Kumquat Marmalade and Citrus Financier

Kinkan (Kumquats) I haven’t written about it here on this blog, but now I have a new nighttime job. Yesterday someone brought bunch of kinkan (kumquats) to the office, and this was my share of this lovely-looking citrus. To be honest, I’m not too crazy about kumquats. In my childhood, my grandma once boiled them with bunch of sugar and made me drink the soup when I had a bad cold. It was sweet but the bitterness from the rind was very unpleasant to me. Then she made me eat the boiled kumquat. Actually it tasted better, being less bitter from the boiling. But after eating a couple of them, I nauseated. (Sorry.) So I didn’t know what to do with these kumquats. The only thing I knew was that I didn’t want to eat them raw. And I ended up with the same old solution… marmalade. Hahaha… I googled and found some kumquat jam recipes on the net. They were so simple… Wash kumquats, boil them (to take away bitterness), halve, seed and chop them, then simmer with sugar and lemon juice for about an hour. And the amount of sugar was supposed to be apx. 50% of the weight of the seeded kumquats. Easy enough. When the kumquat marmalade looked done, I immediately tried it on buttered toast. Not bad…But I would never call it my favorite. Then what should I do with these three small jars of kumquat marmalade that I’m not too crazy about? Here comes the same old solution: Use it for baking. :P Hence, my first attempt with this cake. Kumquat citrus Financier When I posted about my angel food cake last year, I believed that it was the best way to use up the frozen egg whites. Well, not any more. From now on, “financier” will be my first choice. I know that it’s probably a less healthy choice, but think about the wide variety of flavors I can play with: cocoa, matcha, tea, citrus, fruits and various kinds of liquor, too… :) See the minced kumquat rind? BTW, now I’m terribly intrigued by those silicon mini-financier molds. But my concern is that most of them would probably be too big for my small oven-cum microwave. I mean, they would fit, but won’t be able to turn with the turntable inside the oven. Does anyone know if those silicon molds (Matfer, Flexipan, etc.) can be cut with scissors or something? Categories: Sweets