I was reading the Observer Food Monthly on the tube home the other day and was pouring over the recipes from Nigel Slater’s new book The Kitchen Diaries II when I saw this recipe for blackberry & hazelnut friands. They looked beautiful and running over the ingredients I realised that I had everything in my kitchen cupboards. Result!
These are really delicious, moist nutty cakes perfect with a nice cup of tea. And since blackberries are in season, this is a perfect cake to make right now.
These ingredients makes 12 friands…
180g butter
50g plain flour
180g icing sugar
100g ground hazelnuts
1 tsp lemon zest
5 egg whites
60g blackberries
I didn’t need to make 12 of these so I decided to half the ingredients and make 6 which is what you’ll see in my photos.
Set the oven at 200C/gas mark 5. Lightly butter 12 shallow bun tins.
Put the butter in a small pan and melt over a moderate heat then watch it carefully until it becomes a dark, nutty gold. Take great care not to let it burn. Leave it to cool a little.
Sieve the flour and sugar into a large mixing bowl then add most of the ground nuts. Grate in the lemon zest.
Beat the egg whites to a soft, rather moist, sloppy foam – they shouldn’t be able to stand up.
Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients then pour in the egg whites together with the melted butter.
Mix lightly but thoroughly, then pour into the buttered tins.
Roughly chop the blackberries and drop into the tins.
Scatter the remaining hazelnuts over the top.
Bake for 10-15 minutes, remove from the oven, then leave to settle before carefully removing from the tins with a palette knife.
Serve with cream…
These were so quick and easy to make and so tasty, I’ll definitely be making them again.
8 Comments
Yes that seems incredibly easy. I think I will make them tomorrow! They look delish.
I hope you like them! 🙂
These look delicious! I always get drawn to make recipes with just egg whites. Any tips with what to do with all that yolk left over? It feels criminal chucking it! X
Yes I know what you mean. If I have time, I usually make lemon curd with the egg yolks. Or a lemon and lime curd. I might put up a post on that actually as its really tasty.
oooh, yes please do. I would love to try a recipe for lemon curd so would love to read about that if you do have one. Its helpful to know how to knock stuff up like that so the yolks aren’t wasted!
mmm, looks yum. I’ve been meaning to make friands for ages, and this may just be the motivation I need!
What is a friand exactly?
Its just a type of cake. Because of the addition of whisked egg whites, they’re really light and airy.