Friands Almond Cakes Food

RASPBERRY AND PISTACHIO FRIANDS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to 350°F/180°C/160°C fan/gas 4. Melt the butter in a small pan, then remove from the heat and leave to cool a little. Grease eight holes of the friand (or muffin) tin with a little bit of butter.
• Blitz 85g (2/3 cup) of the pistachio nuts in a food processor with the confectioners' sugar until very finely chopped. Tip into a bowl with the ground almonds and flour and mix together. Roughly chop the remaining pistachio nuts and set aside.
• Froth the egg whites lightly with a fork, then pour into the nuts and flour mixture with the melted butter and mix well.
• Pour the mixture into the friand tin holes, add a few raspberries to each one, then scatter with the chopped pistachios. Bake for 20-25 minutes until the friands are risen and springy to the touch and a skewer inserted comes out clean.
• Serve warm or at room temperature. Dust with a little confectioners' sugar if you like. They should be light and chewy!
• Twist:
• Pecan Pie Friands: Make the friand recipe above, swapping pistachios for 100g (1 cup) pecans and the raspberries for 75g (2.6 oz) chewy toffee, chopped into small pieces. Sprinkle the toffee over the friand batter before baking.

SUPER EASY ALMOND FRIAND

Steps:

• Gather the ingredients.
• Preheat oven to 350 F. Sift flour into a large bowl.
• Add sugar and ground almonds and stir well.
• In a separate bowl, whisk egg whites until foamy and light-but not firm peaks (you are not making meringues).
• Add egg whites to dry ingredients, add butter, and gently stir everything together until you have thick batter.
• Place 6 small, lightly greased loaf tins (they should hold about half a cup of liquid) onto a baking sheet. Using a dessert spoon, fill 3/4 of each tin with batter. Clean up any spillages or batter on the cake tin rim or sides.
• Cook in center of oven for 15 to 20 minutes, or until risen and golden brown; when center is pierced with a toothpick, it should come out clean.
• Leave cakes in tins for 5 minutes, then remove and leave to cool on a wire cooling rack.
• Once cooled, dust with icing sugar, if using.

BLUEBERRY & LEMON FRIANDS

Steps:

• Preheat the oven to fan 180C/conventional 200C/gas 6. Generously butter six non-stick friand or muffin tins. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
• Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl. Add the almonds and mix everything between your fingers.
• Whisk the egg whites in another bowl until they form a light, floppy foam. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, tip in the egg whites and lemon rind, then lightly stir in the butter to form a soft batter.
• Divide the batter among the tins, a large serving spoon is perfect for this job. Sprinkle a handful of blueberries over each cake and bake for 15-20 minutes until just firm to the touch and golden brown.
• Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. To serve, dust lightly with icing sugar.

FRIANDS

Steps:

• Pre-heat oven to 200deg.
• C.
• Lightly grease 12 friand moulds.
• If friand moulds are not available, muffin tins can be used.
• Place dry ingredients in a large mixing bowl and stir to combine.
• Add egg whites and butter and stir again until the mixture is smooth.
• Spoon evenly into friand moulds and bake in the oven for about 20 minutes or until the tops have started to crack and the edges are golden brown.
• Remove from oven and allow to rest in moulds for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire cake rack to cool completely.
• Dust friands with icing sugar before serving.
• Variations: Before baking, friands can be topped with raspberries, rhubarb or blueberries.
• 2 tablespoons poppy seeds and the grated rind of 2 lemons, oranges or mandarins can be added to the dry ingredients.
• If using citrus in the mixture, a glaze of melted marmalade can be brushed on the cooked friands whilst they are cooling.
• Friands are best eaten on the day they are made.