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HELLO WORLD! So I’m briefly back to blog this recipe because I sort of disappeared off the radar for a bit, just to get a few things in my life sorted. I’m not quite ready to share with you the direction that my life is heading at the moment but there are good things afoot! So at the moment I’m just hanging out, waiting, baking a lot of croissants and pastries (and leaving them out for my new neighbours, which has been going down very well! Hurrah for Random Acts of Pastry Kindness! More on that another time!) and catching up with friends.

This particular recipe came about because the lovely chaps over at Lalani & Co. very kindly sent me some matcha green tea to play with (no reason, just because they’re lovely and they thought I might like some! On a side note they recently launched their online shop – previously you could only get their teas through the restaurants and hotels they supply – and they genuinely have amazing teas, all from artisan family run tea gardens whom they personally work with. If you like tea go check them out because I can’t rave about these guys enough). I actually developed the recipe over a month and fed financiers to every single person who came to visit me (TS had to eat quite a few for me and he doesn’t even like matcha!), tweaking it every time, adjusting the fruit (at one point I was using white chocolate but it was just too sweet), adjusting the sugar, adjusting the matcha and now… now it’s perfect. Financiers are actually named so because their traditional shape makes them look like gold bars but obviously these ones are green because of the matcha and, due to the shape of my mould, oval. So less gold bar, more… green… oval?

Regardless, this recipe is delicious and I’ve got about 10 or so people who would fight you if you said otherwise! So this is for everybody who came over, tried them and then begged for the recipe, and enormous thanks to all of my taste testers! Without you I’d be much fatter than I already am.

AUTUMNAL MATCHA FINANCIERS
Makes about 30 – 32

INGREDIENTS
150 g ground almond powder (if you can’t get hold of almond powder you can make your own by whizzing 100 g blanched almonds with 1 tbsp caster sugar in a food processor, then passing through a fine sieve. You may need to do this a couple of times but be careful not to over-process or the almond powder will be greasy)
150 g icing sugar
50 g plain flour
2 tbsps matcha powder
150 g egg whites (if you can get it, Two Chicks is great for this, but if using whole eggs break the egg whites up with a fork a bit after separating – it’ll just help you incorporate everything together smoothly)
150 g unsalted butter

1 comice pear
16 small blackberries

SPECIAL EQUIPMENT
Oval/financier silicone mould
Piping bag

METHOD
1. Preheat the oven to 180 degrees C. Melt the butter and bring to noisette over medium heat. Quickly strain into a clean bowl (to get rid of the sediment) and set aside to cool.

2. Sift all the dry ingredients together, then make a well in the centre, add the egg white and whisk together gently (so as not to aerate) until combined.

3. When the beurre noisette is cool, whisk in gently to the rest of the financier mix and transfer to a piping bag.

Note: You can put this mix into the fridge at this point and allow it to set up a bit before baking. It doesn’t affect the rise and I find it easier to get uniform financiers if it sets up a little – you can keep a batch in the fridge for up to a week. If baking straight away, don’t bother putting it into a piping bag as it’ll be too runny to pipe, so just use a couple of teaspoons.

4. Prepare the silicone moulds by spraying lightly with non-stick spray and placing on a baking sheet, and prepare the fruit by peeling, coring and slicing the pear into small chunks (for my oval moulds I find the best ratio are pieces which are about 3.5cm long x 1cm wide ; my moulds are about 5cm long x 3cm wide x 2cm deep), then halve the blackberries down the centre.

5. Pipe the financiers into the moulds, filling each 2/3 full, then top with a chunk of pear and half a blackberry, pushing them down into the mix a little. Bake in the pre-heated oven for 15 – 18 mins, or until well risen and when touched lightly springs back. Make sure to look in the centre around the fruit for wet financier mix, as that’s where it’ll take longest to bake. I find it helps to turn the tray around after 15 mins for the remaining few minutes if it’s not quite there yet – this’ll help keep the mix uniformly green but go by your oven, as every oven is different and you’ll have hotter and cooler spots.

Note: My oven is fan assisted which means that it runs around 20 – 30 degrees hotter, if your oven is not fan assisted it may need a little longer. Make sure not to open the oven door for at least the first 10 mins as it’ll affect the rise.

6. Remove to a wire rack to cool and serve with a cup of tea!

Until next time, peace, love and pastry,

Jax x