Praline Financier (Hazelnut)

I think that financier is my favorite menu to use the left-over egg whites.

It's delicious and rich (with a load of butter).

As I make many menus that use egg yolks only (custard, ice cream, cake and etc.) and I have a lot of egg whites in my freezer.

So, I always love the recipe that uses egg white, and I always look forward to finding new recipes too. 

When I started baking, my choice was very small, meringue or macaron, but now I can make a cake, chiffon cake, tuiles, meringue ice cream, and etc. but for me, the financier is still my favorite. Not only it calls for a large amount of egg white but it's rich and very delicious (than some whole egg recipes!!!)

Financier can be the base for creativity, you can use a different nut, add more flavor, add more nuts, chocolate, and fruit, and most of all you can play with many types of pans and molds (so collecting financier molds is fun, haha).

This time I add more fragrance into my financier, with praline paste, the financier is richer in nutty caramel taste, and I use a higher type of financier pans, so with each bite, you can enjoy both financier and nut that we use for topping. You can use a mini muffin pan too if you don't have the same kind of pan.

For the baking temperature, for smaller (or convection) 170 is recommended.

Praline Financier (Hazelnut)

Makes 8

Financier batter

90 g .......................... Unsalted butter
35 g .......................... Praline paste

21 g .......................... Cake flour

25 g .......................... Almond powder

25 g .......................... Hazelnut

70 g .......................... Egg whites

60 g .......................... Granulated sugar

1/8 tsp ...................... Salt

Topping

25 g .......................... Hazelnut

Before baking, preheat an oven to 170-180℃
Brush 8 rectangular pans (7 × 3.2 × 2.7cm. per piece) with butter.

Put the butter into a saucepan and place the saucepan over medium heat. Boil until it becomes light brown in color (beurre noisette).

Remove from the heat and pour into the praline paste. 

Mix to combine and let it cool. We will use it when it reaches 50℃.

Put the cake flour, almond powder, and hazelnut into a bowl of a mini chopper.

Process until fine.

Chop the hazelnut for use as the topping and set aside.

Mix the egg whites with granulated sugar and salt until combined.

Sift the flour mixture into the bowl.

Mix to combine.

Pour the butter and praline paste mixture into the bowl.

Mix to combine. Put the financier batter into a piping bag.

Pipe the batter into the prepared pans.

Top with chopped hazelnut.

Bake in the 170-180℃ preheated oven for 15-18 minutes.

Remove the financier from the pans.

Let it cool completely.

Praline Financier (Hazelnut)