Raspberry Financiers

Tea makes great part of our life. On our way back from Paris both of our suitcases were packed with tea and teaware. (Of course there were also 3 kilos of chocolate couverture, a kilo of cocoa butter, sac of 50 vanilla beans, small packet of tonka beans, a jar of malted almond spread, black sesame paste, spices and more chocolate.)

My catalogue booklet from Le Palais des Thés became worn out with my notes and remarks in it since I was bringing it alongside all the time just in case we pass near one of their shops and have the stir for tea which of course happened to be almost every day. Other tea shopping stops of ours were Jugetsudo, which is especially good place for buying reasonably priced pastry grade matcha tea, and a couple of shops in the Chinese neighbourhood for teaware acquisitions.

And since we've been avid tea drinkers for over 6 years, but there are no other tea lovers amongst our friends, we decided to share our tea passion with you. I really don't know why we haven't done this till now.

Making a state I must say that we rarely drink tea with the main course, wine goes better there, while for us tea is to be enjoyed with desserts or just on its own. We'll be happy if you join the tea-desserts topic with us, all ideas and suggestions are very welcome.

Financiers are easy and quick to make, besides we always have egg whites in abundance, so this is a good way to put them in use. And raspberries make the whole thing even better with their strong flavour and tangy notes.

Tea – when there are red fruits and especially raspberries involved, Japanese tea comes at once to the mind and Tamaryokucha tea was our choice on the spot.

Raspberry Financiers Recipe:
Makes 15

• 135 gr egg whites;
• 90 gr sugar;
• 65 gr almond meal;
• 45 gr all purpose flour;
• 100 gr butter;
• sometimes we add 15 gr of desiccated coconut for chewiness, but omitted it this time;
• fresh or frozen raspberries.

In a small saucepan brown the butter until fragrant and nutty. Leave it to cool down.

Preheat the oven to 180º C.

In a bowl, sift together almond meal and flour, add in coconut shreds, if using.

Beat egg whites and granulated sugar to firm, glossy peaks. Fold in the dry ingredients, then fold in the browned butter.

Divide the batter amongst 15 silicone moulds. Top with several raspberries.

Bake for 18 – 20 minutes or until done.