Annabel Langbein’s Feijoa Friands

Ready in 40 mins / Makes 8

With a fancy french name like ‘friands’, you might imagine these would fall into the ‘too hard’ basket, but they are possibly the simplest thing you’ll ever bake – no mixer needed, just a bowl and a spoon. I like to grind my own hazelnuts with the skins on, as they have loads more flavour – just blitz them to a fine, sandy texture in a food processor – but you can use storebought ground hazelnuts if you prefer. If it’s not feijoa season, swap out the fruit and flavours for something else (see variations).

Feijoa Friands by Annabel Langbein Photo: from Essential volume 2

Ingredients

• 1½ cups icing sugar, plus extra to dust
• 1 cup ground hazelnuts
• ½ cup flour or rice flour
• 5 egg whites
• finely grated zest of 1 lemon
• 180g butter, melted and cooled
• 3 feijoas, thickly sliced, plus extra to serve
• 1 cup crème fraîche, to serve (optional)

Method

Preheat oven to 160°C fanbake and grease 8 muffin or friand pans.

Sift icing sugar into a mixing bowl, add ground hazelnuts and flour or rice flour and stir to combine. Make a well in the centre, add egg whites, lemon zest and butter and stir briefly to just combine.

Divide mixture between prepared tins and top each with feijoa slices. Bake until golden brown and set (25-30 minutes). Allow to stand in tins for 5 minutes before turning out onto a wire rack to cool. Dust with extra icing sugar and serve with crème fraîche and extra feijoa slices, if desired.

Variations:

Peach and Cinnamon Friands

Replace ground hazelnuts with ground almonds, add 1 tsp ground cinnamon with the flour and replace the feijoas with slices of fresh peach.

Strawberry and Almond Friands

Replace ground hazelnuts with ground almonds and replace feijoas with 4 large strawberries, halved.

Pear and Chocolate Friands

Replace ground hazelnuts with ground almonds and replace 2 tbsp flour with 2 tbsp cocoa. Top each friand with a slice of pear and a chunk of dark chocolate instead of feijoa slices.

From ESSENTIAL Volume Two: Sweet Treats for Every Occasion