Most financiers are A) not chocolate, B) do not include cornmeal. So these are a little different. I was tinkering with my original recipe, and these came to be. These little rich bites are also so very simple, and so tasty I hope you try them. They come together very quickly, and you can go from 'Maybe we need a snack...' to enjoying chocolatey goodness in less than an hour.
If you don't have cornmeal on hand, you can use all almond flour. These are gluten-free, should that be important to you.
Chocolate Financiers Yield: 18 - 24 1-inch cookies/muffins Ingredients: - 12 tablespoons (6 oz) unsalted butter - 1 cup almond flour
-1 cup cornmeal - 1/2 cup Dutch-process unsweetened cocoa powder - 1/2 teaspoon salt - 3/4 cup powdered sugar - 4 egg whites from large eggs - 1/2 teaspoon almond extract
-optional: dark chocolate chips or chocolate covered nuts Directions: 1. Preheat the oven to 400°F. Lightly grease 2 mini-muffin tins. (If you have financier pans, obviously, go with those, but mini muffin pans work well here.) Melt the butter in a small measuring cup and set it aside to cool a bit while you mix everything else.. 2. In a medium bowl, mix the almond flour with the cocoa powder, salt, and powdered sugar. Stir the egg whites and almond extract into the almond mixture, then gradually stir in the melted butter until incorporated and smooth. Using a small cookie scoop, spoon the batter into the cups, filling them mostly full. We like ours to be a bit domed; if you like yours to be smaller, fill the cups more like 3/4 full. Optional: if you feel like being extra fancy (and having a bit of extra chocolate on your already-yummy treat, press a dark chocolate chip or a chocolate-covered nut into the top of each batter-filled cup. 3. Bake the financiers for 10 to 15 minutes, until the cookies are slightly puffed and springy to the touch. Remove them from the oven and let cool completely before removing the financiers from the tins. 4. Once cooled, financiers can be kept in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.