We adore friands.
I haven’t made them for quite a while, as I managed to kill my non-stick friand pan, but decided to try them again recently with these cute little cupcake liners I found in the pantry.
The liners have been in the cupboard for ages because, truth be told, I don’t really like cupcakes.
Friands on the other hand, are delectable, moreish and incredibly addictive. Pete and Big Boy love them, so a batch of six rarely lasts more than a day in our house.
Inspired by the abundance of frozen fruit in the freezer, I’ve adapted the blueberry friand recipe at Exclusively Food to use raspberries and dark chocolate instead.
- 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 4 large egg whites
- 45g plain flour
- 140g icing sugar mixture (or plain icing sugar)
- 85g almond meal
- 80g frozen raspberries
- 50g dark chocolate callets (I used Callebaut 70%)
1. Preheat the oven to 190C or 175C with fan. Sit six sturdy cupcake liners on a tray and spray the insides of them lightly with oil. Alternatively, use a friand pan or muffin pan.
2. In a separate bowl, sift together the flour, icing sugar and almond meal. I’ve found that sifting all three results in a lighter texture, but if you’re feeling lazy, just sift the icing sugar and stir it together with the flour and almond meal.
3. In a separate mixing bowl and using a hand whisk, beat the egg whites for about a minute until they’re frothy, but not stiff.
4. Quickly but gently fold in the dry ingredients, then add the cooled melted butter. Stir until just combined.
5. Reserve six raspberries, then add the remaining raspberries and chocolate and stir very gently into the batter – you don’t want to break all the raspberries up.
6. Spoon the mixture evenly into the six paper liners and then top each with a reserved raspberry. Bake for 25 – 30 minutes, rotating the tray once during the baking time. The finished friands will be well risen and golden brown in colour.
7. Allow to cool on a wire rack before serving with a hot cup of tea!
. . . . .
And…waste not, want not…turn the four leftover egg yolks into custard in just a few minutes in the microwave! I posted this original recipe a couple of years ago, but here it is again, this time using all milk instead of milk and cream:
- 2 cups (500ml) full-cream milk (I used UHT)
- 1 tsp homemade vanilla extract*
- 4 egg yolks (from 59g eggs)
- 1 Tbsp (4 tsps) cornflour (cornstarch)
- 1/3 cup (70g) caster (superfine) sugar*
* Instead of the extract and caster sugar, I used vanilla sugar this time.
1. In a large pyrex mixing bowl, whisk together the milk, extract, cornflour and caster sugar until smooth. Microwave on high for 2 minutes until hot (my microwave is 1100 watts).
2. In a separate bowl, whisk the egg yolks until smooth. Pour the egg yolks through a sieve into the bowl of heated milk, whisking constantly as it ribbons into the hot mixture to ensure it doesn’t curdle.
3. Heat the eggy milk in the microwave on high for 1 minute, then whisk. Heat for another 30 seconds, then whisk again. Continue heating in 30 seconds bursts, whisking well after each, until the custard has thickened to your liking. Use immediately, or refrigerate until needed, with a piece of clingfilm pressed to the surface to stop it skinning.
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
I don’t know if my doctor would approve, but who cares what he thinks. :)
“Everything I eat has been proved by some doctor or other to be a deadly poison, and everything I don’t eat has been proved to be indispensable for life. But I go marching on. ” ~George Bernard Shaw
Actually, I don’t think friands are all that bad – lots of egg white and almond meal! :) But you’re right of course, we all go marching on..hehe
celia: omg raspberries, chocolate and cake!!! heaven! i had to look up what a friand was. ja! its new to me we don’t have it in puertorrico. hopefully i’ll make it soon and share with my readers.
Aleida, thank you! The almond meal makes it a very moist and tender cake!
They look so good. We are on our way home to Australia now and I am actually looking forward to getting back into my kitchen to cook something.
Deb, I’m sure it will be nice to be home! :)
Yum yums – I am very partial to friands too :)
Jo, they’re so yum, and I’m sure you could sub something for the raspberries to make them amenable to the non-red man. :)
I’ve never made friands, but seen the recipe twice this week and I now feel tempted to try them, especially after seeing yours!
Jeannette, I think it might be friand season! I saw a couple of recipes over the past week as well! :)
I kinda thought they were just muffins (rather good looking muffins) but knowing you and reading the recipe I see the difference. Now I know about friands so will need to taste them. Hope to try it soon!
Hehe…Gill, I dislike muffins almost as much as cupcakes! I think you’d love friands – I think they’re based on a French financier cake and are well known here and in NZ!
