I have been thinking about friands for a while. Not because I had a passion for them but because I saw them as a saviour to my egg white problem. Before I made these little beauties, I had 12 egg whites in my Perth freezer and eight egg whites in my Bridgetown freezer. It was time to act.
Having decided to make friands, I needed a friand pan. To be honest, in retrospect, a muffin tray would have been more than adequate but, any excuse for something new in the kitchen!
There are lots of friand recipes out there but this one, by Stephanie Alexander in Stephanie Alexander’s Kitchen Garden Companion, struck this friand newbie as special. You just throw all the ingredients into a food processor and you can make the batter up to 24 hours before you want to bake them. Both aspects sounded pretty cool to me.
I rescued the egg whites from the freezer. I had 8 and the recipe called for 6 so I decided to up the recipe by one third.
“Are these friands going to be ready for breakfast ?” Maus asked.
Remembering what I had read about making them ahead, I responded, “Yep, tomorrow”. I prepared the batter that evening and baked them the next morning and they turned out perfectly. I filled the cups about two-thirds full and they rose way over the top of the cups. I now have my eyes on a raspberry and coconut recipe, along with a hazelnut and chocolate recipe. They should solve the egg white problem.
Ingredients:
- 160g unsalted butter
- 160g ground almonds
- 160g caster sugar
- a few drops of vanilla essence
- 6 egg whites
- 60g plain flour
- 125g blueberries
- extra softened butter and flour for preparing tray
You will need a 12-cup friand or muffin tray.
- Melt butter in a small saucepan over medium heat until lightly golden. Strain carefully into a small bowl, leaving all sediment behind. I put my butter through a cloth-lined strainer which made it very easy. Set aside strained butter until cool.
- Put ground almonds, sugar, vanilla and egg whites into a food processor. Whiz to mix.
- Add flour and pulse to combine.
- Add melted butter and pulse to combine. Don’t over-mix.
- Set batter aside for, at least, 1 hour and up to 24 hours.
- Thoroughly grease a 12-cup friand or muffin tray with extra softened butter. Lightly dust cups with extra flour and shake to coat lightly. Turn upside-down and tap to remove excess.
- Preheat your oven to 220°C.
- When ready to bake, stir the blueberries into the batter.
- Scoop spoonfuls of batter into prepared tins, filling them no more than two-thirds full.
As mentioned above, I increased all the ingredients by one third and I made 12 friands. The cups on my tray are quite large. If you are using a muffin tray, the standard recipe may be enough to fill 12 cups. If you do not fill all your cups, just put a little water in the empty ones. - The recipe says to bake, in the preheated oven, for about 15 minutes or until pale golden and firm when lightly pressed in the centre. I found the 15 minutes was insufficient. I would be inclined to cook them at a lower temperature, say 200°C, for 20 minutes and then check them.
- Cool friands in tins for a couple of minutes and then turn out onto a cake rack to cool.
- To serve, dust with icing sugar.
Passion Fruit Garden 
Will Supermarket frozen egg whites work?
I have never used them but I can see no reason why the wouldn’t.
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Glenda my mouth is watering. I must admit I think I could eat the whole lot & not feel guilty plus wash them down with a nice big cup of very hot tea. Yummy.
Deb x
Hiya Deb, I think you would be too polite to eat the lot. Surely you would leave one for me. 🙂
I’ve been telling myself to buy a friand pan for ages and every time I go to get one they’re either out of them or I think, “surely a muffin tin would do the same thing?” These look so good, I’m off to the shops!
Maureen, a muffin pan would do, but it is so much nicer having the correct pan.
I’m laughing at myself because I first read that as blueberry ‘friends’ and I thought, ok Glenda, I’m sure they make nice friends. They look wonderful and I’m glad to see the info on freezing egg whites too. I never thought that you could do that. I imagine the quantity to do together probably depends on what you might be making further down the road with them since separating them after might be tough to do.
Hi Diane, a lot of people suggest freezing them in ice cube containers. I usually freeze a couple together as you usually need more than one. If you have frozen a lot together and forgotten how many you put in the container. I have read that 30g of egg white is the equivalent of one egg white.
Blueberry firands look nice but I think raspberry and coconut would be amazing… says she who just consumed a rasberry, choc chip, cocunut muffin for morning tea. I was always impressed by friands and madelines in cafes etc, and attempting to make them was a challenge, not being a particularly sophisticated cook/baker but they are quite simple and it does help to have the right pans so they look like the real deal 🙂
Hi Ella, the pans do look cute.
Glenda, how do you freeze the egg whites, please? I always seem to use them right away in a pav or something. Guidance on how best to freeze, single? How long do they keep? Thanks. PS I have a freezer full of bananas. Once this broken foot has mended, I should make a cake!
Hi Liz, I checked a few sites, they all say 12 months for frozen egg whites. Egg yokes don’t freeze well. A lot of sites suggest freezing them singularly in ice cube trays. I usually freeze them in small containers – 1, 2 or 3 egg whites in each container. Last time I put 3 egg whites in a vacuum seal bag, froze them and then the next day vacuum sealed the bag. I hope your food is mending.
I made a meringue birthday cake to use up egg whites, I didn’t think about Friands. Yum!
Hi Sandra, I just don’t understand where all the bloody egg whites come from. They seem to invade my freezer.
Well, that looks easy enough and the finished product looks delicious. If I get organised we could have friands for breakfast too. Mind you, we won’t have the rather gorgeous china to go with them.
Hi Anne, I am sure you could dig up some china 🙂