Easy Blackberry Heart-Shaped Friands

These cute Blackberry Friands are packed with juicy blackberries and star anise flavor to make a special sweet treat. Baked as hearts, they are especially enjoyable on Valentine’s day. You’ll be sure to enjoy these newly shaped and tasting Friands.

Jump to:

• What is a friand?
• Friands vs Financiers
• What is a friand pan? 
• Why Blackberry Friands’ recipe works
• How to make Blackberry Friands – step by step
• Expert tips
• More Valentine’s Day dessert recipes you’ll love
• Easy Blackberry Heart-Shaped Friands

What is a friand?

It is a small almond cake popular mainly in Australia and New Zealand. A friand usually has additional flavorings such as some spices, nuts, and chocolate.

Friands vs Financiers

The basic recipe of friands and financiers calls for the same ingredients such as beurre noisette (brown butter), egg whites, powdered sugar and flour.

Financiers are small French cakes baked in a traditional rectangular mold *, which resembles a bar of gold. Popular in Australia and New Zealand, friands are made in a special oval aspic moulds.

It seems that the main differences between friands and financiers are the molds used to bake the treats, in addition to flavorings such as chocolate, fruit, nuts, and coconut added while making friands.

What is a friand pan? 

Oval aspic molds * with a star or diamond imprint in the bottom of each tin are authentic molds to bake these small cakes. You can easily find them on Etsy, but you will want to buy the non-stick ones to faciliate baking.

Nowadays, friands are often made in a 12-hole non-stick friand pan *. If you don’t have one, you can easily bake these small cakes in a silicone friand mold * or a muffin pan *.

I went beyond the traditions and made friands in a mold similar to this heart-shaped silicone mold *. Well, Valentine’s Day spirit is in the air. 

These small Blackberry Friands are so cute and tasty that you do not feel guilty about these pretty cakes! Serve them with a cup of your morning or afternoon tea or coffee. Bring them to parties, picnics, or simply put them in a lunch box.

Why Blackberry Friands’ recipe works

1. The recipe is super easy to make.
2. Replacing blackberries with raspberries or blueberries makes another variation of the friand recipe.
3. Experimenting with different shapes of molds opens possibilities to create these small cakes for specially themed parties.  
4. Friands are a great lunchbox idea and make a perfect edible gift.

How to make Blackberry Friands – step by step

Preheat oven to 430 degrees F/ 220 C. Prepare a friand mold or a heart-shaped silicone mold *: butter and flour cavities and refrigerate the mold while making the friand batter.

To make the brown butter, melt butter in a saucepan over a medium heat till the golden color (photo 1). Once it is ready (look for the golden brown color, solid brown sediments on sides and bottom of the pan and hazelnut smell), pour butter in another bowl to stop cooking. Let it cool for 5 to 10 minutes. Drain through a mini-sieve and discard the solids. Set the brown butter aside (photo 2).

To make the batter, in a bowl, sift flour, powdered (icing) icing sugar, almond flour *, ground star anise * and salt. In a separate bowl, slightly beat egg whites with a fork or a hand whisk * (photo 3) for a few seconds (they do not need to be mounted). Pour beaten egg whites into the dry mixture and combine. Add the orange zest (photo 4)…

and brown butter, and mix till the batter becomes homogeneous (photo 5). Take the prepared mold out of the fridge and fill the cavities up to two-thirds. Arrange two whole blackberries on top (photo 6). 

Bake friands for 9 minutes. Then lower the oven temperature to 410 F/210 C and continue to bake for 8 to 10 minutes longer: the edges of friands have to become golden brown and the centers get a slight “bump”. Check the readiness of friands with a toothpick: the inserted toothpick comes out clean. Take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool in the mold. Remove friands and place them on a wire rack * (photo 7). Sprinkle cakes with powdered (icing) sugar (photo 8).

Expert tips

1. To make ground star anise *, crush 3 whole star anise * in a spice grinder and pass through a mini-sieve two to three times or use a store-bough ground star anise *.
2. Replace fresh blackberries with fresh blueberries or raspberries, or use frozen berries.
3. Store friands in an airtight container at room temperature for up to one week.

More Valentine’s Day dessert recipes you’ll love

• No-Bake Raspberry Oreo Cheesecake Recipe
• Strawberry And Rose Eton Mess
• Pink Praline – Candied Almonds Recipe
• Browse all the Valentine’s Day Recipes

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The recipe was adapted from https://ottolenghi.co.uk/. It was originally published in January, 2019. The recipe has been revised to include improved content and photos. All posted pictures are mine.