How would you begin to describe a cakelet as fabulous as a Friand . . . several little buttery and almond-ee bites of deliciousness doesn't even begin to do them justice . . . Similar to financiers, they are a French cakelet . . . normally composed of an ethereal mix of ground almonds and egg whites . . . and copious amounts of melted butter . . . but we won't talk about that.
I have made lemon ones in the past and they were quite quite fabulous. I have seen raspberry ones . . . but with this being the beginning of wild blackberry season . . . I could not resist baking some blackberry ones the other morning.
Oh la la! They are tres magnifique! Moreish even. Dare I say it??? I fear I must. SCRUMMY.
They do use rather a lot of egg whites . . . but not to worry, so do Angel Food Cakes and we don't refrain from baking them, do we? Of course not!
The yolks can always be used in omelets and tortillas and cakes where you want a lovely golden color. Not a real problem, but back to the Friands.
(I made cheese and mushroom omelets for us with the leftover yolks. Tres simple!)
You don't really need a special pan to bake these in, you can also bake them in good nonstick muffin tins. Just be sure to butter them really well so you don't have any sticking. I do have a special oval shaped Friand pan, but it's really not necessary . . . You can dip the finished friands in a glaze if you wish . . . or you can simply dust them with icing sugar. Or . . . and this is a tasty idea, you can top them with a white chocolate cigarello. So cute. (More about them below.)
Truth is . . . no matter how you choose to finish them . . . you will be no time in finishing them off, and by that I don't mean decorating. These are tres impossible to resist. Trust me on this. But what's a poor girl to do when faced with such delightful little temptations . . .
*Blackberry and White Chocolate Friands*
Makes 18Printable Recipe
Tasty little bites of nothing that please on many levels. Love, LOve, LOVE them! Easy to make too.
10 large free range egg whites300g sweet butter (unsalted) melted and cooled (1 1/3 cups)175g ground almonds (2 cups)370g icing sugar, sifted (2 3/4 cup plus 1 1/2 TBS)100g plain flour, sifted (1 cup)several handfuls of wild blackberries100g of white chocolate chips or chunksicing sugar to dust or the optional glaze
Preheat the oven to 190*C/375*F/gas mark 5. Butter eighteen nonstick friand pan holes well. (You can use muffin pans as well if you don't have friand pans.)
Whisk the egg whites until foamy. Add the melted butter, along with the sifted flour, sugar, and almonds. Combine lightly together. Stir in the chocolate chunks. Pour into the prepared pans, filling each 2/3 full. Drop two or three blackerries on top of each. Bake for 25 to 30 minutes, or until a skewer inserted in the center comes out clean. Allow to cool in the pan for 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack to cool completely. Dust with icing sugar to serve, or use the optional glaze to decorate.
Optional Glaze:130g of sifted icing sugar (1 cup)lemon juiceWhisk together the sugar and enough lemon juice to give you a drizzle which coats the back of a spoon. Dip the tops of the warm friands in this mixture. Set aside to allow to set.
The Cake Decorating Store recently sent me a box of mixed Luxury Chocolate Cigarello's to use. What fun! They sent me the dark chocolate, the milk chocolate and the white chocolate ones. These delicate little spirals of quality chocolate are an easy and delicious way of decorating a cake with little effort. I have yet to use them on a big cake but I can see where they would be very impressive decorating the perimieter of a layer cake. I can see the white chocolate ones, layered around my raspberry celebration cake, the top piled high with white chocolate butter cream and fresh raspberries. (Now doesn't that sound delish??)
They arrived well packed in both a sturdy Styrofoam box and layered with bubble wrap. There was no breakage to speak of, which is saying something . . . these are very delicate and I was amazed that none were broken!
Made from the finest luxury Belgian Chocolate, these come in three flavours as well as a duo option. You might find them almost impossible to resist eating like candy . . . they are that good, but they are much better saved to use as a decoration I think . . .
The white chocolate ones looked very pretty snapped in half and atop my Blackberry and White Chocolate Friands don't you thi|nk? Just a little outside clue to what is going on inside.
They retail at £7.99 for the three individual flavours, in 250g weight, or £12.99 for a full 500g in weight. It's definitely cheaper to buy them in larger quantities. You can also buy them in boxes of mixed ones at £8.99 for the 250g weight, and £13.99 for the 500g weight.
In looking at their shop I realized that I have used The Cake Decorating Store in the past several times and I had always been well pleased with their service and the quality of their goods. I bought muffin cups from them in the past, as well as some of their sugar flowers. Everything arrived in good shape and undamaged. I highly recommend.
Many thanks to them for sending me these really nice chocolate Cigarellos. I know I haven't put them to full use yet, but I do have big plans for them. I was well impressed with the white chocolate ones and I know I will enjoy using the others! I just didn't want to let another day pass without my telling you about them!
