Like so many of my recipes, this one grew out of a need to use up surplus ingredients.
I had egg whites leftover from the Spritz Cookies, hazelnut meal buried in the back fridge, and a bag of frozen sour cherries. Here’s what I ended up with…
- 100g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 4 large (59g) free range egg whites
- 45g plain (AP) flour
- 140g icing sugar mixture (confectioner’s sugar)
- 85g hazelnut meal
- 100g frozen sour cherries, pitted, defrosted on a plate and halved
- 50g dark chocolate callets (I used Callebaut 811, 54% cacao)
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 and icing sugar, then whisk in the hazelnut meal. It’s important to sift the icing sugar, or you’ll end up with hard lumps in the finished friands.
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. Add the defrosted and halved cherries and chocolate and stir very gently into the batter.
6. Spoon the mixture evenly into the six paper liners and 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.
The coarsely ground hazelnut meal added a delicious nuttiness to these, and the sour cherries and dark chocolate ensured that they weren’t overly sweet. Pete loved them!
If you don’t have hazelnut meal or sour cherries, you might like to try one of our previous friand recipes (the first link has photos of the process and a recipe for microwave custard to use up any leftover egg yolks):
Raspberry and Chocolate Friands
. . . . .
Fig Jam and Lime Cordial 
MMM! I love anything using sour cherries!
Anna, I was pretty pleased to find these in the freezer – I thought they were raspberries! :)
I had to laugh when I looked at your photos. John came in the other day and asked if I could make some mango and pistachio friands and I said, “I don’t have a friand pan.” Don’t tell!
I wasn’t in the mood for mango and pistachio anything. He told me today he would look for a pan and I felt bad but I didn’t say a word. :)
He’d love your friands!
Maureen, I love friands, but I don’t have a good run with friand pans – the little buggers always get stuck and I never seem to get the design showing up on the top. Now, if someone would just invent oval cupcake liners, that would be perfect. :)
Oooh they do look good and I always have egg whites in the freezer. I don’t have sour cherries but I do have some Maraschino cherries. They might do.
Glenda, they certainly will, but they’ll be a lot sweeter! :)
They look really good and I’m sure they would be deliciously moist with the cherries in.
Pat, they were SO moist! Pete loved them!
ohmygosh! I’m so excited…I have four egg whites in the fridge right at this moment ;)
Bernice, make some friands! Fill them with anything you want! :)
Friands are my favourite way to use up the egg whites I have left over after making ice-cream. I made some at the weekend using ground almonds not hazelnut flour and they were delicious. I topped mine with some blueberries and cranberries.
Jeannette, I usually use ground almonds as well, they give the finished cake a smoother texture, but I had to use up my hazelnut meal! :)
Tremendous friands – they looks great!
Nick, thank you! :)
You are so good at using up things! Those look very tempting and mouth-watering. I’m sure they taste delicious!
Manuela, thank you! They’re easy to make too!
Yum Yum, Celia. Your friands are calling my mouth,…Ooh yes. 😃
Sophie, they’re my husband’s favourite! :)
Love a recipe that let’s you use up excess ingredients, that’s where most of our meals and baked goods come from at the moment.
Clare, when we have backyard chooks, it takes some creativity to get through all the eggs! :)
I bet the sour cherries make these really tasty, a great way to use up left overs. GG
Thanks GG! I can’t bear to waste eggs when they’re being laid by our own chooks!
I really enjoy this kind of baking- figuratively and literally
Using up ingredients and making a delicious treat- Big Saves!
Thanks for sharing- they look wonderful/
Heidi, it’s such an easy treat to make up, and it makes a reasonable quantity – just six – enough for morning or afternoon tea for all of us, but none to go stale! :)
I keep learning – I never knew that was how you made friands. Perfect !
Claire, it’s a really fun recipe and very versatile, bet you could come up with some wonderful versions! :)
Such pretty cupcake liners, would love to go shopping with you, I could learn so much. One of those friands right at this moment would hit the right spot.
Norma, I didn’t have much luck with friand pans, and these cupcake liners are the bee’s knees – they stand up on their own, so they don’t need a tin!
