Recipe: Raspberry, Lemon & Almond Friands (Cake)
April 8, 2015
Grace – Twitter The Print Makers Bakery
Grace – Instagram The Print Makers Bakery
Word and photos by Grace
Having complete access to a kitchen at work, even if it is a small one always means that when its a little quiet. Its time to get out some recipe books, have a flick through and see if anything takes my fancy.
I came across this very cute recipe in a book by Annie Rigg; Gifts From the Kitchen. This recipe book is full of great treats to make for family and friends, the pictures are very enticing and tempted me to test out one of her recipes “raspberry, lemon and almond friands”. These little cakes originate from France, but now the Australians have fallen in love with them, adapting them by using a range of different fruits. I have adapted this recipe by using a muffin tin, rather than a friand tin(more of an oval shape).
This recipe includes egg whites, when whisked the air in the egg whites helps to make the little cakes fluffy and light and they have just the right amount of cakey richness. A great plus to this, is that these little cakes do not contain a hell of a lot of granulated sugar, so a lot of the sweetness comes from the sharpness of the raspberries. These cakes are a great treat, the perfect snack size with a cup of tea or even a few have a few to fill yourself up!
Ingredients:
- 75 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
- 225 g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
- 100 g ground almonds
- A pinch of salt
- 135 g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
- 200 g raspberries
- 50 g flaked almonds
Method:
- Butter a 12-hole non-stick muffin tin and dust with with plain flour and tip out the excess flour.
- Preheat oven to 180 deg C/350 deg F/gas mark 4.
- Sift the flour, icing sugar and ground almonds into a large bowl and make a well in the centre.
- Whisk the egg whites in a clean, grease-free bowl until they look foamy and show soft peaks when you lift the whisk through the egg whites, the peaks should drop down slightly.
- Carefully pour the melted butter into the bowl containing the flour, icing sugar and almonds. Then add the egg whites to this mixture, use a metal spoon to carefully fold the mixture together until mixed. Do not mix vigorously otherwise you’ll eliminate the air bubbles from the egg whites and the friands won’t be light in texture.
- Spoon the mixture into the buttered and floured muffin tin, filling each hole three-quarters full.
- Add 4 or 5 raspberries to each muffin hole and scatter the flaked almonds over each muffin.
- Bake on the middle shelf for 15 minutes or until well-risen and golden brown on top.
- Leave muffins to cool for about 5 minutes before using a palette knife to carefully lift the muffins out of the tin. Leave them on a cooling rack until cooled. Dust with icing sugar if you prefer.
- Store them in an airtight container for 4-5 days.
Previous post
London Style #56 – James – Thornton Heath
Next post
London – Swan Pier