Pistachio Financiers

• Recipe by Jing Tio

Tio likes to end dinner parties with rare fermented Chinese p'uerh tea and pistachio financiers, the absurdly easy-to-make buttery French cakes. He serves the tea in a graceful white china Eva Zeisel set designed by the famous 99-year-old Hungarian-born potter and manufactured in extremely limited quantities by the renowned Lomonosov factory in St. Petersburg.

Ingredients

1. 1 cup whole blanched almonds, coarsely chopped (see Note)
2. 1/2 cup sugar
3. 2 large eggs, beaten
4. 5 tablespoons unsalted butter, melted
5. 3 tablespoons all-purpose flour
6. 24 to 30 shelled pistachios

Directions

1. Preheat the oven to 400°. Butter and flour sixteen 3 1/2-inch-long barquettes or 30 mini muffin pan cups.
2. In a food processor, grind the almonds to a fine powder. In a bowl, mix the almond powder and sugar. Whisk in the eggs until incorporated, then whisk in the melted butter, followed by the flour. Spoon the batter into the prepared barquette molds or mini muffin cups and decorate with the pistachios. Bake the cakes until golden brown, about 12 minutes for barquettes and 16 minutes for mini muffins. Let cool slightly, then run a knife around each cake and transfer them to a rack to cool.

Make Ahead

The pistachio financiers can be stored overnight in an airtight container at room temperature.

Notes

If you want to skip grinding the almonds, use 1 cup of almond flour.