Blackberry friands are little almond cakes made with brown butter and packed with juicy blackberries and star anise flavor. Baked to perfection, they make the best snack option for your afternoon teatime.
After making classic French financiers, it is time to give a try their Australian or New Zealand cousins - friands.
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 coffee or afternoon tea. Bring them to parties and picnics, or put them in a lunch box.
What is a friand?
Friand is a small almond cake popular mainly in Australia and New Zealand. A friand usually has additional flavorings, such as spices, nuts, and chocolate.
Friands are baked in authentic oval aspic molds or a modern friand pan. If unavailable, you can bake friand cakes in a silicone friand mold or a muffin pan.
Blackberry friand recipe
- This easy friand recipe is perfect for a novice and professional baker.
- Experimenting with different shapes of molds opens possibilities to create cakelets for specially-themed parties.
- Friands are a great lunchbox idea and make a perfect edible gift.
Ingredients
For ingredients and detailed instructions, refer to the recipe card below.
- Butter: The recipe calls for unsalted butter.
- Flour: Use all-purpose flour, the same as plain flour.
- Icing sugar: Make it at home using a coffee grinder or use store-bought powdered sugar (confectioners' sugar).
- Almond meal: Use coarse almond meal or ground almonds. If unavailable, replace it with finely ground almond flour.
- Star anise is optional, but it brings a beautiful flavor you don't want to miss. Use ground star anise or make it yourself by crushing three whole star anises in a spice grinder and passing it through a mini-sieve two to three times.
- Egg whites: Separate egg whites from the egg yolks using an egg separator while the eggs are cold. Then, bring egg whites to room temperature.
For leftover frozen egg whites, be sure they are completely thawed and at room temperature before beginning the recipe.
Use leftover egg yolks to make creme Anglaise, Italian pastry cream, or Torta Mimosa.
- Salt enhances the flavor of friands.
- Blackberries are the stars of friands. Choose fresh blackberries or substitute with fresh raspberries or strawberry slices. Frozen berries can also be used, but keep them unthawed to prevent color "bleeding" into the batter.
How to make blackberry friands
Step 1. Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Prepare a silicone friand mold (no need to grease it). If you use a nonstick friand pan, butter and flour its cavities, and refrigerate the tin until ready to use.
Pro tip: If using a silicone mold, read how to bake with silicone molds.
Step 2. To make the brown butter, cut the butter into small pieces and place it in a small saucepan. Bring the pan over low to medium heat and melt the butter until golden brown color.
Watch out for solid browned milk solids on the sides and bottom of the pan and a hazelnut smell.
Pro tip: Consult the brown butter recipe for step-by-step photographed explanations, helpful tips, and tricks.
Step 3. Pour the butter into another bowl to stop cooking, keeping the browned solids. Let the brown butter cool to room temperature.
Step 4. To make the friand batter, sift all-purpose flour, icing (powdered) sugar, almond meal, ground star anise, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
Step 5. In a clean, separate bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer or a hand whisk for 15-20 seconds (photo 1).
Step 6. Pour egg whites into the flour mixture and stir until combined. Add cooled butter and mix gently until just combined (photo 2).
PHOTO 1
PHOTO 2
Step 7. Take the prepared mold out of the fridge and fill the cavities up to two-thirds. Arrange 1-2 whole blackberries on top (photo 3).
Step 8. Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the edges become golden brown. Test with a toothpick: inserted in the center of the cake, it should come out clean.
Step 9. Take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool in the mold for 3-5 minutes. To help loosen them, use a butter knife to run carefully around the sides of each friand.
Step 10. Turn the pan onto a wire rack and let the cakes cool completely (photo 4).
PHOTO 3
PHOTO 4
To serve, dust friands with icing sugar.
Expert Tips
- Avoid overwhipping egg whites: they shouldn't be mounted.
- If you use a metal friand pan, bake your friands at 355°F (180°C) for 20-25 minutes.
- This recipe is created to make 8 friands. If you have a friand mold with 12 cavities, multiply the recipe ingredients by 1.5.
- The friand batter fills about ten cups of a regular muffin tray. Bake at 355°F (180°C) for 15-20 minutes (use a toothpick test).
Storing and freezing
Friands are best eaten on the day of baking. Store blackberry friands in an airtight container at room temperature for 2 days.
Can you freeze friands? You can freeze friands for up to 3 months. Wrap them up one by one in double plastic film, then aluminum foil and freeze.
