Financiers are cake-like cookies, usually made with hazelnut or almond flour. Named for the stockbrokers, financiers, of Paris and originally shaped like gold ingots, they were meant to be a rich treat for the rich men. My rendition—a treat for everyone—is made with ground pistachios, has matcha and whole wheat flour, and is baked in mini muffin tins. Matcha, the brilliant green tea powder, adds gorgeous color and a very soft note of bitterness, while the whole wheat adds sweetness.
I love these plain, as a snack, but they take to being fancied up. Try them with a white chocolate dip, which can be tinted with matcha. And if you sprinkle them with matcha and/or a little freeze-dried raspberry powder, they’ll be ready for Christmas.
A Word on the Matcha: Choose an affordable culinary- or lower-grade tea; baking destroys the nuance of high-quality matchas.
Plan Ahead: batter must be chilled for at least 3 hours.
Makes about 28 cookies
For the Financiers
- 1 1/2 sticks (12 tablespoons; 6 ounces; 170 grams) unsalted butter
- 3/4 cup (150 grams) sugar
- 3/4 (100 grams) shelled unsalted pistachios
- 1/3 cup (45 grams) all-purpose flour
- 1/3 cup (45 grams) whole wheat flour
- 1 1/2 teaspoons matcha powder
- 1/4 teaspoon fine sea salt
- 6 large egg whites, at room temperature, lightly beaten
For the Glaze (Optional)
- 8 ounces (226 grams) white chocolate, coarsely chopped
- 1 1/2 teaspoons canola oil
- Matcha powder for the drizzle and for sprinkling (optional)
- Freeze-dried raspberry powder for the drizzle and for sprinkling (optional)
To make the cookies: Cook the butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until it just comes to a boil. Turn off the heat and keep the butter warm while you make the batter.
Put the sugar and pistachios in a food processor and pulse until the nuts are finely ground. It’s OK if you have a few discernible pieces here and there—in fact, it’s better than overprocessing the nuts and ending up with paste. Add both flours, the matcha, and salt and pulse a few times to blend. Turn everything into a medium bowl.
Pour the egg whites into the bowl and stir gently with a flexible spatula until thoroughly blended. Gradually and gently incorporate the butter—it will take a little while to get all the butter into the batter, but when you do, the batter will be thick, shiny, and beautiful. Cover and refrigerate for at least 3 hours. ( batter can be refrigerated for up to 3 days.)
When you’re ready to bake: Center a rack in the oven and preheat it to 400 degrees F. You’ll need mini muffin tins with cups that hold 2 tablespoons. Coat them with baker’s spray or butter and flour them.
Spoon the batter into the tins, filling the cups almost to the top. (If you have more batter than tins, bake in batches, always starting with cool tins.)
Bake the cookies for 13 to 15 minutes, or until the sides are deeply golden and the tops have crowned—they’ll feel springy to the touch. Remove the tins from the oven and wait 4 or 5 minutes, then flip the cookies out onto a rack. Let sit until they are only just warm or have reached room temperature. If you’re going to glaze them, let cool completely.
To make the optional glaze and finish the cookies: Mix the white chocolate and oil together in a microwave-safe bowl and microwave at 50 percent power in short bursts to melt the chocolate. (White chocolate can be finicky, so it’s best to keep the power low and to check often; you can also use a double boiler.) If necessary, transfer the glaze to a small bowl—deep is better than shallow here.
If you want to drizzle the cookies with color, immediately mix a little of the chocolate with a little matcha (don’t use too much, or the color will get too dark and the taste too bitter) in a small bowl and/or a little more chocolate with freeze-dried raspberry powder in another.
Dip the tops of the cookies in the glaze, letting the excess drip back into the bowl; set the cookies on a rack. If you’re using colored drizzle, drizzle one or both of them over the glazed financiers. If you’d like to sprinkle the glaze (or the glaze and drizzle) with matcha or raspberry powder, do it now, before the chocolate dries. Refrigerate the cookies for about 30 minutes to set the glaze.
Storing: Undecorated, the cookies will keep in an airtight container for about 4 days at room temperature or for up to 2 months in the freezer. Decorated, they will keep for about 2 days at room temperature.
Recipe excerpted from “Baking With Dorie: Sweet, Salty, and Simple” copyright 2021 by Dorie Greenspan. Photography copyright 2021 by Mark Weinberg. Reproduced by permission of Mariner Books, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers. All rights reserved.
Pezou : Pistachio-Matcha Financiers