Brown Butter Coconut Financiers

Brown Butter Coconut Financiers
Melina Hammer for The New York Times
Total Time
45 minutes
Rating
5(207)
Notes
Read community notes

These tender and very buttery financiers have a deep coconut flavor and a slightly chewy, almost macaroon-like texture from the addition of shredded, unsweetened coconut. When making the brown butter, be sure to let it get dark golden in color for the nuttiest flavor; you want it just shy of burnt. This is the ideal way to use up all those egg whites in your freezer.

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Ingredients

Yield:30 small cakes
  • 16tablespoons/226 grams butter (2 sticks), more for greasing muffin tins
  • 1tablespoon/15 milliliters coconut oil
  • ¾cup plus 2 tablespoons/80 grams unsweetened shredded coconut
  • 2⅔cups/300 grams confectioners’ sugar
  • ¾cup/100 grams all-purpose flour
  • ¼teaspoon/1½ grams fine sea salt
  • 1cup egg whites (about 6 to 8 large egg whites)
  • 1tablespoon/15 milliliters dark rum
  • Sweetened shredded coconut, for topping
Ingredient Substitution Guide
Nutritional analysis per serving (30 servings)

146 calories; 10 grams fat; 7 grams saturated fat; 0 grams trans fat; 2 grams monounsaturated fat; 0 grams polyunsaturated fat; 14 grams carbohydrates; 1 gram dietary fiber; 10 grams sugars; 2 grams protein; 36 milligrams sodium

Note: The information shown is Edamam’s estimate based on available ingredients and preparation. It should not be considered a substitute for a professional nutritionist’s advice.

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Preparation

  1. Step 1

    Heat oven to 400 degrees. Grease 30 mini muffin tins.

  2. Step 2

    Melt butter in a large skillet over medium heat until the milk solids fall to bottom of pan and become a rich brown, about 5 minutes. Strain brown butter through a mesh sieve into bowl. Stir in coconut oil and reserve.

  3. Step 3

    In a food processor, process unsweetened coconut until very fine. Transfer to a bowl. Sift in sugar, flour and salt. Using a spatula, fold in egg whites (no need to beat them first) and rum until batter is moistened. Slowly mix in brown butter mixture until well combined.

  4. Step 4

    Spoon batter into tins and sprinkle tops with shredded sweetened coconut, separating any clumps with your fingers. Bake, rotating pans several times, until edges are dark brown and tops are golden, 20 to 24 minutes. Cool on rack for 5 minutes and pop out financiers onto rack.

Tip
  • Note: Measurements for dry ingredients are given by weight for greater accuracy. The equivalent measurements by volume are approximate.

Ratings

5 out of 5
207 user ratings
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Cooking Notes

Having never made financiers before, I followed the suggestion of another commenter and tried using paper cupcake liners for some of them. The commenter said she had major troubles with her financiers sticking to the pan. I would not recommend the liners. The batter I poured directly into the pan did not remotely stick. But the paper cups were a problem. You lose a fair amount of your financier when you peel away the paper!

Followed the above direction to grease and chill the pan - financiers came out perfectly (though unsure if it’s also because the pan was non stick). Also reduced the amount of sugar by a fifth since it’s pretty sweet already.

After reading the previous comments I mixed the batter and then sprayed the pan just prior to placing the batter in the muffin tins. They came right out with no sticking issues at all. These were a perfect way to use the frozen egg whites in the freezer! Everyone loved them! People are very impressed when you serve them, too! ;)

Really? I have to be careful just melting butter in the microwave, since it tends to explode everywhere when I look away.

I'm giving this five stars for taste, but the struggle to get them out of the pan makes me not want to make them again. Despite using a nonstick pan that was greased, these did not pop out. Instead, I needed to use a paring knife to loosen the edges and try to extract them without ripping each apart. It was tedious work...but the final result was really good.

These are an excellent way to use left-over egg whites. I only had 4 large eggwhites, which amounted to a little less than a cup. Next time, I would use less butter and omit the oil. The best way to filter out the brown bits from the butter, if you wish to do so, is to pour the butter into a glas jug and just briefly wait until they have sunk to the bottom, then pour just the butter into the bowl. That way you can use the brown bits elsewhere, think potatoes, brussels sprouts... so good!

These are the bomb. The batter is very runny after you add the butter, but don’t worry, it of course sets up once the butter hardens again. Using 50g less sugar is a good idea—these are pretty sweet. The last thing I’d pay attention to is the bake. The recipe says to rotate the pan “several times”…and they aren’t kidding. The first batch I burnt; they don’t need anywhere near 24 minutes. I would rotate them every 5 minutes and expect them to be done at 13-15 min.

Used half regular muffin tins and half minis, because that's what I had. All turned out fine. No sticking--with that much butter in the batter?? Very tasty, unusual, pleasant texture. Indeed a great way to use up leftover egg whites, and much less work than macaroons.

I should have let the brown butter cool down, right? When I mixed it in I think the eggs cooked a bit, there where a lot of little white lumps in the batter. Well, let’s see how they taste when they cool down

Followed a few of the suggestions. For dry ingredients, I used 1/2 cup ground unsweetened coconut and 1/2 cup flour. Added to that I used 1/2 cup plus 2 tbl almond flour. Replaced rum with 2 tsp almond extract. I did not strain the browned bits from the butter. I did top with sweetened coconut. For the final blend with the butter, I used a hand mixer on the lowest speed. For my mini muffin pans, the recipe yielded 36 very tasty financiers. Made these as a complement to ATK lemon bars.

Is there a good replacement for coconut oil??

This is delicious! Didn’t have any problem with sticking just made sure to spray every nook. Skipped the shredded sweetened coconut on top and sprinkled Maldon sea salt instead.

Oddly addictive! Watch out!

Do you have to sieve the brown butter pieces? Can I just leave them in?

I left them in and they turned out very nicely.

I always have too many egg whites on hand and so I was excited to find a recipe that used a cup in one go. The recipe is very easy and they came out looking and feeling beautiful: dark and crispy on the edges, light and soft in the middle. However, for all the butter and sugar they have, they don't taste like much at all! The taste is so subtle that I actually went around the kitchen to sniff and taste other things to make sure I hadn't just lost my sense of taste to COVID.

Would it make sense to use coconut flour instead of grinding the coconut?

Very tasty! I agree with other commenters- no need for paper liners, they popped right out of the tin. Also, I'm not sure if there's variation in mini muffin tin sizes or what, but for me this made 48 instead of 30. (Not that I'm complaining!)

These are good. Nice flavor, bake up well - they peaked, because I mixed them up in the food processor so they were overmixed, but they'd have baked fine if I hadn't, I think. They only need about 10 minutes in the oven. A little...meh, I guess, for me? Owen liked them. They'd be a good base for a more elaborate tiny pastry.

These worked; it’s a lot of butter...I used Kerry Gold which with browning left a distinct, not altogether pleasant aftertaste. Since I make ice cream a couple times a week (!!) I’ll make these again with a local butter and maybe add more coconut oil and less butter, or just try cutting back. Also interested in another poster’s recommendation of almond flour. Will note, the 5 year old across the street gave ‘2 thumbs up’! Silicon cups still gave crunch, and paper didn’t stick.

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