Chestnuts are so underrated, and they shouldn’t be because they are delicious! Boiled, roasted or candied, chestnuts taste amazing, with their soft, creamy and delicate texture. If you want to make me happy over the holidays (or any time, really), get me a box of candied chestnuts! They are to die for!
I’ve been wanting to make a dessert out of chestnut spreads for some time now, but never really got to it. Last year, I made all these plans for a homemade Mont-Blanc. Spent weeks researching for the perfect recipe, planning, buying all the right ingredients, and everything. In the end, I got lazy and my plans went nowhere…
This year, I stumbled on a few cans of chestnut spread while grocery shopping and took it as a sign that I should pull through, this time. Not with the Mont-Blanc, though. That’s way too time consuming. I wanted to bake something simple but tasty. My personnal favorite snacks are financiers, so I decided to give chestnut financiers a try, to see what they taste like. I must say, the result is more than satisfactory! It also helps that this cake is beyond easy to prepare!
Chestnut financiers
Makes approx. 15
ingredients
2 cups ground almonds
500gr chestnut spread (1 can)
4 eggs
6 tbsp butter
salt
directions
Preheat oven at 320.
Prepare muffin pan with liners.
Melt the butter and set aside.
Separate eggs yolks from the egg whites.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, beat the egg whites with a pinch of salt until stiff peaks form, and set aside.
Still with the electric mixer, mix the egg yolks with the chestnut spread until combined.
Add the butter, then the ground almond, mixing well after each addition.
Incorporate the egg whites to the mixture, and mix delicately with a spatula.
Fill the muffin cases 2/3 full and bake for 30 to 35 minutes.
Let the cakes rest in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
And that’s it! How simple was that? The cakes are moist, slightly crumbly, with a sweet but delicate chestnut taste. I dusted the cakes with some icing sugar only to make them pretty, but that’s what I like about financiers (aside from being super easy to make) : they don’t need icing or frosting.
Enjoy!