Gluten Free, Refined Sugar Free
My favourite scene from Kath and Kim is when Kath and Kel are at a cafe having a cup of tea, and when Kel goes to pay Kath says “no we’re not paying Kel. My friand was dry.” My goodness, such good memories. Kath is right though! There is nothing, NOTHING worse than a dry friand.
You may be wondering right now what a friand is. Otherwise known as a financier, it is a little French almond cake usually topped with a piece of fruit or two. I wonder if Australia is the only country to call them Friands. I think it might be a national habit to think up funny names for otherwise normal products. Why do we call granola bars muesli bars? I honestly don’t know. So whether you call them friands or financiers, that’s what I made today. But these ones are a little bit special!
When I made trifle a few weeks ago I used up twelve egg yolks. That’s a lotta yolks! The egg whites have been patiently staring at me from the freezer ever since, to the point that I can hear their little voices talking to me. “What are you waiting for Lillian? We’re ready to go!” CURSE YOU EGG WHITES. Joking…but seriously sometimes I feel my life is dedicated to thinking of what to do with leftover egg whites.
Cue friands. Friands use egg whites, and they are made with almonds! So no gluten AND no more egg whites. Well I didn’t quite manage to use up all twelve of them, but I did make them gluten free! I ground up some finely desiccated coconut and replaced the plain flour with that. And it was awesoooome.
They came out tasting so coconutty and soft and just uuugh. Yum. And burnt butter people. Don’t pretend that ship has sailed yet.
When I was researching recipes I was surprised by how unhealthy friand recipes are. Like HEAPS of sugar and icing sugar at that! Whenever I see icing sugar I think of when my friend ate a mug of it with a spoon on holidays once because she was craving sugar so much. I decided to just take a risk and replaced the icing sugar with agave nectar and the white sugar with a few tablespoons of raw sugar.
And guess whaaaat they still tasted amazing. Lil = 1, Icing Sugar = 0. The agave nectar actually kept the friands really moist so there was no worry of them drying out. The edges went deep golden because I left them in the oven a minute or two long and the filling was still super light and lovely. You could replace the raspberries with any berry or even a little piece of fruit if you like. I adapted this recipe from David Lebovitz and he mentions peaches, plums or blackberries could be nice. If you try them tell me how they go!
One Year Ago: Rich Dark Chocolate Fudge
Raspberry, Coconut and Burnt Butter Friands: Adapted from Ready for Dessert
110g (1 stick) unsalted butter, at room temperature
140g (1.5 cups) ground almonds
40g (1/2 cup) desiccated coconut
100g (1 cup) raw sugar
4 large egg whites
70ml (5 tbsp) agave nectar or honey
100g raspberries, enough for a few each
1 tsp almond extract
1 pinch of salt
Preheat the oven to 200C (390F) and line 12 small or 6 big muffin tins with muffin liners. In a small saucepan, melt the butter over a low heat. Cook slowly stirring only occasionally until the butter starts to darken and smell nice and toasty. Turn it off when you start to see brown, it will continue to cook longer after the heat it off. Allow to cool.
In a blender, pulse the almond meal, coconut and sugar until very finely ground. Pulse in the agave, egg whites, salt and almond extract. Stir in the butter and spoon into the muffin tins. Top with a couple of raspberries and cook for 15-18 minutes, until the tops are fluffy and golden and the raspberries have sunk down. They last well but taste best on the first day you made them.
Enjoy!
I love the use of agave syrup in this! And the simplicity of the recipe, will have to try it out… Can’t wait!
Thanks Sam! Hope you like them 🙂
Wow. They look great! Our local French patisserie sells these little almond & raspberry bites, excellent mini treat, these sound similar. I love the idea of the coconut, too. Mmm…
Thanks!
Ooh, they look so light and lovely 🙂
Thanks Elaine!
I’ve never heard of friands before but they sound amazing 🙂 Looks so good!
Thanks josefine! They’re very yummy 🙂
These little cakes are so cute! I love the raspberries on top and I love that you used coconut in place of flour. And ps- I have the opposite egg problem! Always, always, always, too many yolks. I make a lot of macarons and swiss meringue buttercream. We could trade, lol, if I wasn’t on the other side of the world!
Thank you! Oh my gosh we need to share eggs!
I love this recipe! Collect more and more gluten free recipe is so helpful when I have more clients requesting it! Beautifully done!
Thanks! Good gluten free recipes are hard to find so I was happy to discover this one 🙂
These look so good- loving all the flavours! I love friands, definitely need to make some soon! 🙂
Thanks Jess! You should give them a go 🙂
Haha, now that is one problem I do not have – I love egg white omelettes and frittatas. But I have to say that your solution for dealing with egg whites is much more refined 🙂 Such lovely looking friands!
I wish I liked omelettes because that would be perfect! Thanks 🙂
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Wow they look delicious! Your blog is very clean and beautiful. Thank you for this recipe I have to try it. 🙂
Thank you!
I’ve never heard of these before. They sound great 🙂
They’re so tasty!
Muesli bars are different than granola bars. Check out muesli. Can often find it in health food section in US. Raw oats with nuts, dried fruit coconut etc. serve as is with milk.