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.
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