Chocolate-Glazed Teacakes

By Hklbrries

These buttery teacakes are based on the centuries-old French recipe for financiers, little nut cakes as rich as the stockbrokers for whom they were named. While the original financiers were small, ingot-shaped cakes with almonds, mine are supersize, made with walnuts, and topped with a chocolate-glaze.

A word on size: The molds in my muffin pan hold 1/2 cup, and so I can get a dozen cakes from this recipe. If your molds are smaller, you can either fill the cups a little more generously (but not to the top) or make a few more teacakes. If you use a second pan and it has some empty molds, just fill the empties with water to even out the heat during baking. You can also make these as minicakes, using minimuffin pans (you'll get more than 3 dozen). Of course, minicakes need less time in the oven - start checking them after 15 minutes.

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Freezables:

I don't think I'd been cooking for more than six months when I had one of those eureka moments. I'd spent an entire day racing across New York City shopping for food and the next whole day cooking it, only to have my houseful of guests go gaga over the simplest dish of the night: a big, buttery Bundt cake.

I'd seen it before and I've seen it since, but it was that evening, more than 30 years ago, when I realized what was at play and how primal it was. No matter how much I'd fussed over dinner and no matter how good dinner was, the offering of a homemade dessert trumped it all—and it always would. We never get over the idea that dessert is a reward and that a dessert that's homemade is a sign of affection.

Of course there's no time better than the holidays to have homemade sweets on hand—no time busier, either. But, happily, lots of sweets can be baked early, stowed in the freezer, and pulled out at party time, their taste, texture, good looks, and power to delight completely intact. Here's how to get it right—plus a few no-fail recipes for bake-and-freeze desserts.

Begin with butter
Pound cakes, tight-grained loaf cakes, sturdy Bundts, brownies, cookies—all the butter-based sweets—freeze best.

Freeze pies raw
Fruit pies make fine freezables, but you should get them into the freezer right after they're assembled. Then, pull out and bake.

Don't freeze creams
Meringues, puddings, custards, creams, mousses, and whips don't freeze well—some break down, some weep, and they all lose their lovely textures in the defrosting process.

Cool first, freeze second
A sweet isn't really finished until it's cooled—cooling is what sets the texture and gives the flavors time to blend.

Pack it airtight
Oxygen is what causes freezer burn. There are fancy freezer containers on the market, but old-school twist-tied plastic bags or plastic wrap is most effective. Because the seal should be snug, draw together the top of the bag, then suck out as much air as possible before shutting it tight with a twist tie.

Label everything
Put the name of your goody on the bag (mystery cakes are as frustrating as mystery meat), and mark the date that you made it.

Defrost slowly
It's best to put the frozen dessert—still in its wrapping—in the refrigerator to defrost overnight, then bring it to room temperature before serving. If you're in a rush, go directly from freezer to counter. Never defrost frozen desserts in the microwave. That's a sure-fire way to cook or melt them.

Don't be smug
You're bound to feel like a genius, a hero, a magician—even a saint—when, after pulling out all the stops for dinner, you also pull out a homemade dessert. Try not to crow.

Dorie Greenspan is an award-winning cookbook author, including Baking: From My Home to Yours (Houghton Mifflin, 2006).

Ingredients

• Cakes:
• 2 1/4 cups ground walnuts or walnut meal (available at specialty grocers)
• 3/4 cup sugar
• 1/3 cup all-purpose flour
• 1/2 tsp cinnamon
• 1/4 tsp salt
• 6 large egg whites
• 1 stick plus 7 tablespoons (7 1/2 ounces) unsalted butter
• 6 ounces finely chopped semisweet or bittersweet chocolate, or 1 cup mini chocolate chips
• Glaze:
• 3 ounces bittersweet chocolate, finely chopped
• 6 tbsp heavy cream
• 1 1/2 tbsp unsalted butter, cut into 4 pieces
• Jam (for garnish) or
• Whipped cream (for garnish) or
• Creme fraiches (for garnish)

Preparation

Step 1

Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 350 F. butter or spray a muffin tin and place it on a baking sheet.

Put the ground nuts, sugar, flour, cinnamon and salt into a bowl and stir.

Put the egg whites into another large bowl and stir with a whisk to break them up - there's no need to beat them. Pour the nut mixture over the egg whites and stir until the batter is homogeneous.

Bring the butter to a boil in a saucepan over medium heat or covered in a microwave oven. Pour the hot butter over the batter and, using the whisk or a rubber spatula, gently mix until smooth. Let the batter cool for about 5 minutes, then stir in the chopped chocolate.

Spoon batter into the muffin molds - they should be about three fourths full - and bake the cakes for 24 to 28 minutes, or until they start to come away from the sides of the molds and a thin knife inserted into the center of each cake comes out clean. Transfer the pan to a cooling rack, let the cakes rest for 2 minutes, then turn them out onto a rack to cool.

To make the glaze: put all the ingredients into a heatproof bowl over a pan of gently simmering water and heat, stirring occasionally, until the glaze is smooth.

To glaze the cakes: set the cooling rack over a sheet of wax paper and dip the bottoms - the narrow ends - of the cakes into the glaze, then return them, glazed-side up, to the rack. Let the cakes sit a couple of minutes, then dip them again.

Let the glaze set before serving or freezing. Serve with jam, whipped cream, or creme fraiche.

Storing: The teacakes can be kept in a covered container at room temperature for up to 3 days. To store for up to 2 months, put them on a baking sheet, slide them into the freezer, then, when they're firm, wrap them airtight. The best way to defrost them is to put them, still wrapped, into the refrigerator overnight. If the chocolate topping has lost its sheen, warm it with a little heat from a hair dryer.

Nutrition Information:
Per serving
435 calories
6 g protein
31 g carbohydrates
2 g fiber
35 g fat (16 g saturated fat)
52 mg cholesterol
86 mg sodium