A recent post on beurre noisette, or browned butter, on Michael Ruhlman's blog made me realize that I had never made any baked goods with browned butter. I once made a pasta dish with browned butter and sage but no sweets. However, the potential for turning an already wonderful ingredient into something even better, with nutty overtones and rich flavor, was too much to resist. Since I had some almond flour left over from the macaron experiment, I decided to give financiers a try.
I want to clarify from the outset that the treats pictured above are not madeleines, even though I used a madeleine pan. Financiers are rich cakes made with almond flour and browned butter. Traditionally, they are baked into small rectangles to emulate bars of gold (hence one explanation of how they got their name). However, that is one piece of baking paraphenalia that I don't own, so I decided to make multi-taskers out of my tinned-steel madeleine pans.
The batter for this cake comes together quite easily, and since the batter is supposed to rest in the fridge for several hours (and can rest for a few days), this is a great idea for a make-ahead dessert (except for the fact that almond flour is now about $15/pound! But this recipe uses very little). First, however, you have to brown the butter, which can also be done ahead. I used my lovely Mauviel Windsor pan and put the butter over medium heat. After a few minutes, it began to separate. A foam covered the top as the milk solids dropped to the bottom of the pan where they browned as I stirred occasionally.
I skimmed off some of the foam so 
that you could see the browned bits at the bottom of the pan. Once the butter had browned as far as I dared to take it, I poured it through a mesh strainer to remove the rest of the foam. I could probably have pushed it a little farther, but there is a fine line between browned butter and a burned mess, and butter is too valuable for me to take that chance. I put the butter into a bowl and proceeded with the recipe. Below is my mise en place. Please ignore the bottle of Rhum Agricole lurking in the upper left corner of the shot. It did not go into the cakes but instead into the cook. That stuff is wicked!
There are two bowls of egg whites in the photo because I had a lot left over from making the double batches of cookies in the food processor battle.
All of the recipes for financiers that I found were in grams, so I'm glad I have the myWeigh 7001, which converts at the touch of a button from ounces to grams (also pounds/ounces and kilograms). That is one nifty scale, and only cost about $35 including an AC adapter, which I am not currently using. The batteries last a very long time in this scale and they make the scale ultra portable. I even travel with it, making sure to package it carefully. I don't know how to recalibrate it, if that is even possible, so I try to keep it from getting knocked around.
I sifted the powdered sugar, almond flour and cake flour into the bowl. 
To it I added some of the egg whites, the browned butter, and a little invert sugar syrup. Invert sugar is a fancy way of saying simple syrup made with an acid. The process of acid hydrolysis converts the sucrose into glucose and fructose.
The end result is that the sugar syrup is more hygroscopic, meaning it attracts water and makes cakes more moist, with a longer shelf life. Think Twinkies. On second thought, don't. Anyway, I bought a container of the stuff thinking I would be making truffles and other confections where it would add a safety factor to the shelf life. However, this is the first time I've actually found a recipe that called for it, so it's the first time I've used it! I have no idea how important invert syrup is to a product that will likely last for about 10 minutes after it's baked, but don't I look cool 
for using it.
Anyway, after stirring the butter and part of the whites, I whisked in the remaining whites and scraped the batter into a piping bag. The bag was placed in the fridge for about 8 hours, and baking the financiers was a snap. I snipped the point off the piping bag and piped batter into the madeleine pans. I baked them for about 15 minutes at 350, until they were nicely browned. Yum! My husband says they are perfect for dipping into coffee.
Here's the recipe:
Financiers
410g Beurre noisette (browned butter)
450g Egg whites
460g Powdered sugar
40g Invert syrup (see note)
300g Almond flour
150g Cake flour
Note: If you don't have invert syrup, use 510 grams of powdered sugar.
Brown butter and strain. Sift all dry ingredients together. Whisk in invert syrup, half of egg whites and hot browned butter. Add rest of egg whites. Scrape into large pastry bag and secure the end. Let rest for several hours or overnight in the fridge. Pipe into molds and bake at 350 for 10-15 minutes, or until golden brown. Remove from pans and cool on a wire rack.
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