Blueberry Friands

 

Originally published, Aug-2015, then updated by Tania, Dec-2018)

 

The word Friand (which means ‘tasty thing’ in French) does not, in France refer to a small almond tea cake. I think Friands are an Australasian version of French, Financiers, which use the same base ingredients, ground almonds and egg whites but are made with browned butter and are a different shape, rectangles, similar to small gold bars.

All my Friand recipes are also made with ground almonds as well as rice flour so are gluten free and make either 9 oval, shaped Friands or if you like, you can use a standard-sized muffin tin and get 12 smaller ones.

If you haven’t had the pleasure of eating a Friand before, they are slightly crispy on the outside and are perfectly light and fluffy on the inside. These have blueberries and sliced almonds on top and can be flavoured with lemon zest or vanilla.

Now, if you’re a regular visitor to my website and are wondering why my photography skills have suddenly improved, it’s because I didn’t take any of these pics! A few weeks ago, I had a personal branding shoot by Rachel at Focus Personal Branding Photography and she took a heap of photos of me making these Friands. They are so good that I’ve replaced all my photos in this recipe with hers, …clever of me huh?! Seriously, she’s very talented and if you’d like to know how important personal branding is and how it can help you grow your business, check out her website. 🙂

 

INGREDIENTS

250 g butter
8 medium-sized eggs (at room temperature & you will only need the whites)
2 cups / 300 g icing sugar (powdered/confectioner’s sugar)
1 1/3 cups / 135 g ground almonds
2/3 cup / 110 g rice flour
½ cup / 60 g fresh or frozen raspberries (approx)
3 tablespoons / 25 g sliced almonds

Icing sugar (powdered/confectioner’s sugar) to dust

Optional –

• 1 teaspoon vanilla bean paste, vanilla extract or the seeds scraped from a 10 cm vanilla bean
• 1 tablespoon lemon zest (from 1 small or ½ medium-sized lemon)
• To Decorate – lemon curd & some mint or angelica sprigs

 

Makes 9 or 12

 

STEP BY STEP

For this recipe, you will need a 12-hole standard-sized muffin tin or an oval hole, Friand tin (it will make 9).

First, in a small saucepan, over a low heat, melt the butter. Leave it in the saucepan and set it aside for now.

Preheat the oven to 150°C fan/convection oven or 170°C conventional oven, on bake, with a rack situated in the centre of the oven.

If you are using lemon zest, zest the lemon now and leave it aside.

Next, separate the eggs.

Place the whites into a medium-sized bowl and…

…keep the yolks to make some hollandaise or anglaise. 🙂

Lightly whisk the egg whites until they are just frothy.

• What you are doing here is just breaking them up (this shouldn’t take longer than 30 seconds). If you over whisk them, your Friands will end up with a chewy, meringue texture and when they are baking they will spread outwards in the tin rather than rise up and will be impossible to get out of the tin…..not trying to scare you, just want to spare you from making my mistakes. 🙂

After breaking up the whites, add the icing sugar, ground almonds and rice flour (also, if using either the lemon zest or vanilla) to the egg-whites….don’t mix it together just yet though!

Start whisking it all together whilst pouring in the ‘still warm’ melted butter and…

…then continue whisking until the batter is smooth and lump-free.

Then liberally spray the tin with non-stick cooking spray (including the top).

If you like (it’s a little less messy and quicker), pour the batter into a pouring jug and…

…then fill the tin, nearly to the tops.

Check that they all have the same amount of batter in them and if not, take some batter from the fuller ones and add it to the lesser ones. 

• As you can see they are quite full, but that’s okay, they tend to rise straight up and not so much outwards.

Working quickly (because they need to get into that oven) place the blueberries over the tops and…

…sprinkle the sliced almonds over too.

Place them in the oven and …bake them for 30 minutes standard-size or 35 minutes, oval, Friand size or until they are golden brown and the centres spring back when you gently push them. Also, a sharp knife or skewer inserted into the centres should come out clean and dry.

Leave them in the tin for 10 minutes (if they have overflowed, trim them with a knife).

Check the Friands haven’t stuck in the tin. If so, loosen them with a knife and then remove them and place them on a cooling rack or…

…if you are feeling brave, carefully flip the whole tin over onto a cooling rack and then turn them upright.

Make them look prettier with a good dusting of icing sugar.

I like piping or placing a small spoonful of lemon curd on top of mine and…

…then finishing them off with some small sprigs of angelica or mint.

These pretty little cakes are perfect for morning or afternoon tea, especially high tea as they are a tea cake after all!

They’re lovely served with a little bit of natural yoghurt or whipped cream. 🙂

Keepin’ em fresh – Keep in an airtight container in the pantry for up to 4 days. After the first day, to freshen them up a little, warm each one in the microwave for 20 seconds.

 

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