Wednesday, October 19, 2016

Nutty Mulberry Financiers

Raspberry is very expensive and it is not always available. So I've used some frozen mulberries, of which I've collected and kept frozen, from my one and only small little mulberry plant in a pot. Since financiers uses only egg whites instead of whole eggs, this is a great way of using up the frozen egg whites accumulating in my freezer!



These financiers are gluten-free, using almond meal, hazelnut flour and rice flour. I have reduced the sugar to 80gm and the sweetness was just right. A vanilla bean is split, seeds scraped out and both the seeds with it's pod, and butter is placed in a small saucepan, over medium heat until the butter melts, starts to brown lightly and smells nutty. I have however omitted the vanilla bean, and have used vanilla extract which is added to the batter later. Let the butter cool slightly.

Beat the egg whites to the dry ingredients, add the butter in three batches, mixing well after each addition. I've added the vanilla extract at this stage. Divide the batter between the muffin cups and bake for 18-20 minutes. This recipe yields 6 muffins instead of  8. 


Just before serving, dust with confectioners' sugar.


Moist, soft with nutty aroma. The mulberries works out great. These little gluten-free mini cakes, as the author says, "They are the perfect afternoon snack served alongside a hot cup of tea".

Note : This recipe is courtesy from La Tartine Gourmande.


Saturday, October 8, 2016

Super Banana Bread

 Another keeper recipe. If you have some leftover bananas that are begging to be used, make this quick bread!


A lovely bread. I've made half a recipe for one loaf, so have used only half the amount of the ingredients listed in the recipe, with a further reduction in the amount of brown sugar used ; for half a recipe, I've used only 1/4 cup, and it is sweet enough. The bananas are very sweet to begin with!



I like the crumb texture of this quick bread. It is moist, soft and light, not as dense and heavy as some bananas bread tend to be. I will be making this again when I have leftover bananas.  

I've made half a recipe for one loaf, using half amount of the ingredients listed, with some changes to the following :
use nutmeg powder instead of freshly grated
use 1/4 cup light brown sugar
omitted the sprinkling of the turbinado sugar