I bought myself a friand pan a year or two ago, but have still not made any… bookmarking this delightful recipe now… one for my retirement baking! Thanks Celia xo
Lizzy, these are so easy that you might not need to wait! :)
Mmm, yum. I’m thinking these would be appropriate breakfast fodder with that nutritious nut meal and fruit. Yes, cake fro breakfast works for me!
Hahaha…yes, cake for breakfast. And why not, folks have been eating muffins for years! :)
I’m loving cooking with hazelnut meal at the moment. It’s such a lovely flavour. Once again a delicious looking use-it-up recipe creation!
Claire, thank you – I loved the sour cherry taste. Have to find more things to do with the rest of the bag!
I love how in your house nothing goes to waste. I do try to emulate you! I would love these friands because I just love sour cherries xx
Charlie, I’m flattered, thank you! :) Can’t say we don’t waste anything, but not nearly as much as we used to!
Cherries, chocolate & hazlenut looks and sounds like a winning combo. Nice to see you don’t need a friand pan too!
Nancy, the cupcake liners are fabulous – they’re sturdy enough not to need a pan for support. These would work well in lined muffin tins though, if necessary!
I’m a huge sour cherry fan so I’d totally gravitate towards this and perhaps add even more cherries! :D
Lorraine, I’m not sure the friand would hold together with any more cherries! :D
You know, Celia, I’ve still got about 8 pounds of pitted sour cherries in my freezer. From mid-Summer forward, I decide whether a recipe is “sour cherry worthy”. I just can’t throw these precious red gems into any old recipe. Your friands are definitely sour cherry worthy. The combo of almond and cherry flavors cannot be beat. I can’t wait to give them a try. Thanks for sharing!
John, a freezer full of sour cherries is like having gold in the safe! I think you’re right too – they would have been great with almond meal, which is probably how we’ll make the next batch, as I’m almost out of hazelnut now! xx
Waste not, want not Celia! I certainly love friands, so much nicer than muffins and the cherries would be gorgeous too :) xox
Becca, I’m not a muffin or cupcake fan, but friands are a completely different story!
Recipes from surplus ingredients so often turn out the best – perhaps because they’re made with a hefty dose of imagination and experience often times. Whatever the reason, these look gorgeous Celia!
Kari, thank you! And I think you’re right, often the things we make to accommodate what we have on hand are the best! :)
I love recipes made from leftovers – I hate wasting food :) These sound glorious!
Jas, I could have frozen the eggwhites, but I don’t tend to do that anymore. They freeze brilliantly, but I keep losing them in the freezer! :)
I wish my fridge yielded such delicious treats! :-D
Saucy, I’m sure it does, they’re just different! :)
chocolate and cherries are always a winner in my books! Great recipe xx
Thanks Lisa! I was at Harkola last week and they still have lots of moulds! But Ray has told us that they come in from Syria, so he’s not sure he’ll be able to source more after this lot is gone, so you might want to try to get in soon! xx
Thanks for the heads up Celia! Might head over on the weekend :) xx
What is a friand, exactly? I’ve never seen this word, but they look delicious!
Mimi, it’s related to a financier. They’re very light compared to a muffin…
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Friand
The friand is a new acquaintance, thank you for the introdution and links to the previous recipes. Many of my recipes get developed from what is on hand at the moment and with the hopes of something delicious and inspiring even if that “one” ingredient happed to missing! :)
Laila, I think you’d really enjoy friands – somehow I think the colours and lightness of texture would appeal to you! :)
I’ve never heard of hazelnut meal but these look so scrumptious that I’m adding that to my ‘quest’ list. I’m wondering if some place like Trader Joe’s would have it. You really have a winner with this one Celia!
Yum :) I often exchange SR flour for baking powder plus almond or hazelnut meal when making cakes… I like the extra substance and flavour they give it. What a windfall finding frozen sour cherries in the freezer.
My other use for hazelnut meal is chook stuffing. Adding hazelnut meal, chopped dried figs and a couple of sage leaves to plain bread stuffing (the G.O.’s preference) makes a lovely rich solid stuffing :)