“Simple and effective, in small or large sizes, it’s a delight”: Christophe Michalak shares his easy recipe for hazelnut and orange blossom financier!

It was on his Instagram account that pastry chef Christophe Michalak shared a perfect recipe for snack time: a financier with hazelnuts and orange blossom. As a reminder, financier is a generally rectangular-shaped pastry made from almond powder and egg whites. If this preparation will require a little patience for the rest time, we assure you, it is worth the effort. Here is the chef’s recipe for making this delicacy.

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A publication shared by Christophe Michalak (@christophe_michalak)

Preparation time: 15 minutes

Rest time: 24 hours

Cooking time: 12 mins

For 4 people, you will need:

• 120g butter
• 10g of honey
• 45g of T55 flour
• 120g of icing sugar
• 45g ground almonds
• 1 pinch of baking powder
• 40g or 4 cl of orange blossom
• 100g or 3 pieces of egg whites
• about 100g of roasted hazelnuts

1. Start by cooking the butter in a saucepan until it turns a hazelnut color.
2. Then pass it through a fine strainer.
3. Add the honey.
4. Then, reserve everything at room temperature.
5. Sift together the icing sugar, flour and baking powder.
6. Gently mix all the powders with a whisk.
7. Gradually add the raw egg whites.
8. Slowly add the butter/honey mixture as well as the orange blossom.
9. Reserve the mixture in an airtight container in the refrigerator for at least 24 hours.
10. Then fill a mold ¾ (or several for individual financiers) of its height then sprinkle with previously toasted and crushed hazelnuts.
11. Cook everything in a preheated oven at 180°C for around 12 minutes to obtain a beautiful caramel color.

And it’s ready!

Recipe taken from Christophe Michalak’s book “Desserts that make me crack” published by Grund Editions.