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Recipe: Fruit Financiers

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fruitfinanciers

There's a small L.A.-based cafe chain called Coffee Commissary. It could just focus on third-wave coffee service. But they've decided to offer really excellent food, too. Their head pastry chef, Naomi Shim (pictured above), seems to be the guiding force behind all this kitchen creativity. She works out of the Burbank location, and everyone is the surrounding offices is eternally grateful. Here she shares with us her financier recipe, a simple, delightful tea cake that is mostly butter and egg whites and fruit. If you don't have a rectangular mold pan, a muffin tin will get the job done. Just remember: it's much, much better if you refrigerate the batter overnight!

Fruit Financiers

1 ¼ cup all-purpose flour
1 cup almond flour
1/4 cup hazelnut flour
3 cups powdered sugar
1 pound brown butter
500 g egg whites (equivalent to to whites of 17 eggs)
½ cup apricot puree
Your favorite jam -- blueberry and raspberry are especially good choices

Sift together all flours and powdered sugar.

Slice one pound of butter into ½ inch cubes and place in pot over medium heat until golden brown. Cool.

Place flour mixture in mixer with paddle attachment. Mix on medium and add whites and apricot puree.

Slowly add butter, scraping all the browned bits from the bottom of the pan. Mix for 3 minutes and scrape down the sides of the bowl well ( butter tends to sink to the bottom). Refrigerate batter overnight.

Pre-heat oven 350F.

Place batter in piping bag with ½ inch diameter tip. Pipe into rectangular molds. Place 1 cup fruit puree in another piping bag and pipe onto the batter of each mold.

Bake 20 minutes or until golden brown.

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