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Vegan Blueberry Financiers

If you know anything about me, you know I’m a bit of a renegade. I hate rules. Even when I make up the rules, I still like to break them on occasion. This is one of those occasions. What we have here are one of the coolest vegan deserts I’ve ever made. They are a spin on a financier (fin-awn-see-ay) which are a super-classy french dessert made mostly from almonds, brown butter, and egg whites. Thus, they are incredibly hard to “veganize” with any accuracy. This recipe will get you pretty close, but I must warn you – there is nothing “One Ingredient” about what follows. It uses vegan margarine, sugar, and white flour (gasp!). It isn’t healthy, it isn’t what I’d want you to eat every day, but like I said… sometimes you gotta break all the rules. 🙂

Trivia: Do you know where the term financier comes from? There are two related answers…. 1) They originated in Paris’ finance district where they were popular with money managers (financiers), 2) they are a light golden brown, traditionally molded into rectangles that resemble bars of gold.

Financiers Close

Makes about 9 cakes

Ingredients:

  • 1/2 cup almond flour
  • 1/4 cup pastry flour
  • 3 tablespoons Ener-G Egg Replacer
  • 6 tablespoons warm water
  • 1/4 cup Sucanat or brown sugar
  • 1/4 cup vegan margarine
  • 1/4 cup fresh or frozen blueberries

Preheat the oven to 320º F

Step One

Mix the egg replacer and water in a bowl and whip until no clumps remain. Set aside for 5-10 minutes. Meanwhile, add the vegan margarine and sugar to a saucepan and begin heating until melted and incorporated. You won’t get ‘brown butter’ with this stuff, but a little caramelization will help, so allow this to simmer over medium-high heat for 5 minutes. Stir regularly.

Ener-G Egg Replacer is one of the most common vegan egg replacers on the market. It adds the light and fluffy texture of egg whites (which we desperately need here) and helps baked goods bind together. It’s in a bright yellow box and you should be able to find it at most grocery stores.

Step Two

Mix the flour and almond flour* in a bowl and fold in the egg replacer and sugar/butter mixture, but don’t overmix. Spoon this batter into a greased mini-muffin tin or (if you’re awesome) a rectangular silicone mold. Financiers should be fairly thin (not like muffins), so only cover the bottom 1/2 inch of the pan or so. Add 3-4 blueberries to the top of each mold and press them down.

* If you don’t have almond flour, simply use a food processor to grind whole almonds into a super-fine powder.

Bake at a low heat of 320º F for as long as possible before the edges become too browned, about 20-25 minutes. Let them cool in the molds before removing and serving at room temperature.

Financiers Cooking

Financiers Cooling Rack

Vegan Financiers

12 Comments

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  1. Any chance I could use a flax egg or two instead of the egg replacer? Not a fan of the egg replacer. Its tastes a bit icky to me. These look super delicious!

    • Ah, you could try. I love flax eggs and almost always use them in baking, but they add “earthiness” and fiber, which wouldn’t jive too well with the light and fluffy angel food cake texture you want with these, that’s why this is one of the rare times I used egg replacer. But give it a shot and let me know how it turns out! 🙂

  2. I don’t really understand the whole one ingredient thing..egg replacer doesn’t sound better for you than a whole egg, what is egg replace mDe of? Also, why not use a sunflower oil or olive oil? What about honey or maple syrup? Or use ground dates or ground raisins, they keep baked goods moist, they amp up the fiber and they sweeten!

    • Hey Laura, well this is a bad recipe to use as an example because, if you read the intro, I specifically explain that this is not a One Ingredient Diet “approved” recipe, but let me try to answer your questions. No, egg replacer is not a one ingredient food, and it’s made mostly from potato starch. Though I would argue that it’s much healthier than a real egg with its animal proteins and cholesterol. I don’t use oils much because they’re the nuclear bombs of nutrition: the most calorie-dense foods on the planet that offer almost no nutritional value. In terms of sweeteners, I completely agree and I just recently wrote a whole article explaining why I prefer dates as a sugar replacement, you can see that here: https://oneingredientchef.com/healthy-sweetener/

  3. This recipe was great. SUper super delicious. I made them and took to my French class and my very French instructor loved them. A for me!

    • Hey Vanessa! That’s the best story, thanks for sharing it. I had totally forgotten about these financiers, haha, but I’m so glad you (and your French teacher) liked them. 🙂

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