Montblanc financier

Montblanc or Mont-blauc aux marrons was originally a desert made in Italy and has gained its popularity throughout Italy, France and even as far as Japan. It is typically made with a meringue base and served with puréed chestnut topped with cream, giving it a snowy mountain top appearance, very much resembles Monte-Bianco, where it got its name from. Today, many cakes use chestnut puree and are no longer restricted to the use of a meringue base.

The montblancs in this recipe uses the financier base, a light french sponge that contains grounded almond and brown butter. The brown butter gives the sponge a caramelised fragrance and the almond just gives the montblanc an extra nuttiness I think.

I will divide the recipe into 3 main parts, the chocolate ganache, the financier base, and finally, the cream and chestnut topping. The ingredients in this recipe should be enough for 12 montblancs. Please made the cake in the following order, as it will make your life a lot simpler.

Financier base (makes 12):

• 220g butter
• 6 egg whites
• 60g plain flour
• 110g ground almond
• 140g caster sugar

1. Pre-heat oven to 200 degrees C
2. Melt and heat butter over medium heat and contain heating until butter turns slightly golden to brown colour
3. Remove butter from heat and sift off lumpy bits and leave it in a bowl to cool down to room temperature
4. Mix the dry ingredients together
5. Whisk to break up the egg white, no need to form any peaks
6. Mix in egg white and butter to dry ingredients and mix until smooth
7. Add equal amount of mixture to each case of a 12 well muffin tins
8. Bake for 25-30 minutes (the edge should start to turn golden brown and middle remain a lighter colour than edges)
9. Take it out of oven to cool down in the tin. Due to the high butter content in the financier, it doesn't require greasing

 Creme aux marrons (chestnut cream)

• 200ml double cream
• 180g cooked and peeled chestnut 
• 25g caster sugar 

1. Put all the ingredients together and put it on medium heat, stir occasionally
2. Once chestnut has softened, roughly break up the chestnut with a wooden spoon
3. Puree the chestnut and sift out the lumps
4. Leave it to cool to room temperature

To assemble  

1. Whisk double cream until stiff peaks
2. Pipe a dome of cream on the financiers
3. Pipe chestnut cream in a swirling pattern on the cream dome
4. Lightly dust with icing sugar 

Voila! Here is your lovely montblanc!