Bring friands to the refrigerator overnight or the kitchen counter for a few hours to thaw. Reheat them in a moderate oven for about 15 minutes and microwave on high (100%) for about 20-30 seconds.
Recipe FAQ
You can replace almond meal with almond flour or another nut flour, such as hazelnut or pistachio flour.
To prevent friands from sticking to the pan, use the softened butter to grease a friand tin, then dust with flour and tap the excess flour.
Looking for French teacakes? Try these next!
- Raspberry financiers
- Chocolate financiers
- Raspberry friands
- French madeleines
- Lemon poppy seed madeleines
- Or browse all the small cake recipes
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PrintBlackberry Friands Recipe
Blackberry friands are little almond cakes made with brown butter and packed with juicy blackberries and star anise flavor. Baked to perfection, they make the best snack option for your afternoon teatime.
- Total Time: 1 hour
- Yield: 8 friands 1x
- Category: Cakes
- Method: Baking
- Cuisine: Australian
Ingredients
- 6.4 oz (180 g) unsalted butter
- â…“ cup + 7 teaspoon (60 g) all-purpose flour
- 1 ½ cups + 5 teaspoon (200 g) powdered (icing) sugar
- 1 ¼ cups (120 g) almond meal (ground almonds)
- 1 ½ tsp ground star anise (optional)
- ½ cup + 1 ½ tablespoon (150 g egg) whites (see note #1)
- 1 pinch of salt
- 8-16 fresh blackberries
* If needed, please refer to Baking Conversion Charts.
Instructions
-
Preheat the oven to 340°F (170°C). Prepare a silicone friand mold (no need to grease it). If you use a nonstick friand pan, butter and flour its cavities, and refrigerate the tin until ready to use.
-
To make the brown butter, cut the butter into small pieces and place it in a small saucepan. Bring the pan over low to medium heat and melt the butter until the golden color. Watch out for golden brown color, solid brown milk solids on the sides and bottom of the pan, and a hazelnut smell.
-
Pour the butter into another bowl to stop cooking, keeping the browned solids. Let the brown butter cool to room temperature.
-
To make the friand batter, sift all-purpose flour, icing (powdered) sugar, almond meal, ground star anise, and salt in a large mixing bowl.
-
In a clean, separate bowl, beat egg whites with an electric mixer or a hand whisk for 15-20 seconds. Pour egg whites into the flour mixture, and stir until combined. Add cooled melted butter and mix gently until just combined.
-
Take the prepared mold out of the fridge and fill the cavities up to two-thirds. Arrange 1-2 whole blackberries on top.
-
Bake for about 20-25 minutes until the edges become golden brown. Test with a toothpick: the inserted toothpick comes out clean.
-
Take the cakes out of the oven and let them cool in the mold for 3-5 minutes. To help loosen them, use a butter knife to run carefully around the sides of each friand. Turn the pan onto a wire rack and let the cakes cool completely. To serve, dust friands with icing sugar.
Notes
- 150 g egg whites are approximately equal to 4 raw fresh egg whites from extra large size chicken eggs.
- To make ground star anise, crush 3 whole star anises in a spice grinder and pass through a mini-sieve two to three times.
- Avoid overwhipping egg whites: they shouldn't be mounted.
- If you use a metal friand pan, bake your friands at 355°F (180°C) for 20-25 minutes.
- This recipe is created to make 8 friands. If you have a friand mold with 12 cavities, multiply the recipe ingredients by 1.5.
- The friand batter fills about ten cups of a regular muffin tray. Bake at 355°F (180°C) for 15-20 minutes (use a toothpick test).
Nutrition
- Serving Size: 1
- Calories: 387
- Sugar: 26.3 g
- Sodium: 168 mg
- Fat: 25.9 mg
- Saturated Fat: 12.1 g
- Carbohydrates: 35.3 g
- Fiber: 2.5 g
- Protein: 6.3 g
- Cholesterol: 48 mg
The nutritional information has been calculated using an online recipe nutrition calculator such as Verywellfit.com and is intended for informational purposes only. These figures should be used as a general guideline and not be construed as a guarantee.
The recipe was adapted from https://ottolenghi.co.uk/. It was originally published on January 20, 2020. The recipe has been updated and may differ from what was originally published.
For reference, if you have made this recipe previously and want to replicate it, the friand batter called for one teaspoon of orange zest added at the time with brown butter.
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