This recipe was the direct result of me seeing someone bake with these really cute bread-shaped muffin tins, and me wanting to do something similar. After scouring on the internet, and believe you me, it took a lot of creative word combinations on Google, I found them in a random website called AliExpress. So after purchasing the tins(they have to be shipped from China), I started thinking about what I wanted to actually bake with them. The tins themselves were shaped like slices of bread, so I figured something breakfast-y would be cute. I figured financier, or little almond-brown butter spongecakes, would be a smart place to start with these. I would use whole wheat flour and maple syrup, just to give them a pancake-like flavor, along with a tiny bit of cinnamon to accentuate that. And then came the fun part: I wanted to do a garnish on these bread shaped financiers to resemble a piece of butter. So I made Bavarian cream, which is a custard lightened with heavy cream, froze that solid, cut it into neat little squares, and for the fun of it, bruleed the tops with some sugar to give it a creme brulee-like finish. Aesthetically, it looked like the butter on top of a stack of pancakes, with maple syrup drizzled on top. I would say that these little toasts were adorable to look at and super fun to eat too!

Makes 8 financier:
For the maple-whole wheat financier batter:
1 egg white
1oz maple syrup
1 tsp confectioner’s sugar
1/4 cup almond meal
1 tbsp whole wheat flour
a pinch of salt
.1g ground cinnamon
1/4 tsp vanilla extract
2 tbsp unsalted butter, browned and cooled to room temperature

In a bowl, whip together your egg white with maple syrup and sugar and salt to soft peaks. To that, fold in the almond meal, cinnamon, vanilla, and whole wheat flour first. Lastly, fold into that the brown butter to form your batter. Line an 8-cavity bread-shaped muffin tin with cooking spray, and fill each tin with the batter. Bake the financier at 375 degrees F for 12 minutes. Allow the financier to cool before unmolding.

For the bavarian cream:
1/4 cup whole milk
1/2 tsp gelatin powder
1 egg yolk
2 tbsp granulated sugar
a pinch of salt
1/2 tsp vanilla bean paste
1.5oz heavy cream, whipped to stiff peaks

In a pot, melt the bloomed gelatin into milk. Whisk half of the warm milk into the egg yolk, sugar, and salt. Pour the egg mixture back into the milk and whisk on medium heat for 2 minutes. Pour through a sieve and cool down to room temperature. Mix into that the vanilla first, then fold in the heavy cream. Pour the bavarian cream into a small, shallow freezer-proof container(I used silicone cube molds) and freeze solid. While frozen solid, cut the bavarian creams into 1/4-inch by 1/4-inch squares and return to the freezer until time to assemble.

For final assembly:
Granulated sugar

Sprinkle sugar over the still frozen bavarian creams and brulee the tops with a blowtorch until the sugar is brown. Working quickly here, transfer the bavarian creams onto the financiers to finish.