Pistachio financiers with rhubarb compote

Another recipe I made to use up some of the egg whites I had left-over after making sirnica. Never tried financiers before and I was pleasantly suprised how good they where. The pistachio's together with the beurre noisette gave a wonderful nutty flavour. The little cakes were soft and moist. The little drop of rhubarb compote gave a pleasant tart note to the sweet cake.

No serious signs that no. 3 is coming soon :( Still 3 more days till due date... Hope he won't wait too long after that...

Pistachio financiers with rhubarb compote (adapted from www.joyofbaking.com)

makes about 12

½ cup (50 g) pistachio nuts
⅓ cup (5 tbs / 85 g) beurre noisette (made from ½ cup (115 g) unsalted butter)
¼ cup (35 g) flour
¾ cup (90 g) icing sugar
⅛ ts salt
3 large egg whites, lightly beaten
½ ts vanilla extract
about 2-3 tbs rhubarb compote, sweetened to taste

Preheat the oven to 350°F (177°C). Spread out the pistachio nuts on a baking sheet and bake about 8 minutes. Allow to cool to room temperature. Ground the pistachio's in a food processor until finely ground.
Increase the oven temperature to 400°F (200°C).
To make the beurre noisette: Melt ½ cup unsalted butter in a saucepan over medium low heat. Once the butter has melted let it come to a boil. Continue to cook until it looks clear and the milk solids have dropped to the bottom of the pan and have turned dark brown. Remove from heat. Spoon away the foam that's on top. Let the milk solids settle at the bottom Carefully pour out the clear butter, leaving the milk solids at the bottom. Let the beurre noisette cool to room temperature before using. Measure out ⅓ cup of beurre noisette (you'll have some left-over). Use the remaining beurre noisette to grease a 12 capacity mini muffin pan.
In a large bowl whisk together the flour, ground pistachio's, icing sugar and salt. Fold in the lightly beaten egg whites, vanilla, and the ⅓ cup beurre noisette. Fill each mold almost to the rim and bake for 4 minutes. Remove from the oven and place about ¼ - ½ ts of the rhubarb compote on top of each. Return the financiers to the oven and bake a further 5-7 minutes or until they have become light brown on top and are springy to the touch. Remove from oven and let cool on a wire rack. They are best eaten the same day.

If you don't use up all of the batter (like I did), it will keep a few days in the fridge.