Raspberry Friands

Friand Recipe

If you are someone who, like me, makes a lot of custard, pastry or shortbread, you might find yourself with a lot of leftover egg whites.

I follow Nigella Lawson’s tip to freeze egg whites in small zip-lock freezer bags – usually in pairs – which means that I always have egg whites on hand to make pavlovas, meringues, and friands.

What are Friands?

Friands are small almond-based cakes which use egg whites as the raising agent.

In France, they are known as financiers. But the story goes that a French chef working in Australia reinvented the humble financier by baking them in an aspic mould to produce what is now popular in many Australian cafés and bakeries.

What is a Friand Pan?

A traditional French aspic mould is oval in shape with an embossed star pattern at the bottom.

In Australia, these aspic moulds are sold in a tray with 6 to 12 holes, much like a muffin pan. They are hard to find outside of Australia, but you might find some stockists on Amazon.

Individual aspic moulds are sold in France and I recommend buying the non-stick variety for baking. You can find them with or without the embossed star pattern. I bought my individual aspic moulds from E. Dehillerin but you might also find them in other specialty kitchenware stores in France or online.

I also own a large collection of vintage aspic moulds which I collect whenever I get a chance to visit the flea markets in France. They also work well for baking, but you need to be extra careful about greasing the pans. I use a non-stick baking spray, plus a light dusting of flour, to make sure that the cakes slip out easily.

Mini Raspberry Friands

One of my friends recently alerted me to the existence on mini friand pans and I knew right away that I had to have one!

My children absolutely adore eating friands and I knew that I had to get the mini friand pan for them. Or that is my excuse anyway 😉

My mini friand pan has 20 holes and you would need to halve the recipe below to make just enough batter to fill them.

In hindsight, I should have bought two mini friand pans because they disappear very quickly!

If you don’t have a mini friand pan, you could also use a mini muffin tin.

How to Make Friands

Friands might sound fancy, but they are a doddle to make. In fact, this is a recipe which I let my children “help” me make because it is kid-proof and fool-proof.

If you are using leftover frozen egg whites, make sure you defrost them first and let them come to room temperature before using in this recipe. It is best to defrost frozen egg whites overnight in the fridge, but I usually defrost them in a bowl of warm water.

The egg whites should be whisked until they are white and frothy, and you can easily achieve this with a hand-held whisk. However, I am a lazy baker and do everything with my KitchenAid; I use one bowl to whisk the egg whites and another for the rest of the ingredients.

You can use fresh or frozen raspberries in this recipe, or any berries for that matter. Sliced plums also work great in this recipe.

Once you start making friands, you will find that they are incredibly easy to make and that the variations are endless.