Lightly spiced and fragranced pistachio financiers are little French almond cakes, great for afternoon tea.
I haven’t baked much recently, so it was really good to get back in the kitchen and get baking.
Pistachio and rose are some of my current favourite flavours, and I’ve also seen some lovely pistachio and rose creations on Instagram and Twitter recently.
So I was inspired to make these pistachio financiers, with a touch of added cardamom to spice them up alongside the rose!
As these are a French speciality, these are my entry into the Perfecting Patisserie linkup for July.
What are financiers
Financiers are small almond cakes made using as a beurre noisette, or brown butter.
They are typically made in small bar shapes, like small bars of gold, and this could be where the name stems from. The other theory was that they were popular in the financial district and gained their name from there.
They are also sold as small round cakes in France, like these delicious red berry financiers I had last year on holiday.
How to bake financiers
My pistachio financiers were baked in a mini loaf tin, and a couple of extras went in a normal muffin tin.
They don’t need to bake for long, so they don’t dry out and remain springy. Just bake until they are turning golden.
Ingredients
Here’s what you will need (quantities are in the recipe card further down):
- butter
- pistachio kernels – you’ll chop and grind these to use in the mixture.
- icing sugar
- ground almonds
- plain flour
- salt
- egg whites
- rosewater – to add floral flavour.
- cardamom – to add gentle spice.
- rose petals – to decorate
Method
- Chop the pistachio kernels until they are finely ground. I used my Pampered Chef mini chopper to chop my pistachios, in batches, but you could also use a food processor.
- Put the butter in a pan and heat on a medium heat until it turns a medium brown colour. For me this took around 8 minutes or so.
- Mix the ground pistachios, ground almonds, icing sugar, flour and salt in a large bowl.
- Add the egg whites, rose water and ground cardamom and mix until combined.
- Add the brown butter little by little, mixing well each time, to ensure it is combined well.
- Spoon the mixture equally into a mini loaf tin, muffin pan, or friand tin. Makes 10 financiers.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180°C in a preheated oven. Remove from the oven when they are starting to brown.
- Cool for a few minutes in the tin, then remove from the tin and cool fully on a rack.
- Decorate by dusting the financiers with icing sugar and sprinkling over the dried rose petals.
These pretty cakes are delicious served for afternoon tea.
Even though the flavours are a bit different from the norm, they will no doubt be enjoyed by all and make a delicious change.
Related
For more financier or friand recipes, take a look at these:
- Strawberry and lemon friands
- gingerbread friands
- black forest friands
- Brown butter choc chip friands from Tin and Thyme
- Blackcurrant chocolate friands from Lancashire Food
- Strawberry and pistachio financiers from Patisserie Makes Perfect
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Recipe
Pistachio, Cardamom and Rose Financiers
Ingredients
- 120 g butter
- 100 g pistachio kernels
- 120 g icing sugar
- 50 g ground almonds
- 50 g plain flour (all-purpose flour)
- Pinch of salt
- 4 egg whites lightly beaten
- 1.5 tsp rosewater
- 1 tsp freshly ground cardamom I ground my own from cardamom pods, using a pestle and mortar
- Rose petals and icing sugar to decorate
Instructions
- Chop the pistachio kernels until they are finely ground. I used my Pampered Chef mini chopper to chop my pistachios, in batches, but you could also use a food processor.100 g pistachio kernels
- Put the butter in a pan and heat on a medium heat until it turns a medium brown colour. For me this took around 8 minutes or so.120 g butter
- Mix the ground pistachios, ground almonds, icing sugar, flour and salt in a large bowl.120 g icing sugar, 50 g ground almonds, 50 g plain flour (all-purpose flour), Pinch of salt
- Add the egg whites, rose water and ground cardamom and mix until combined.4 egg whites, 1.5 tsp rosewater, 1 tsp freshly ground cardamom
- Add the brown butter little by little, mixing well each time, to ensure it is combined well.
- Spoon the mixture equally into a mini loaf tin, muffin pan, or friand tin. Makes 10 financiers.
- Bake for 12-15 minutes at 180℃ / 350℉ in a preheated oven. Remove from the oven when they are starting to brown.
- Cool for a few minutes in the tin, then remove from the tin and cool fully on a rack.
- Decorate by dusting the financiers with icing sugar and sprinkling over the dried rose petals.Rose petals and icing sugar to decorate
Note: Recipe adapted from Edd Kimber’s recipe for Raspberry and pistachio financiers, as reproduced here.
Harriet says
Excellent result, the only thing I would tweak is the amount of cardamoms- I like a stronger flavour. Otherwise they were faultless. Thanks
bakingqueen74 says
Wonderful, thanks for your review Harriet!
Stuart says
These look stunning Lucy – thanks for taking part in Treat Petite x
bakingqueen74 says
Thanks for hosting Stuart, a great linkup
nadia says
Love the Middle Eastern feel to these financiers 🙂 pistachios are my favourite nut and cardamom my favourite spice, so these are definitely a winner in my eyes 😀
bakingqueen74 says
Thanks Nadia!m
Foodie Quine (@foodiequine) says
I am so ignorant about baking and would have had no idea what a financier or a friand was! Love the idea of them looking like gold bars though.
bakingqueen74 says
Friands are very popular in Australia apparently, not that I’ve been!
choclette says
These look super cute Lucy and so very tasty. I’ve never tried making them with pistachios before and LOVE the idea. I made raspberry and rose ones the other day, so great minds and all that! Thanks for including a link to one of my friand recipes 🙂
bakingqueen74 says
Thank you, they were so good, rosewater is my current favourite ingredient!
Jen @ Jen's Food says
These are wonderful, I’ve never made financiers, need to add another tin to my collection! Loving the flavour combination and so pretty with the rose petals scattered on top 🙂
efwalt says
I love financiers but these take financiers to a whole ‘nother level! Cardamom, pistachio and rose is a great flavour combination and these just look so delicate and beautiful. Great recipe Lucy!!!
bakingqueen74 says
Thanks Emma, just a combo I thought could work well for a bit of a change
recipesfromapantry says
These have three of my favorite flavours in them so I am drooling like mad.
bakingqueen74 says
Drool away! 😀
Lucy Parissi says
Oh Lucy these look so lovely! I love financiers and the flavour combination is dreamy. Thanks for linking with #CookBlogShare
bakingqueen74 says
I remember seeing your financiers a while back I think, they helped inspire mine x
Jac -Tinned Tomatoes (@tinnedtoms) says
I’ve never tried making these before, they look fab. By the way your blog is looking fab too! Stumbled, tweeted and pinned 🙂
bakingqueen74 says
Thanks Jac! Added my pic to the blog the other day. The cakes are so easy, try them!
Honest Mum says
So so dreamy! Thanks for linking up to #tastytuesdays x
bakingqueen74 says
Thanks Vicky x