half of the cream cheese into a bowl and beat with an electric whisk until the butter has broken down, all lumps are gone and the mixture starts to become smooth.
Once smooth, add the rest of the cream cheese, the lemon zest along with the icing sugar.
Beat until it becomes a smooth and pipeable.
Place the cream cheese icing into a piping bag and decorate by piping three dots on the top of the cakes. – See Tip Box
Roughly chop the remaining pistachios and sprinkle over the top of the cream cheese.
Beat the icing until thick, creamy and pipeable.
Tip Box
Make the pistachio flour – When grinding the pistachios, just grind them enough to enable them to turn into a flour consistency. Over grinding the nuts could end up with the mixture becoming a soft mush.
Moulds to use – I have a silicone mould with rectangular inserts which is perfect when making a financier.
But if you’re not to bothered about the shape the cakes are in, it’s absolutely fine to use other shapes.
Use a few cup cake cases to make the cakes.
Decorated with lots of chopped pistachios adds the extra crunch
Butter the inside of the moulds. – When buttering the inside of the moulds, make sure the butter gets into all of the corners.
Set Aside – If the moulds are silicone, place the moulds onto an oven tray. This will make the moulds more stable and easier to place in and take out of the oven.
Dusting with flour – 1) When dusting with flour, make sure all of the insides of the moulds, have a layer of flour.
2) Tap out any excess flour
Fill the moulds – Don’t have a piping bag, not a problem. Use a spoon to fill the moulds up 2/3rds full.
Baking – All ovens vary, so adjust baking time accordingly.
Decorating – 1) I piped three mounds on top of the small cakes, but if piping isn’t your thing, use a palette knife to smooth over some of the icing on top of the cakes.
2) If you’d like to pipe a decoration but done have a piping bag, spoon the icing into a sandwich bag, tie off the top and cut off a corner of the bag. Use as you would an icing bag.
Perfect with a cup of green tea.
