Tuesdays with Dorie (Baking Chez Moi): Matcha Financiers

Matcha financiers from Dorie Greenspan's Baking Chez Moi on eatlivetravelwrite.comThis week’s Tuesdays with Dorie recipe is a take on one of my favourite French treats – financiersFinanciers are small cakes, very similar to sponge cakes but contain almond flour and are made with beurre noisette.  Typically, they are are baked in small rectangular molds (the name financier is said to come from this traditional mold, which looks like a gold bar and the story goes that these were popular snacks in the financial district of Paris surrounding the Paris stock exchange (the Bourse) – perhaps another explanation for the name.  You can make financiers in the traditional rectangular-shaped molds or alternatively, as I most often do, mini muffin molds.

I’ve made financiers before for French Fridays with Dorie and that is my  “go-to” recipe (and the one I use in the French baking classes I teach around Toronto). This week’s version uses (very expensive) matcha (green tea) powder (I found mine in the local health food store – and it was nearly $30 for a tiny jar! – but you can find culinary grade powder on Amazon) to delicately flavour and vibrantly colour the financiers. Now, I am not the biggest fan of tea in general and matcha is quite strong but I’ve had it in desserts before where the tea served to make a potentially overly-sweet dessert perfect and colour it beautifully so I was interested to try this.

I used my *usually* non-stick mini muffin tins but for some reason these financiers stuck 🙁

Broken matcha financiers on eatlivetravelwrite.comAs you can see, as well as there being a large number of these which stuck to the pans (I should have used mini cupcake liners…), the colour was nowhere near the vibrant green one might expect  🙁 I’m not sure what happened because the powder was beautiful and green but as soon as I mixed it into the batter, it turned pea-soupy colour and once it was baked, you could barely see it at all. On top of that, the flavour was a little “grassy” for my liking 🙁

Dorie Greenspan matcha financiers from Baking Chez Moi on eatlivetravelwrite.comSo, not a hit, but happy to have tried this out. Now I have a tin of matcha powder I might have to use up in macarons (the sweetness of the shells does balance the “grassy” flavour)….

Get the recipe for Matcha Financiers on p 206 of Baking Chez Moi.

 

Baking Chez Moi Cover

 

 

Tuesdays with Dorie participants don’t publish the recipes on our blogs, so you’re encouraged to purchase Baking Chez Moi for yourself which you can do on Amazon (this link should bring you to the Amazon store in your country) or for free worldwide shipping, buy from The Book Depository. Then join us, baking our way through the book!

 

 

 

Please note: The product links from Amazon and The Book Depository are affiliate links, meaning if you click over and purchase something, I will receive a very small percentage of the purchase price which goes towards maintaining eat. live. travel. write. Thank you in advance!

21 thoughts on “Tuesdays with Dorie (Baking Chez Moi): Matcha Financiers”

    • Yes I did use beurre noisette as the recipe called for but you do not do you have to heat the eggwhites as far as I can remember (I don’t have the book in front of me…). I understand that matcha is good for your health but I still don’t much like the taste.

      Reply
  1. Oh no! Terrible that these stuck, though not a terrible loss since you didn’t care for them.

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  2. Green, yellow, your financiers look delicious regardless of their color! BTW, matcha in macaron shells are such a good way to cut down on sweetness!

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  3. What a bummer! I had a couple of “stickers”, but I used a complicated mold and chilled the batter in the tins.

    I will look forward to seeing your matcha macarons.

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  4. It’s so interesting to see the variations in colour and read about the differences in flavour depending on the type of matcha used. The macarons sound like a great idea.

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  5. First let me say I’m glad you are home safe and sound. Scary stuff over in Europe, breaks my
    heart to see. Your financiers look great. This was an interesting recipe, one that surprised me.

    Reply
  6. I am totally with you on this one, not a fan but glad I tried it! I paid a ridiculous amount for a tiny tin as well, I figured if I was going to give it a go I’d try to get the best I could find.

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  7. They look perfect, sorry you’re not a fan. I used a smaller amount of Matcha and didn’t use the entire amount but I’m still not sure if I’m a fan either. I like regular financiers better I think.

    Reply

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