Guest spot: Blueberry Friands recipe from The Mildred Mittens Manufactory
Posted by Fiona Nevile in Desserts | 10 comments
Shortly before Christmas, Mildred sent me this recipe for these “little light muffins which were so easy to do . . .the recipe was from my friend, Sylvia. You don’t need a mixer, thinking about it I expect they would be fun for children to make! They are yummy, and look so nice!”
Baking with children is always rewarding especially if the cooking time is under half an hour and you don’t needto drag them away from another project at the end of cooking time.
The name Friand was new to me and a brief foray onto the internet told me that a friend is a traditional French tea cake made with almonds and fresh fruit.
Mildred added, “We keep a couple of trays of Blueberries in the freezer now and just use them frozen! They work perfectly. It is also good just using egg whites, the yolks can be used up in marzipan! The Friands are a doddle to make, I like quick, easy things sometimes.”
Blueberry Friands recipe
Ingredients:
- 100g unsalted butter – melted and left to cool a bit
- 125g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
- 25g plain flour
- 90g ground almonds
- 3 medium egg whites
- Grated rind of an unwaxed lemon
- 85g blueberries
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 180c (fan 160c). Place 6 muffin cases in your muffin tin.
- Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl. Add the almonds and stir.
- Whisk the egg whites in another bowl using a hand whisk, they don’t take long! They need to be at that light, floppy foam stage.
- Tip in the egg whites and lemon rind into the dry ingredients, stir again, then lightly stir in the butter to form a soft batter.
- Divide the batter among the 6 muffin cases – I half filled each then added a few blueberries then added the rest of the batter and topped them off with more blueberries. Alternatively, you can fill the cases and throw the blueberries over the top!
- Bake for 15-20 minutes until just firm to the touch and golden brown.
- Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. Finally, dust lightly with icing sugar.
Leave a reply
Hello Mildred
That sounds delicious! Thanks for the update.
Just when you thought Blueberry Friands couldn’t get any better . . . along came PLUM Friands!
Three plums roughly chopped is just right for six muffins.
Enjoy!
Minamoo, the Friands would last for about a week . . . but for some reason they don’t usually get chance as they are gobbled up! I am sure they freeze well though 😉
I buy blueberries when they are on offer, freeze them and then just use what I need for the Friands from frozen, leaving the rest in the freezer for another day.
Hope you enjoy them!
Ooh this recipe looks fab! I’ll have to keep an eye out for cheap blueberries and try them out myself. I made some elderberry muffins over the weekend from some elderberries I had stashed in the freezer. They were really yummy but they’re getting a bit stale already. Do you have any idea how long the friands will survive in an airtight container? Cos that way I can make a largeish batch for my lunch box/afternoon snacks to last for a couple of weeks.
Hi Jax
The first ingredient is butter and the method (point 4) is when you add the butter to make the batter.
I hope that this helps.
when u say add the butter do u mean add the blueberries or should there be melted butter in there somewhere???????
Hi Pat,
Yes they look delicious. I always have a low point in the afternoon, around 4 o’clock, that has me scuttling to the shops to buy a Mars bar.
At the mo the Christmas cake is filling the gap and after that I think I will try my hand at baking these friands to pop in my lunch box.
Hi Amanda,
Poor you. Your bad back must have ruined the holiday for you. I do hope that it sorts itself out asap. The problem is finding a decent osteopath to sort it out. We are lucky as Newmarket has loads of good ones to treat the jockeys.
Hope that you are feeling better soon.
Hi Mildred
Sorry to hear that you have back problems too. Is a chipropractic a sort of chiropractor?
Thanks so much for sharing this recipe.
Hi Amanda, I am sorry to hear you are laid up with your poor back, it sounds very painful. I hope a good rest improves things . . . (I have back problems and have to go to my chipropractic monthly, he really helps get me mobile again).
I hope you are soon up and about enjoying your cooking again. The Friands make a refreshing change to all the rich Christmas food!
These do sound really good.I’d like nothing more than to be in the kitchen making them. I’m currently laid up. One cough too many has put my back out! I spent Wednesday night sleeping on the lounge floor unable to move. Thank goodness we live in a bungalow and now heavily drugged up I’m finally using the laptop Hubs had the foresight to buy me some time ago. This Christmas was obviously meant to teach me something. I’m still working out what!
I love Blueberry muffins and this sounds really yummy!!! Thanks!!!