Golden Round Ingots

If you visit me often you already know that I make Financiers often so when I saw that this week the Heaven;y Cake Bakers were to make Gold Ingots I paused only for a moment and thought. This meant I would have to deviate from my recipe of choice and try something new. Not such a bad concept so I went for it. However, being the over achiever that I am, not only did I make the Golden Ingots (in the round) but I proceeded to make the Chocolate and Peanut Butter Ingots as well. This proved to be very interesting for me on a few levels. First off the most obvious is that I don't have a loaf shapped silicone pan. Silicone is not my favorite vessel for baking but, I had purchased one many moons ago to experiment with.

The three financiers recipes and my own all call for the same basic ingredients; almond flour, butter, superfine sugar, flour, baking powder, egg whites, and flavoring (vanilla, almond, cocoa, or peanut butter).

The techniques for the three varieties from Rose's Heavenly Cakes along with my recipe of choice were almost the same. Almost I say for two reasons. The first reason is that Rose's directions call for beurre noisette which is what intrigued me from the start. There isn't a recipe that I have tried that does not benefit from browning the butter. This was no exception. The second difference was in making the batter. Specifically in the treatment of the egg whites. In the Gold and the Chocolate Ingots the egg whites are added to the dry ingredients and mixed with a flat beater just to incorporate. In the Peanut Butter Ingots and my recipe of choice, the egg white are beaten first with the whisk attachment. After which the dry ingredients are added and then the butter is added slowly giving the mixture a chance to emulsify. I prefer this procedure and find that it makes for a fluffier batter and a lighter financier.

In the end I found the Golden Ingots to be a little dryer, rougher in texture and not as flavorful as I had expected even though I added extra vanilla. The Peanut Butter and Chocolate Ingots were much more flavorful and moist.

Clearly I will rotate my recipe of choice to include Rose's Chocolate and Peanut Butter versions. Let me know what you think or feel free to share your recipe. Mine can be found in an earlier post if you you want to try it.