Saturday, March 13, 2010

Raspberry Friands

These things are more than just really cute (yes, it is possible for a food to be adorable, as it turns out); they're also really good. Made with almond flour, fresh raspberries, and way more sugar than you'd like, they're the perfect little cakes for tea or hot chocolate or eating just because, and an excellent blend of sweet almondy cake and tart, seedy raspberries. Yum.
See what I mean by "cute"?
Friands
From Use Real Butter, who says the recipe is "slightly modified from Donna Hay’s Modern Classics 2"
4 oz (125g or 1/2 cup if you're boring and still use that system) butter, unsalted
1 cup almond meal
1 2/3 cups confectioner’s sugar
3/4 cup flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
5 egg whites (it's a lot of whites, so you might feel bad about wasting all those yokes. Make an omelette or ice cream or just throw them away)
1/2 tsp almond extract (optional) I recommend it, it adds the best bit of almondy goodness
1/3/ cup raspberries, fresh (or any berries)

Preheat oven to 350°F (180°C). Place butter in a saucepan over low heat and cook until melted and a light golden color. Set aside.

Place the almond meal, confectioner’s sugar, flour, and baking powder in a bowl and whisk to combine.

Stir the egg whites into the dry mix until combined.

Pour in the butter and stir until completely combined. Stir in the almond extract (optional).

Grease a dozen 1/2 cup capacity muffin tins or tins of any type. I actually went out and bought a square-tinned pan because I felt like it made it fancier. Also, I didn't want people to automatically think they were muffins, because they're really nothing like them.

Spoon 2 tablespoons of batter into each tin and plop a few berries on top. Bake 15-20 minutes or until the tops are golden and spring back when you touch them. Makes a dozen (or more). I actually had enough batter leftover for a thirteenth, but it didn't seem worth it, so I just added it to a few of the other squares. It kind of enveloped the berries a little, so I don't really recommend that if you're going for looks. You want to be able to see all the berries.

4 comments:

Adrien said...

those look delicious. can i please have one some time?

LP said...

me too please?

Jared and Megan said...

third that.

it's funny you say they're cute because as soon as I saw the picture I made a little noise in the back of my throat. the kind that if it develops a little more turns into a high pitched whine when one sees furry kittens et al.

Unknown said...

This is Megan. Just wanted to say these were so tasty! They were lovely and dense and moist and delicious. Thanks for making them last Sunday!