I recently bought a large bag of Callebaut Gold which are white chocolate chips which are made with caramelised milk added. This makes the chips taste of a lovely smooth caramel as well and the rich white chocolate.
So today I decided that I would make my favourite friands, which are orange flavoured, and drop some of the caramel chocolate chips on the top. I thought, as the batter was very runny that the chips may sink, which would be ok, so then I would add more during baking. But in the event the chips were light enough to stay on the top. So I have adjusted my recipe to reduce the amount of chocolate chips required.
Friands are very easy to make, and are always so moist with the rich almond flavour and texture. The addition of orange zest gives much more flavour and the those lovely chocolate chips on top give another great flavour. Of course you could use any chocolate chips you want to and they would still be great.
Although I used a friand pan for mine these cakes work very well in a muffin pan too.
My friands turned out very well indeed and were enjoyed by family members after dinner.
- 150g (1 1/2 cups)ground almonds
- 225g (1 2/3 cups)icing sugar
- 50g (6 tbsp) plain flour
- 185g melted butter
- 6 egg medium egg whites(would be large in USA)
- Zest of 2 oranges, finely grated
- 65g (2/3 cup) chocolate chips( I used my caramel ones)
Method:
- Preheat the oven to 200C/180C Fan/400F
- Grease a friand pan, or a muffin pan, and coat the insides with caster sugar shaking out the excess.
- In a large bowl place the ground almonds and sift in the icing sugar and plain flour.
- Stir the bowl to mix all the dry ingredients.
- Add the orange zest and mix to spread evenly in the dry ingredients.
- In a separate bowl, whisk the egg whites until frothy, but not soft peaks.
- Make a well in the dry ingredients and pour in egg whites.
- Stir in until combined into a thick batter.
- Add the cooled, melted butter and stir in until fully combined.
- The batter will now be of a runny consistency.
- Divide into the friand/muffin pan evenly( filling about 3/4 full).
- Sprinkle the chocolate chips over the top of the batter.
- Bake in the oven for 20 to 22 minutes, until the friands are springy to the touch.
- Remove from the oven and allow to cool for a few minutes before removing from the pan to cool completely.
Hi BumbleVee, a muffin tin will work fine. I have a friend in Prague who made my orange friands in a muffin tin. Now she cannot stop making them.
I've never seen friand tins (even spell check changes it to friends..nobody here knows about friands) …. but, then, we even have trouble finding loose bottoms tins. Ours are all the silly kind with the bottom that only goes in and out with the aid of a latch. So annoying… but, I will try some of your friands with a medium sized muffin pan. I do have 4 different sizes of muffin tins…