Chocolate Tiger Financiers
When I was a tourist in Paris, I did tourist things—by the way, to this day I like to do them when guests come to us. Climb the Eiffel, sail on the Seine and marvel as if it were the first time, sit in the Luxembourg Gardens in front of the pools and tell myself how polite the French kids are as they sail boats and more and more. When I was a tourist in Paris, one of the things I did was take daily courses of desserts and pastries.
In one of these courses we cooked various kinds of cookies like Madeleine, Financier and the star – the Chocolate Tiger. I remember that until then I had never seen this little cunning cake, but since then I have not stopped wanting it. Its texture is really a Financier texture, but it is studded with chocolate chips that give it a tiger look. The center is usually filled with chocolate ganache, but you can also go wild with praliné, halva or nutella.
One of the secrets of the recipe is the Brown Butter, of course in French it sounds better— Beurre Noisette. This is a butter that is melted and heated until browned. The color of the butter turns brown and it tastes like nuts, as if we had squeezed the fat from the hazelnuts. This butter is one of the charms of French cuisine and is very important to the recipe.
Chocolate Tiger Financiers
8-9 serves, donuts silicone mold (6 or 8 cavity each)
Ingredients
For the Financiers:
80 g butter
60 g almond meal
120 g confectioner’s sugar
55 g flour
2 g baking powder
pinch of salt
150 g egg whites
125 g dark chocolate. chopped
For the Chocolate ganache filling:
100 g dark chocolate, chopped
100 g heavy whipping cream
For the filling you can use Praliné paste instead of chocolate ganache (or half chocolate, half praline).
Preparation
1. Preheat the oven to 175 degrees Celsius.
2. In a small saucepan, melt butter over low heat. After the butter has melted continue to heat it until it reaches an amber brown color. Remove from heat and strain. Cool (not in the refrigerator) until it reaches room temperature.
3. In a medium bowl combine almond meal, confectioner’s sugar, flour, baking powder and salt.
4. Add the egg whites, you can use a mixer but no whipping is needed, only mix until the ingredients come together.
5. Slowly add Brown Butter, until the batter becomes smooth.
6. Add the chopped chocolate, mix.
7. Transfer the batter into a piping bag or a plastic bag, with one of the edges snipped off. Fill the mold almost to the top
8. Bake for 15 minutes, until nicely browned, and let cool for 15 minutes before removing the financiers from the mold.
9. Ganache: Heat the cream until simmering. Pour the hot cream over the chocolate, wait a few seconds, then stir with a spatula to make a smooth ganache. Stir very carefully without lifting the spatula from the bottom of the bowl in order to avoid incorporating air bubbles. Wait about 30 mintutes before using (don’t use the ganache if it’s too hot).
10. Fill the Chocolate Tiger with chocolate ganache or with Praliné paste, you can use a piping bag or a teaspoon.
Bon Appetit
Sharon
Adele
Dear Sharon,
Merci beaucoup for this recipe
It looks amazing.
We all love so much the ‘ Financiers cakes ´
The classic ones and we love very much chocolate so this combination of our two loves together feels magical
Thanks
Adele
Paris Chez Sharon
Thank you dear Adele! I’m glad you love it 🙂
Joyce
Hi, I just tried making it last night in a 12 mini donut mould, and the browned butter, OMG! I realised my batter is rather runny which makes it very difficult to pipe. Is that what’s supposed to be like?
The flavor is amazing though!! Gotta make bigger ones~!
Cheers
Paris Chez Sharon
Great! And yes it’s runny 🙂
Chris
Hi! I love your recipes ☺️ I just wanted to ask, can I use almond flour instead of almond meal for this?
Paris Chez Sharon
Hey 🙂 no in order to get the right texture.
Chris
Hello! I tried making this today and the flavour was spectacular! However, it broke when I tried to remove it from the mould. A lot of it was stuck to the mould too. I let it cool for 45 mins before I tried to remove it. Am I supposed to butter the mould before I pour the batter in?
Paris Chez Sharon
if it’s a good silicone mold no need.
Eléonore Vergniaud
Hi,
I have planned to realize the recipe, but question question came into my mind.
How do you create holes in the middle of the cake to fill them with ganache ?
Paris Chez Sharon
The hole is in the shape of the mold.
Beth
Dear Sharon
thank you for the recipe .
I am from an asian country and wonder if i could leave them at room temperature or is it better to store them in the fridge . our temperature here is mostly at 32 degrees celcius .
Beth
Paris Chez Sharon
if it’s too hot you can refrigerate it and take out 30 minutes before serving.