The almond-tinged deliciousness known as the financier is traditionally made in the form of a small, rectangular cake form, like a tiny loaf of bite-size bread. For this initial attempt, I used a fancier form, which used twice the amount of batter, yielding only six financiers – and luckily that was just enough. That batch was for Suzie and her family in honor of her birthday, and they are amiable guinea pigs when it comes to trial desserts, and happily they seemed to enjoy them. The financier is easy to assemble. Its sweet almond goodness is made richer through the employment of brown butter (which is merely butter boiled to the point of turning brown, imbuing it with a caramelized-like decadence and depth).
The end result, when I tipped them out of their molds, looked less like the mini-bundt cake I wanted and more like the ghosts from a childhood game of Pac-Man. I like ‘Pac-Man Ghost Goodie’ better as a name anyway, so I’ll see if I can add a new twist to make these more Pac-Man-like.
