I fell in love with Friands a few years ago when I discovered a fabulous recipe on What Katie Ate. It is the single recipe which inspired me to want to buy her cookbook, and I have to say, I fell in love at first bite!! This recipe today I am showing is inspired by one I found in the Hamlyn book 200 cakes and bakes for a raspberry and coconut version.
It only makes 9 versus 18 and is every bit as delicious as Katie's. I chose it because not only does it make fewer which is much more realistic in my tiny kitchen/home/family, but it also uses fewer egg whites, which means I have fewer egg yolks to dispose of. (Spaghetti carbonara is the perfect way to use these up by the way!)
Some of you may be wondering what exactly a friand is. A friand is a small almond and butter cake, usually containing fruit of some kind, and is closely related to the French Financier cake. Meant to be just a few bites, they are fabulously delicious and quite popular cakes in Oz and NZ.
Today I have decided to use blueberries in the cakes, as well as finely grated lime zest . . . blueberries, coconut and lime are a beautiful trinity of flavours and textures.
These cakes are just gorgeous . . . delicious flavours . . . and the texture of the cake is just beautiful . . . with crisp buttery edges . . . and a light crumb that almost floats away . . .
But again, that is not all as they are also a tiny bit chewy . . . almost in a macaroon kind of a way, if you know what I mean.
I also think they are very pretty, and would work well on the tea table . . . impossible to resist . . .
I think you could replace the blueberries with any fruit . . . chopped fresh apricots would be lovely, especially if you replaced the coconut with an equivalent amount of finely chopped toasted pistachio nuts . . . mmmm . . . in that case, I would also add ground cardamon, just a pinch and leave out the lime zest.
No need to worry if you don't have a friand pan. A friand pan is a baking tin like a muffin tin except that the holes are oval in shape, which gives you the traditional oval cakes . . . but if you don't have one, feel free to use a medium muffin tin. They will still bake up beautifully. My friand tin only has six holes and I always use 3 muffin cups to make up the lot. Not a problem.
These cakes are so beautiful and light they almost float . . . like an angel's wings . . .
I really think you are going to also fall in love . . . really . . .
*Blueberry, Lime & Coconut Friands*Makes 9Printable Recipe
These lovely little cakes are very simple to make and oh so moreish. Almost dangerously so!
75g plain flour (1/2 cup +1 TBS)200g icing sugar (1 1/2 cups +2 tsp)125g ground almonds (scant 1 1/2 cups)50g dessicated coconut, unsweetened (2/3 cup)the grated zest of one lime5 egg whites175g butter, melted (3/4 cup)fresh blueberriesicing sugar to dust
Preheat the oven to 200*C/400*F/ gas mark 6. Butter your friand tins (or muffin tins) well and set aside.
Sift together the flour and icing sugar. Stir in the almonds, coconut and lime zest. Beat the egg whites until stiff. Fold into the flour mixture. Stir in the melted butter until thoroughly combined. Divide the mixture evenly between the prepared friand tin cups/muffin cups. Top each with a few blueberries.
Bake for 18 to 20 minutes until golden and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean. Let cool in the tins for 5 minutes before tipping out onto a wire rack to finish cooling. Dust with icing sugar to serve.
My brain is going a mile a minute here this morning thinking of other flavor combinations. Chopped fresh pear with candied or preserved ginger. Cubed apples and cinnamon. The sky is really the limit! Bon Appetit and Happy Weekend!
