Chocolate And Coconut Friands (Financiers)

Friands are mini cakes made with a nut meal (almonds) and egg whites. These ones are flavored with chocolate and coconut and served with a dusting of icing sugar.

It’s been an emotional week for us, waking up to tragic news from home and around the world almost every day.  Watching the horrific incident unfold on television, not very far away at Martin’s place  (a place that is dear to every Sydneysider, a street on which, possibly every visitor to Sydney might have walked) made me think several times how much we take life for granted. I can only get a sense of the grief and pain, the families of the hostages might be feeling at this time for the loved ones who they won’t see or hear again. I was constantly praying and thinking about the three young children who might not even be able to assess why their Mum wouldn’t return home like any other day to put them to bed and kiss them goodnight. As if this was not disturbing enough, the barbaric killing of school children in Peshawar came in the News. Children? Young lives who have not even seen the world. Can so much hatred exist in an human heart? As a mother, I couldn’t stop the tears flowing from my eyes. I held my children close to me and shuddered.

This was otherwise meant to be a happy time for everyone. Sharing, caring, giving..receiving..spreading joy and gratitude. I made these friands during the weekend as a gift to a dear friend. They were delicious and simple to put together. I am a friand-oholic as you might already know by the number of recipes I have dedicated to them. If you walked in to my home, at different times in a month, you would probably find a different flavour each time. I was a muffin lover until I discovered ‘the friand’. Now if I come across a new flavour or recipe of  muffin, I will instantly have this urge to make a friand with those flavours. They are so easy to incorporate new ingredients in to. I had not made chocolate friands before so I wanted to test out by adding cocoa and coconut to the batter. As I suspected they turned out great. They make a delicious gift too as they can remain in room temperature for 2-3 days (unless you are adding fresh fruit to it).

Friands are very Australian. There would barely be a cafe or a bakery in Australia where you would not find them. Sharing these today makes me feel one with my fellow countrymen at this time when we could all do with some festive cheer.

 

 

Chocolate And Coconut Friands (Financiers)
Makes 10

1 cup almond meal (ground almonds)
1 1/2 cups icing sugar, sifted
3/4 cup plain flour, sifted
1/2 teaspoon baking powder, sifted
5 egg whites
125 g butter, melted
1/4 cup dutch processed cocoa powder
1/4 cup dessicated coconut
Icing sugar/extra dessicated coconut, to dust.
Fresh red currants/berries, to serve

Preheat oven to 180 degrees C.  Lightly grease a 12- capacity muffin pan or mini bundt cake pan. Place the almond meal, icing sugar, flour, baking powder, eggwhites, butter, cocoa powder  and coconut in a bowl and whisk until combined. Spoon the mixture into the prepared pan and bake for 20–25 minutes or until the friands are golden and cooked through.
Remove from oven and release friands after 2 minutes. Cool on a wire rack. Dust with icing sugar.