Pumpkin financier

OK so I'm a little late in posting this Thanksgiving dessert but hey, it's still the holiday weekend so I'm going for it!

Having often extolled the virtues of the classic French financier, I'm a sucker for the many petite versions one can create. The base is easy to prepare, can be held in the fridge for a few days until you're ready to bake it and you can embellish it as you so choose - fruit, purées, different nut flours, cocoa powder, citrus zests - you name it.

For Thanksgiving I went for traditional pumpkin made with half almond and half hazelnut flours, with a medley of the usual spices - cinnamon, nutmeg, allspice, ginger. I love using my Silikomart savarin molds with a center well - they just beg to be filled and topped with all manner of goodies.

When making financiers I use this base recipe, an adjustment to the one I learned at Le Cordon Bleu in Paris with less sugar. I've since figured out a variety of flavor options that work quite nicely. The pumpkin version utilizes the addition of canned pumpkin to the base, along with the above mentioned spices of course.

Before baking the cakes themselves, I consider the components I wish to incorporate in the finished dessert, always focusing on textures and flavors. This time I went for a dark chocolate ganache to fill the small wells in the cakes, topped with a caramel Swiss meringue butter cream swirl and chocolate shortbread cookie crumbs. 

Here's the build up.

The baked cakes

The ganache filled wells

The buttercream swirls

the chocolate crunchy topping

Et voilà - c'est fini!

Now I know that not everyone likes pumpkin, Steve being the prime example. There's something about the spices used that just don't work for him. But I, on the other hand, don't mind a pumpkin creation every now and again (mostly around Thanksgiving, don't ya know!).

This creamy, smooth, mellow-chocolate-y, spicy, crunchy, pumpkin-y combo hit all the right notes for me - not too sweet, not too heavy. Not bad for a beautiful Thanksgiving time with family. You can't ask for much more.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone!