I came up with this recipe namely because I was craving financier, but I was also craving coffee cake. Coffee, or crumb, cake consists of this dense, rich cake that is usually made with sour cream, and lightly spiced with nutmeg and cinnamon. It has streusel bits baked throughout it, which adds a pleasant crunch and a textural contrast to the softer sponge. My friend and ex-coworker Georgina would always rave about the LAUSD coffee cake, so it became a recurring thing for me to make her a variation of one whenever her birthday rolled around. With financier, those are French brown butter-almond cakes, which have a butterscotch-like flavor profile to them. I LOVE financier. They are light, airy, and very easy to make. That and I love brown butter, so anything that uses it, I am almost instantly on-board for. I used to joke that if I could, I would bathe in brown butter, because I love the way that it smells; think about flavor those round yellow butterscotch candies in the clear cellophane wrappers, but less sweet. So I figured, why not combine financier with a crumb cake, and the end result was fantastic! Soft, buttery spongecakes with crispy streusel-y bits running throughout them! These individual cakes are honestly tasty enough to eat on their own, without any sort of other garnishes. I personally love eating them in the morning, since they really are the perfect accompaniment to a cup of coffee, or in the afternoon, with a cup of tea. In other words, true to their coffee cake inspiration, these financier crumb cakes are caffeine’s best friend.

For the recipe itself, we have a financier batter that is speckled with nutmeg, and then we have the streusel dough. It is very important to moderate temperatures here – if the streusel is still warm before you add it to the batter, the financiers will come out dense. So baking the streusel ahead of time will alleviate a lot of that waiting time. If you are trying to bake this all in one go, my recommendation is to get the streusel baked first, and while that is baking, just brown your butter and measure out the ingredients for the financier batter itself. To brown butter, take a stick of butter(preferably unsalted, which is what this recipe will call for), and heat it up until it melts, and turns frothy and bubbly. As the bubbles start to disappear, you will be left with this amber-brown liquid that smells like heaven. That is brown butter and that will give the financier batter the most delicious nutty-caramelized flavor. Like with the streusel, this brown butter will need to cool somewhat before you add it to the financier or else you run the risk of the final cake coming out dense and gummy. So by having the streusel and brown butter cooling simultaneously, you are getting out of the way the two most time-consuming processes. I recommend cooling the streusel on a different sheet pan than what you baked it on, and in the freezer, as both of these processes will expedite that. With the brown butter, cool it down in a heatproof bowl, uncovered, in your refrigerator – you want it to be a warm liquid still, but you do not want it to be burning hot. Besides that, the only other tip I have to give in regards to this recipe is oil your muffin pans sufficiently for this. I did not, so half of my financier wound up stuck to the pan still. Learn from my mistake, and you can enjoy 12 beautiful financier crumb cakes, instead of 6 passable ones and a giant mound of delicious cake and streusel crumbs.

Makes 12 cakes:
For the streusel dough:
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
1/4 cup almond meal
2 tbsp unsalted butter
1 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1g ground nutmeg
1 tbsp milk
1/4 tsp vanilla extract

In a bowl, mix everything besides the milk and vanilla until a crumbly sandy mixture forms. Mix into that the milk and vanilla to form a dough. Break the dough apart into pinkie nail-sized pieces and spread onto a lined sheet tray. Bake at 375 degrees F for 20 minutes. Allow the streusel to fully cool before attempting to use.

For the financier batter:
4 egg whites
1/4 cup confectioner’s sugar
1 cup almond meal
1/4 cup all-purpose flour
a pinch of salt
1g ground nutmeg
1g ground cinnamon
1 tsp vanilla extract
1 stick unsalted butter, browned and cooled to room temperature
Baked streusel

In a bowl, whip together your egg whites with sugar and salt to soft peaks. To that, fold in the almond meal, spices, vanilla, and flour first. Lastly, fold into that the brown butter to form your batter. Line a 12-cavity muffin tin with cooking spray or any leftover brown butter. Fill each cavity 1/3 the way full with the batter. Then sprinkle over that 1 tbsp of streusel per cavity. Then fill each cavity another 1/3 the way full with the rest of your financier batter. Then repeat sprinkling on more of the streusel. Bake the cakes at 350 degrees F for 20 minutes. Allow the cakes to fully cool before removing.