Almond Teacakes with Browned Butter (French Financiers)

Financiers (French for a banker or investor) are classic tea time cakes, that you you can dip into your tea or have along with your Espresso coffee. They look more like biscuits but are essentially sponge cakes that are made from almond flour. Enriched with nuts, and moistened with butter, they come in different sizes, shapes, and even flavours; almond is the most popular, but you'll sometimes come across Financiers made with ground hazelnuts or pistachios. I like them all. With its moist center and crisp edges, it is one of my favourites. The dessert was originally invented in the 19th century by a pastry chef named Lasne. As most of his clients were brokers who didn't want to stain their fingers, he invented this moist sponge cake, shaped it to look like a brick of gold, and financier was born. This recipe is for a traditional Financier with almond flour though I'm using browned butter to keep the butter flavour even more in focus. If you don't have small rectangle molds, mini muffin pans work just as well. This batter is pretty forgiving so it can be baked in madeleine molds or even in larger muffin tins, filling them only about halfway. For the browned butter, I started with 4 oz (8 Tbsp., 115 g), which yielded the amount called for in the recipe. If starting from scratch, and making your own brown butter, start with that amount, then you can measure it out when it's browned and cooled. If you need a bit more butter, you can simply add a bit of melted butter to it, to reach the 2½ oz (75 g) amount.

1 cup almond flour (140 g)
¾ cup + 2 Tbsp. (180 g) sugar
5 Tbsp. all-purpose flour, unbleached (45 g)
1 generous pinch sea salt
4 large egg whites, at room temperature
½ tsp. pure vanilla or almond extract
2½ oz brown butter, slightly warm (75 g)

Preheat the oven to 375°F (190°C, Gas Mark 5). Butter the insides of 24 mini muffin tins generously with softened, not melted, butter, making sure to butter the upper rims of the indentations.

In a medium bowl, mix the almond flour, sugar, flour and salt. Stir in the egg whites and vanilla or almond extract, then the browned butter.

Fill each indentation of the mini muffin tins almost to the top. Rap the tins sharply on the counter to level the tops, then bake for 13 minutes, until nicely browned. Let the financiers cool in the tins, then remove them, using a sharp knife to help release them, if necessary.

Storage: The financiers can be stored in an air-tight container for up to one week. They can be frozen for up to two months.