The friands look great! Maybe I’ll have time to make some this weekend.
Manuela, thank you, I hope get to try them! :)
Yum, custard! What a great recipe. Winter puddings here we come.
Jo, in summer, we make microwave custard and freeze it in the icecream maker to make vanilla icecream! Of course, in winter, we just eat it with a spoon…hahaha
They look delicious Celia – wish I could have almonds! I’ve always wondered about friands. Good idea for the microwave custard too!
C, I think you could make them with hazelnut meal as well? Does that help at all? The microwave custard is sooo easy!
I have friands on my mind as well. Going to make some this afternoon…hope I manage to stop myself from eating them all before the kids get home from school….
SG, I have to limit myself to one, or I’d eat six. They’re very moreish!
OK, these friands are going on the list of things to do over the weekend. And you just can’t beat custard ‘made from scratch’. Yum!
Clare, thank you! I hope you like them! :)
I have some very similar cupcake pans in my pantry and I just love raspberry and chocolate anything, thanks Celia.
Amanda, thanks! Looks like we all couldn’t resist the gorgeous paper cups! I had a look today at the Robert Gordon site (http://robertgordonaustralia.com/) and they had a dozen different designs! Must…resist… ;-)
I have those exact cupcake papers in my pantry. It must be a sign that I’m meant to make these this weekend.
I’m always looking for quick recipes to use up the egg yolks too. I have so many in the freezer as well cause I can’t stand to waste anything!
Claire, the paper cups were irresistible, weren’t they? Even to me, who doesn’t like cupcakes. I’m so happy to have found a use for them. How do you go with freezing egg yolks? I’ve frozen whites, but never yolks – do you whip them up first? Thanks…
I’ve just printed of the Friand recipe – they look delish with raspberries!
Today is an “at home day” so I’m making Maggie Beer’s
Lemon tartlettes in her sour dough pastry cases! This will be my first attempt at her pastry so I’m hoping it turns out just beautifully.
Dianne, I’m a big Maggie fan – I’m sure her pastry will be great! :)
I’m going to try these. I love the photos in this post. Not only are they helpful, they’re gorgeous to look at. Thanks. And what a good idea to make custard with leftovers.
Sonia, thanks so much for saying that! I was really chuffed with how pretty the photos looked. :)
Love friands too and had the chocolate raspberry combination y’day in muffin form – delicious
It’s one of those food pairings that just seems to work so well together! :)
They look lovely Celia. A raspberry and chocolate combination is a whole lot of mmmmm…. Although I shouldn’t even be looking at them, as I’ve just inhaled 2 cupcakes and feeling a little… sugary.
Brydie, they’re a little too easy to eat! We’re having so much fun with the frozen raspberries – they’re going into everything at the moment! :)
Love love love friands, I even have a friand tray, but I’m yet to find the perfect recipe so I’ll try yours soon, Writers Festival this w/e so no baking…and no we didn’t make it to Marrickville as T had his heart set on Harkola…which he loved!
I don’t know if you remember, my darling, but I had my very first friand with you. We were watching Sat morning sport, and you bought me one at the school canteen. :) So glad T loved Harkola – how much halva did he buy? Hahaha…
Friands, cupcakes, muffins – I LOVE them all. Think it’s the individual portion thing that really does it for me.
Celia what a fabulous recipe, I love the raspberry and chocolate combo and your custard is perfectly speckled with vanilla seeds.
:-) Mandy
Thanks Mandy – I have Pete and Big Boy eating custard as often as I’ll let them – BB poured muesli on his last night and had it for dessert! :)
what a divine combination – the raspberries adding freshness to the chocolate!
Thanks Fiona! They were almost too pretty to eat! :)
Hehe it’s friand time! And you’ve worn yours out? Here am I buying my first friand tin! I always thought that it was one f those tins that you would never use-but clearly not! :P And you don’t like cupcakes? I’m going to have to forget you ever said that ;) :P
I have to admit, I’m much happier making my friands in these little paper cases than I was in the tin. They always used to stick in the tin! :)
I am not a cupcake fan either. Those friands look amazing too. I want to try making that custard as well. What a great post! How long does custard usually keep for?
Susan, the custard is soooo easy, we have it in the fridge all the time now. It doesn’t last long only because the boys eat it so quickly, but I think it’s good for at least a couple of days?
I’ve never heard of “Friands” At first I thought it was a typo and you where talking about friends.
Whatever you call them, I want one. And I don’t care for cupcakes either. Right behind fruitcake and jello, they are my least favorite dessert. I’ll take a nice piece of pie, a cookie or some hot pudding any day.
