It’s a pastry shop whose origin dates back to the 17th century but whose success is still not denied. So much so that food brands like Good mom offers them on supermarket shelves. The financier, small rectangular cake made from powdered almonds and egg whites born in Paris, still popular. But in fact, why is it called that?

A cake invented by sisters

Go first to Caesar what belongs to Caesar. This pastry, before being popularized in the capital, was created in Nancy in Lorraine, prepared by the sisters of the Visitandines order. These small cakes called “Visitandines” were made to alleviate the ban on meat consumption in convents, so as not to lose the whites of the eggs, the yolk of which they have as a binder for their paint.

The term visitandine or friand (Normandy) is still used in certain pastries which have retained the traditional name.

But for several centuries, almond-based pastries were neglected. The cyanide smelling of bitter almonds, we were indeed wary of anything that was almond-based.

It was therefore necessary to wait until 1890 to see them appear in Paris. At that time, a pastry chef named Lasne decided to bring them up to date. Its business being located near the Stock Exchange, its clientele consisted mainly of financiers, eager to eat quickly and without getting their hands dirty. The cake meets their expectations.

Faced with the great success of the pastry shop, Lasne chose to modify the oval shape of the cake for a rectangular shape giving it the appearance of a gold ingot. The Financier was born.

The recipe from the Financier by Cyril Lignac:

Preparation time: 12 minutes
Cooking time: 40 minutes
INGREDIENTS FOR 4 PERSONS
• 90 g of hazelnut powder
• 150g of icing sugar
• ½ vanilla bean
• 60g of flour
• 4 egg whites
• 100g of butter
• 1 pinch of fine salt
• icing sugar for the decoration
Preheat the oven to 185 ° C.
In a frying pan, place the butter and melt it until you obtain a nutty color. Discard in a ramekin.
In a bowl, combine the flour, ground hazelnuts, icing sugar, fine salt and the pulp of the vanilla bean. Add the egg whites 1 to 1 with a whisk. Stir and add the brown butter. Pour into the buttered and floured cake mold.
Place in the oven for 20 minutes.
At the end of cooking, turn out onto a rack. Sprinkle with icing sugar.

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