Chestnut financiers

January 19, 2022

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!

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!

Pistachio/ almond cupcakes

June 28, 2020

I love pistachios. I love almonds. And it’s only a matter of time before I incorporated my two favorite nuts into a single cake and the result exceeded my expectations! Full of flavor, nutty, a bit crunchy, dense but moist… And instead of a regular frosting, I opted for icing in this case. A thick, almond-flavored icing. The simplicity of the cake only adds to its appeal. The cake is so pretty it can be served for special occasions and dazzle your guests, or it can be a quick snack and/or breakfast. I chose to bake cupcakes but you can easily bake the batter in a loaf pan if you prefer it that way. In that case, bake for up to 50 minutes.

What I like about this recipe is that the quantities for the dry ingredients can vary depending on what’s available in your pantry. Ideally, you need a total of 2 cups of flour mixture (3/4 cup ground almonds, 3/4 cup ground pistachios and 1/2 cup flour). But, as it turned out, I did not have enough pistachios at the time I wanted to bake the cakes, and I really didn’t feel like going to the grocery store just to purchase that single item. So, I compensated with more ground almonds. The recipe below is the one I made when I didn’t have enough pistachios.

Even though I used less pistachios than almonds, the pistachios’ flavor is strong enough for it to stand out. It also helped that I did not grind the pistachios into a fine flour. Since I like a little bit of crunch, I coarsely ground them so that chunks are in the mix.

Pistachio/ almond cupcakes

Makes approx. 16

ingredients

For the cake:

1/2 cup flour
1 cup ground almonds
1/2 cup coarsely ground pistachios
1/2 tsp baking powder
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 cup butter, room temperature
1/3 cup sugar
2 eggs, room temperature
Zest from 1 lemon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 tsp almond extract
3 tbsp milk

For the icing

1 cup confectioners’ sugar, sifted
3 tbsp heavy cream
1 tsp almond extract
toasted sliced almond for garnish

Directions

Preheat oven at 350 and put cupcake liners in a muffin pan.
In a bowl, sift in the flour and baking powder. Mix in ground almonds, pistachios and salt.
In the bowl of an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment, mix sugar and butter at medium speed, until light and fluffy, 2 minutes.
Add eggs and lemon zest. Mix well until smooth.
Mix in vanilla and almond extracts and milk. If the mixture looks a bit curdled, don’t worry.
With a spatula, fold in the flour mixture until well incorporated.
Scoop batter equally into cupcake liners and bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cakes rest in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.
While the cakes cool, prepare the icing.
In a bowl, mix together the sifted confectioners’ sugar, cream and almond extract until the mixture is smooth. The result should be thick but pourable.
Pour the icing on the cooled cakes with a spoon, until icing reaches the border of the liner, and decorate with sliced almonds on top.

And that’s it! The whole process did not take over an hour to prepare and that’s what I like about this recipe. You crave something, you make it in no time and then you eat it. Should not be any harder than that.

Little note : it goes without saying but you must wait until the cakes have cooled completely before pouring the icing on top. If the cakes are still warm, the sugar will melt and the icing will lose some of its texture.

Enjoy!

Banana bread muffins : the easiest cake in the world

March 27, 2020

Times are weird and stressful. I’m currently working from home but at the same time I’m trying to keep myself sane and busy with baking, my personal form of therapy. We had a few overripe bananas on our kitchen counter, and since we didn’t want to waste any food, I decided to make banana bread muffins.

This is the sort of recipe that can really be whipped up in no time, requires very little ingredients and is pretty healthy! Whenever I’m tired of eating bananas but don’t want to waste them, I immediately turn them into a cake. They’re naturally sweet and are the perfect breakfast, snack or late night indulgence! No effort whatsoever was put into these muffins, everything was mixed into one bowl, no electric mixer was required, and in a matter of a few minutes, everything was in the over, baking. That, as well as how delicious the cakes are, is what I like about them. So here it is, the recipe for the easiest cake in the world!

Pain bananes3.jpg — Banana bread muffins

Makes 12 cakes

ingredients

3 ripe bananas
1 1/2 cup flour
1 tsp baking powder
1 tsp baking soda
1/2 tsp salt
1 tsp vanilla extract
1/4 cup sugar (optional)
1 egg
1/3 cup vegetable oil

directions

Preheat oven at 350 and put cupcake liners in the muffin pan.
In a large bowl, mash the bananas with a fork until they reach the desired consistency (I like chunks).
Mix in the vegetable oil and vanilla.
Add the egg and whisk until well blended.
Sift in the flour, baking soda, baking powder and salt. Mix well with a spatula.
Optional : the cake should be naturally sweet thank to the bananas, but if you have an especially sweet tooth, you could add 1/4 cup of sugar and mix well.
With an ice cream scoop, fill the liners equally.
Bake for 20 to 22 minutes, or until a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.
Let the cakes rest in the tin for 5 minutes before transferring them to a rack to cool completely.

That’s it! In less than half an hour, I was already snacking on delicious, super moist banana muffins! This recipe is the most basic one, but of course, you could add anything to it that you like, such as chocolate chips, dried fruits or nuts! Do you like cinnamon? Add some! Love, love, love chocolate? Sure, replace 1/2 cup of flour with good cocoa powder! This is what’s so great about this recipe : you could let go and create or customize as you wish!