Financiers

Financiers, which are petite French almond cakes, are typically flavored with brown butter (aka liquid gold). But we found a vegan spin on the dessert that’s just as heavenly as the O.G. in the new cookbook, Voila Vegan: 85 Decadent, Secretly Plant-Based Desserts from an American Patisserie in Paris by Amanda Bankert. Instead of eggs and dairy, the recipe calls for aquafaba and vegan butter.

“Rumor has it that these miniature almond cakes, typically dotted with raspberries or flavored with citrus and pistachio, got their name from their resemblance to bars of gold, [since] financiers are traditionally baked in rectangular molds,” writes Bankert. “But today you’re just as likely to see circular versions, as I’ve done here.”

Raspberries are the simplest finishing touch; all you’ll need to do is place three to four berries into the top of each financier before baking. You could also go the lemon route by adding the zest and juice of one to the batter before chilling, or you could whisk a heaping tablespoon of pure pistachio butter into the batter instead and top cakes with crushed pistachios before baking. Either way, they’ll turn out equal parts tasty and sophisticated.

^{© Excerpted from Voila Vegan: 85 Decadent, Secretly Plant-Based Desserts From an American Patisserie in Paris Copyright © 2023 by Amanda Bankert. Published by Avery, an imprint of Penguin Random House LLC. Reproduced by arrangement with the Publisher. All rights reserved.}