Recipe Post // Fruity Friands

I can honestly say I had never tasted a friand until I was asked to bake them at the cafe I used to work at - it was love at first bite! I was so proud of my friands as I watched them like a hawk until they were the perfect amount of golden brown before removing them from the oven. It got to the point where my assistant would prepare the muffins 2 days a week but she always left the friands to me!

The other bonus of these friand were they were gluten free. We used rice flour instead of ordinary flour and along with the other ingredients including egg whites, icing sugar and ground almonds you ended up with a tasty, moist little cake topped with whatever fruit was readily available.

I made these ones the other day at home for the bf to take to his work shout. (aren't I a good girlfriend?!) I just used ordinary flour as that was what I had available, but if you wanted to keep them gluten free stick with the rice flour!

Fruity Friands

4 Egg whites

3/4 C Almond meal

2/3 C Flour (or rice flour)

3/4  C icing sugar

90g melted butter 

Fruit to garnish

Set oven to 190C, on bake.

Spray a friand tin (oval shape, or you could use a muffin tin) with an oil spray or grease with a little melted butter.

Separate egg whites into a medium size glass bowl, make sure to avoid getting any yolk in your egg whites or they won't whisk! (**tip: If you struggle to separate eggs, crack egg onto a saucer, place a small glass upside down over the yolk to trap it and carefully hold saucer and glass in place while tipping egg white into the bowl - repeat for each egg) 

Measure almond meal, flour/rice flour and icing  sugar into another bowl and fold gently to combine. 
 Melt butter in the microwave in a microwave-safe dish.

Using a hand-held whisk or electric beater, whisk the egg whites until you have soft peaks. (this means when you lift the whisk out, the egg white will rise up in little peaks and fold over at the top)

Carefully pour the melted butter in to the egg whites, then add the combined dry ingredients. 

Fold all together until they are just combined - be very gentle as you want to keep the air bubbles in the egg whites so the friands will rise!

Spoon into friand tins until they are approx 3/4 full. (this recipe should make 6)

Place in oven and bake approx 5 mins, until the tops are firm-ish and starting to colour. 

Take out of the oven and place one piece of fruit on top of each, pushing it down slightly so it sticks. (the middle should still be liquid!)

Place back in the oven for another 5 - 10 mins until the tops are golden brown and the inside is cooked. 

Rest in tins for a couple of mins then place on a cooling rack. 

Makes 6. 

Hope you try them out at some point! They certainly are tasty, and actually make a nice little dessert with a scoop of ice cream or some custard...