Fig Financiers | My Paris Kitchen

I have these silicon rectangular financier molds, each shaped like a gold ingot, for baking my favorite cakes. Last I baked were these pretty matcha financiers. So I decided to do something different this time and came up with what have filled my fridge lately: seasonal black figs from California. With the special mold, a recipe from My Paris Kitchen by David Lebovitz and the figs, time to get baking the fig financiers. That’s what you do on a cloudy listless day.

Financiers topped with a slice of fig in a rectangular mold.

To start, you need two bowls and a skillet. Simple enough. The first bowl holds all the dry ingredients: almond meal (75g), powdered sugar (130g), flour (60g), baking powder (1/4 teaspoon) and salt (1/4 teaspoon). In the skillet, you make brown butter (or beurre noisette). Melt one stick of butter and cook until it takes on the color of maple syrup and smells nutty. Once cooled, blend the brown butter into the flour mixture. Put egg whites from 4 large eggs (125 ml) in a second bowl. Then stir the egg whites gently into the batter. You’ll have a thick and shiny cake batter which reminds me of the macaron batter. The batter goes into the refrigerator for at least an hour before baking.

The recipe makes 20 small cakes in mini muffin tins. However, there are only 9 indentations in the financier mold. Consequently, it takes about 19 minutes to bake in a 400°F oven.

These financiers are moist and rich, just the way I like them. Financiers and a soothing aromatic cup of tea are enough to brighten the day. A slice of fig on each financier is nice. It’s even nicer if they come from the fig trees I’m trying to grow and have yet to bear edible fruits.