Vegan Financier Recipe | One Ingredient Chef (2024)

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.

Makes about 9 cakes

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.