Saturday 22 June 2013

Nutella friands/financiers





I was very pleased to be offered a copy of Nutella: The 30 best recipes (published by Jacqui Small) to feature on my site, and even more pleased to be able to offer all readers the chance to buy the book at a special price which is cheaper than amazon (see below).  The book is shaped like a jar of Nutella - as if it needed making any more appealing, given the subject matter!




The recipe which caught my eye was the financier recipes.  As I didn’t have a financier tin (I know!  I was as surprised as you!) I decided to deploy my seldom used friand tins.  These must be much deeper than a financier as the recipe said it would make 18, whereas I only got 6 friands!




Soft light-but-close-textured almond sponge with a generous pocket of Nutella is never going to be a tough sell; the Nutella sank but it did in the photo in the book too so I didn’t feel bad about it.  The smell of them baking alone was enough to draw Mr CC to the kitchen like a Bisto kid!




Given the almond content, friands are always better the day after baking.  It takes time for the almond oils to seep out.  But it is pretty tough leaving them to find this out!




Cute-but-at-the-same-time-aggravating thing I learned during writing this post?  Word autocorrects friands to friends.  Nutella friends...now there’s a concept!




Special offer (cheaper than Amazon!) available to all readers of my blog:

To order Nutella: The 30 Best Recipes (published by Jacqui Small) at the discounted price of £7.00 including p&p*, telephone 01903 828503 and quote offer code JS232. Or send a cheque made payable to: Littlehampton Book Services Mail Order Department, Littlehampton Book Services, PO Box 4264, Worthing, West Sussex BN13 3TG. Please quote the offer code JS232 and include your name and address details. 
*UK ONLY - Please add £2.50 if ordering from overseas.




Ingredients

70g unsalted butter
50g plain flour
130g icing sugar
70g ground almonds
4 egg whites
50g (approx) nutella


Method

Preheat the oven to 200°C/fan oven 180°C/400°F/gas mark 6.

Grease financier pans, friand pans, or muffin pans.  The recipe stated it will make 18 (fairly shallow) financiers but I made full depth friands and only got 6!

Melt the butter over a gentle heat and put to one side to cool.

In a large bowl mix together the flour, icing sugar and almonds.

Beat the egg whites, one at a time, into the dry mix.

Gradually beat in the melted butter.  The mix will be very runny.

Pour the mix into the prepared moulds.  Half fill each hole.

Add approximately ½ heaped teaspoon of Nutella to each cake.

Bake for approximately 12 minutes (for shallow financiers) or longer for deeper cakes; my friands took 22 minutes.  They’re ready when a skewer inserted into the cake comes out clean.

Leave to cool in the tin for 15 minutes as they are very soft and fragile straight from the oven.  They will sink a little as they cool so don’t panic.

Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool completely.

Bask in the glory of the wonderful thing you have created.


Eat.

12 comments:

cupcake girl said...

That sounds devine!I'm not sure how u stopped yourself from slathering more nutella on top though.
MyCupcakeHabit

Gloria Baker said...

these with nutella sounds really amazing, my kids love nutella!

Susie @ Fold in the Flour said...

Almond sponge and Nutella? Yes please! Can't go wrong with that. :)

Katie said...

Look delicious. I love anything almond. I agree they often taste better the next day. Getting 6 is much better than eeking it out to 18. Yum

Jo said...

Almond and nutella sounds like a fantastic combination. I may have to order this book for my nutella loving friend's birthday next month.

Baking Addict said...

I just received the same book and bookmarked this recipe as I recently made financiers and am absolutely in love with them. So pleased to see how it turned out - please send some over :)

Cakeyboi said...

Nutella is pure heaven in a jar! Thanks for the heads up the book too - you are such a good friand ;)

Kit @ i-lostinausten said...

Oh YUM! What a treat! My boys sure love to have these financiers for snack & me too! ;)

Maggie said...

Friands haven't taken off here like cupcakes but I love them, if only as an excuse to use my friand tin. Lovely filling to use and I always like the way the friands look as if they are about to explode!

Cakelaw said...

Be still my beating heart - yum!

Choclette said...

Very impressed you have friand tins. I wasn't really quite sure what shape they would be, but since discovering them last year, I've made many friends - or did I mean friands ;-)

A gooey layer of nutella in the middle has got to be a good thing.

anna @ annamayeveryday said...

These look great. I don't cook much with almonds anymore as my daughter is allergic but these are really tempting!