No-Frills Recipes ... cooking, baking & excerpts on travel

These delightful light-as-air cakes are based on French Financiers and are super easy to make.  I used the basic recipe but adjusted the ingredients for variations.   These dainty cakes can be served as afternoon tea or just with a cup of hot tea or an after-dinner dessert. Lemony Choc Chip Friands  ~  柠檬巧克力费南雪 Ingredients 80 gm melted butter 120 gm icing sugar 60 gm almond meal (ground almond) 50 gm plain flour, sifted 4 egg whites 45 gm choc chips 2 tsp lemon juice (optional) 1/2 tsp baking powder icing sugar to dust Method Sift flour, icing sugar into a mixing bowl.  Add in almond meal, mix well and make a well in the centre of the mixture. Lightly whisk the egg whites till frothy.  Pour the egg whites, lemon juice into the mixture, followed by the melted butter.  Lightly stir to form a soft batter. Scoop the mixture into the greased and flour dusted Friand pan. Bake in a preheated oven @  180 deg.C for ...

Easy to make with only a few ingredients and punctuated with a slight sweetness of fig preserve, these little Friands are ideal to serve for tea or a get together with friends.  There's no creaming of butter and sugar, just melting some butter and light whisking of egg whites which is not time consuming and which can be prepared in a jiffy. Orange Friand with Fig Preserve ~  无花果费南雪 Ingredients 100 gm melted butter 80 gm icing sugar 40 gm plain flour 70 gm alomond meal 3 egg whites Zest from an orange or lemon Fig preserve (optional) Method Sift icing sugar and flour into a mixing bowl. Add in almond meal and zest, mix well. Whisk egg whites till frothy, make a well in the centre of the dry ingrdients and pour in the egg whites. Add in melted butter, give it a good stir, and mix well. Scoop batter into a lightly greased Friand pan, about 1/4 full and add in a small piece of fig preserve.  Cover with more batter. Bake in a prehea...

I had some egg whites left from making ice cream and not to put them to waste, I made these lemony friands for afternoon tea.  Tossed in some pitted prunes to enhance the flavour and taste. Recipe for Lemony Prune Friands Ingredients 100 gm melted butter, cooled 125 gm icing sugar 40 gm plain flour  70 gm almond meal  3 medium egg whites Zest from 1 lemon 85 gm pitted prunes, chopped Method Lightly grease and flour the Friand pan. Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl, add almond meal, mix well. Whisk egg whites till light and floppy.  Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients, tip in the egg whites and lemon rind, then lightly stir in the melted butter to form a soft batter. Scoop the batter into the pan and sprinkle some chopped prunes over each cake.  Bake for 15 - 20 mins. Cool in the pan for about 5 mins. turn out and dust with icing sugar before serving. Yield :  9 Frian...

This is another French 'tea cake' with Dilmah tea .... Dilmah Cranberry and Apricot Friands.  These little cuppies are fruity, light and moist but I couldn't really detect the taste of  tea in them.  They are at their best, served warm with a hot cup of tea.   Recipe for Dilmah Cranberry and Apricot Friands Ingredients 4 egg whites 115 gm butter, melted 60 gm almond meal 80 gm icing sugar, sifted 50 gm plain flour, sifted 60 gm dried cranberries, chopped 40 gm dried apricot, chopped 1 Dilmah teabag + 60 ml boiling water Icing sugar for dusting Method Add boiling water to the tea bag and let steep for 10 mins.  Set aside. Place egg whites in a large bowl and whisk until frothy. Add melted butter, almond meal, icing sugar and flour.  Stir till well combined. Squeeze the remaining water from the tea bag and remove it.  Add tea and  chopped cranberries and apricots to the...

I've been wondering how to make good use of my Friand pan mould other than making  Blueberry Friands which I've posted earlier.  Then it dawned on me that I could also make use of this shape for cupcakes as well.  The pan mould is also a cup but only  in an oblong shape, so why not?  And so these cute little Orange Cupcakes were born!

I bought a   Friand   mould baking pan @ the Boxing Day sale and couldn't wait to try out making these .... Blueberry Friands.  A friand is a small moist cake made with almond meal and flour which originated from France.  I made these from a recipe adapted from  Exclusivelyfood.com.au   and the verdict .... not too sweet but moist and soft friands, tasted somewhat like muffins and all finished within 30 mins.!