Friands are just divine and shout ‘French bakery’ very loudly, although the direct translation is more along the lines of ‘fond’ delivered in dulcet tones.
Regardless they are elegant and delectable!
While I still create plenty of baking for my family with regular flour I am always on the look out for gluten free treats for me to enjoy too. More than just a cupcake but not as bulky as a cake they are almond based, delicious and best of all, gluten free.
….oh, and another fabulous excuse to use up my seemingly non-depleting bucketful of plums.
While they look glorious in the French bakery with their distinctive oval shape, not many of us have metal friand tins lurking in our kitchen cupboards. So I used a regular muffin tin to see if the results were the same. Perfect, in my humble opinion!
I think when using muffin tins the secret is to not over-fill the moulds, if using tins rather than silicone, ensure they are well greased. My first batch (3/4 full) spilled over the top, then retreated in the cooling process making them look more like bungled flower pot muffins than anything particularly elegant. My second attempt was spot on, making 12 with plenty of batter to spare to make another 6.
Bearing in mind I am on a mission to use up as many plums as possible this is a Plum Friand, but this recipe would work really well with virtually any berry or stone fruit, fresh or frozen.
The taste? Zingy, zesty and moist with a sweet yet sour fruity top. Delicious.
Plum Friands
Ingredients
- 200g butter
- 1/3 cup gluten-free flour (or regular flour if gluten isn’t an issue)
- 1 3/4 cup icing sugar
- 1 1/3 cup almond meal
- lemon zest of one lemon
- 5 egg whites, room temperature
- 6 fresh plums
Method
- Preheat oven to 175°C, fan bake.
- Melt butter in a saucepan and allow to cool and set aside.
- Mix flour, icing sugar and almond meal and lemon zest in another bowl.
- In a glass or stainless steel bowl, beat the egg whites until white and fluffy (although they don’t need to be soft peaks necessarily). Fold the egg whites into the dry ingredients until well combined, the finally fold in melted butter.
- Spoon the batter into pre-greased muffin tins (if you don’t have friand tins) no more than 1/2 full.
- Wash the plums, cut in half and de-stone them. Place half a plum skin down into the batter of each friand and press down gently.
- Bake for 20-25 mins until golden brown (or 30-35 mins if using a regular ‘bake’ setting).
- Cool. Dust with icing sugar. Devour.
What you can’t eat fresh, freeze in an air tight container. They defrost well and still taste great.
That marks Day#3 of my 7 day challenge with plums. Looking good so far! Check out how to Freeze Plums and my Good Morning Plum Smoothie….and see what the rest of the week brings!
February 6, 2022
I needed to sub a few things but turned out very delicious! Used olivani instead of butter to make dairy free, and subbed coconut flour for half of the ground almonds as was running low.. used orange zest instead of the lemon. Thanks for the recipe!
February 7, 2022
Hi Grace, thanks for trying them…and for your awesome suggestion to make them dairy-free too. I’m sure there’ll be many readers who appreciate your input. Cheers >>Julie