friands

Living in this part of the world, you don't see any friands around. If an Australian were to crave one, the closest thing to a friand would be the financier. Even if you manage to get your hands on a decent financier, they will never be enough to satisfy because even if it was dense and moist, how can something so shallow and rectangular ever be the same as a friand which is oval-shaped and three times as tall? They're just not the same.

However, I started baking friands not because I was craving them, but because on numerous occasions I would have a bunch of egg whites leftover from making custard or ice cream, and I needed to find another way to use my egg whites as I often didn't have the time to make macaroons, or the inclination to make pavlova. And now I bake friands when I have leftover egg whites, as they are incredibly easy to make and take hardly any time at all. I started off with raspberry, made blueberry ones a few times, and the latest incarnation have been lemon and poppyseed.

After several attempts, I have learnt -

• My friands get mistaken for cupcakes or muffins (depending on whether I make 12 or 6) because I am missing the all-important oval shaped friand tin.
• Wash the berries before use, but make sure they are very dry before adding them - my first batch of raspberry friands turned out rather soggy.
  
• Don't beat the egg whites until foamy, as most recipes I've encountered so far instruct; I found the friands came out too light and fluffy (and far too indistinguishable from normal muffins/cupcakes). To get that heavy denseness, just add the egg whites unadulterated to the dry ingredients.
  

Below is a recipe that has worked for me. I've adapted the original recipe (which can be found here) slightly to suit my preference :)

Ingredients

• 100g butter


• 4 large egg whites


• 45g (1/4 cup plus 2 1/2 teaspoons) plain flour


• 140g (1 cup) pure icing sugar


• 85g (2/3 cup, lightly pressed into the cup with the back of a spoon) ground almonds (or almond meal)


• 1 tsp vanilla extract


• Extra icing sugar, for dusting

and for the variations

• About 40g (about 30 large) blueberries or raspberries if making berry friands


• Zest of 2 lemons if making lemon friands


• 1/4 cup poppy seeds if making lemon poppy seed friands
  

Method



Preheat oven to 190 degrees Celsius (170 degrees Celsius fan-forced). If you are not using a fan-forced oven, adjust the oven rack to the middle position so the friands brown evenly.

Grease a six hole (1/3 cup capacity holes) non-stick oval friand pan, or six individual 1/3 cup capacity friand pans. If you don't have a friand pan, you could use a muffin pan with 1/3 cup capacity holes.

Melt butter and set aside to cool to lukewarm.

Put egg whites, vanilla extract, flour, icing sugar, ground almonds (and lemon zest if using) in a bowl and stir together until just combined.

Add the melted butter to the bowl and stir until just combined.

Divide mixture evenly among the holes of the prepared pan.

If using berries, place a few in a cluster in the centre of each friand.

Bake for about 25 minutes (or roughly 17 minutes if making 12 friands in a muffin tray) or until the friands are a light golden colour and spring back when lightly pressed. A thin-bladed knife or wooden skewer inserted into the centre of a friand should come out without any raw-looking batter attached.

Remove friands from the oven and allow to stand in the pan for five minutes.

Remove friands from the pan and dust with icing sugar to serve



(pictures to come)