Maz.
Maz, you might like these – they’re not light and fluffy like cupcakes can be, but rather moist and almondy. It’s only just not a typo – friands are our friends. :)
This is the Dredgemeisters boys here. T and J were just dared to try the custard. J said, “Mummy I don’t yike it.” T said “devine.” and then he said “yeah baby.” This from a boy who has rejected his great grandmother’s fabulous custard for years. Passed down thru the generations only to halt in the face of fjalc’s superior offering. Oh well …
Yeah, baby. The boy is a star…hahaha
Never heard of friands. It took me a double take to see you weren’t writing about raspberry and chocolate friends. Sound like good friends to have though.
These are on the to-do list.
When Small Man was young, he wouldn’t eat onions. We used to tell him “onions are our friends”. Of course, he would then reply, “I don’t want to eat my friends”. ;-)
But friands, now they’re friends we eat. ;-)
Love this :) Friends we eat :)
These look wonderful Celia! Never heard of friands before. I’d love to try these. Do you make your own almond meal or do you buy it in a bag? I just happen to have some frozen raspberries and some dark chocolate in the cupboard screaming to be used. Thank you for educating me re: another unheard of culinary delight!
Thanks Melanie! I buy packaged unblanched almond meal for this. Friands are a common cafe offering here in Australia! :)
Friands are everyone’s friends! Yours look spectacular. And I love the idea of making custard in the microwave… so easy!
Bondi Girl, thank you! And the microwave custard makes five minute winter dessert a snap! :)
I really like this. Never heard of friands before.
Thanks Norma, hope you get a chance to try them! :)
Your dialogue with Big boy (int he sidebar on Grace) made me laugh….not only giggle. I love Friands – I always think of them as the fail-safe/guaranteed option to making macarons as they have a similar ingredient list! And the cupcake liners are cute. Have a blessed weekend.
Oz, I never thought of friands and macarons as being related, but you’re right of course! Hope you had a wonderful weekend too!
I’ll tell you a secret… cupcakes aren’t my favourite either! They are so often a case of style over substance, and soooo sweet. They can look amazing, and there in lies their beauty, buuuut… friands are definately my cup of tea!
I read some of the comments and they can certainly be made perfectly with hazlenut meal, and are even nicer. And egg yolks can be frozen, but need to be stablized with something- usually sugar. So I mix up a few with a couple of tablespoons, lable and freeze. But why bother when you can make this yummy custard instead?
Becca, thank you – good to know they work even better with hazelnut meal! And also for the tip on how to freeze egg yolks – after all, there really is only so much custard one can eat. :) We often use up egg yolks to make shortbread freezer cookie dough as well (recipe is on the Cakes and Cookies page).
These look great, and I too have never heard of them! but will maybe try them over the weekend with ground almonds! Thanks.
Thank you! Hope you enjoy them! :)
These look gorgeous Celia and what a wonderful combination of raspberries and chocolate too. I have yet to make friands – it’s the what to do with all the egg yolks (and if you don’t want custard) that partially puts me off. But they are on my list. I like the name which I keep mistaking for friends. I’m a bit shocked by your cupcake confession though.
Choc, yes, a couple of friends (not friands) are appalled at my lack of cupcake love. In my defense, I’m married to a staunch anti-cupcake campaigner, so they’re rarely made here anyway. I think I did make them once a couple of years ago, although that was the last time!
While I think these friands look delectable I’m really taken with the microwave custard! I’ll be trying this very soon as I have only occasionally made custard from scratch with mixed results. Thanks for reposting the recipe.
Sarah, hope you enjoy it! Since we’re in a bit of a friand baking phase, there’s always a jug of custard in the fridge at the moment.. :)
Hi Celia,
I just came back to this to get your custard recipe again and noticed your question. To be completely honest they’re all still in the freezer! I freeze individual yolks in ice cube trays. When I finally do something with them I’ll let you know how it goes.
Celia, I too have ‘come back’ to tell you that I finally got around to making the friands yesterday and can thoroughly recommend them to everyone, they are delicious! I used the original recipe to make them, ie. topping them with frozen blueberries and I used my new friand silicone mould which I found in a local kitchen shop, couldn’t believe my luck! I will definitely be making these again, what a lovely way to use up all those egg whites left over from making ice-cream.
Finally got around to making these beauties! Perfect buns for grown-ups. Thanks!
[…] Muffins from Good Food: 101 Cakes and Bakes are filling though not as luxurious as these friands from Celia at Fig Jam and Lime Cordial. Since HoneyB was helping, she deemed it very necessary to […]