Hazelnut and cherry financiers

A recipe from cooking-ez.com

For 12 pieces, you will need:

• 1 120 g Griottine cherries
• 2 200 g ground hazelnuts
• 3 500 g Financier batter
• Total weight: 820 grams

Times:

Preparation	Cooking	Start to finish
40 min.	40 min.	1 hour 20 min.

Step by step recipe

1	Preheat the oven to 300°F (150°C). Drain 120 g Griottine cherries.
2	Spread 200 g ground hazelnuts out on a sheet of cooking parchment laid on a baking sheet.
3	Toast in the oven for 15 minutes, then leave to cool. Turn the oven up to 410°F (210°C).
4	Prepare 500 g Financier batter, using the toasted ground hazelnuts in place of almonds. Note: All this can be done the previous day.
5	Sit your mould on a baking sheet, lined if you wish with cooking parchment (you can reuse the paper from toasting the hazelnuts). I am using silicon moulds here with each compartment measuring 8x3x3 cm (3x1.2x1.2 inches).
6	Put a layer of financier batter into each mould, filling to about 1/4 of the depth (a forcing bag is ideal for this). Put in the freezer for 15 minutes to firm up the batter; this helps keep the cherries in the centre of the cake.
7	Put 3 (or more) cherries into each mould.
8	Cover with more batter, but do not fill right to the top as the financiers will rise during cooking.
9	Bake for about 25 minutes.
10	Turn out onto a wire rack and leave to cool fully (or until warm) before eating.

Remarks

It is not absolutely essential to toast the hazelnuts in stage 3, but doing so really brings out their flavour.
If you don't have Griottines, you can use Amarena cherries instead.

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