Recipe: Almond Friands

I made these on Friday and a lot of them got eaten over the weekend!

I used to always think I was virtuous when I ordered a friand rather than a piece of cake because it was so much smaller! I have had to rethink that supposition.  There is a lot of butter in these.

When we lived in Sydney there used to be a little cafe in The Rocks DH and I would go to which had a name something to do with a Gumnut - exactly what I can't recall - and I would always order one of their berry friands.  Come to think of it, I don't think I have actually eaten a friand since then:)

Anyway, I was attracted to this recipe because it calls for only egg whites.  We have a lot of egg whites sitting in our freezer because we always freeze spare egg whites when a recipe calls only for yolks and there is only so many pavlovas and merringues one family can eat.  Last year we made so many merringues that we could hardly stomach Eton mess anymore - if you were familiar with my husband's love of cream you would know how unlikely that was!

Anyway, the recipe...

Almond Friands from Country Style June 2010

Makes 12

1 1/2 cups pure icing sugar

1 cup almond meal

1/2 cup plain flour

6 egg whites

250g unsalted butter, melted

icing sugar, to dust

Preheat oven to 180C.  Grease a 12 cup muffin tray.  Combine icing sugar, almond meal and flour in a bowl.  Whisk egg whites in a bowl with a fork.  Add to flour mixture with butter.  Stir until well combined.  Stand for 20 minutes.

Spoon mixture into prepared moulds.  Bake for 15-20 minutes or until skewer inserted into centres comes out clean.

Set aside to cool in tray until cooled to room temperature.  Turn out onto a rack to cool further.  Dust generously with icing sugar and serve.