Financiers aux myrtilles (Blueberry Friands)

The Friand is a small sponge cake made with ground almonds and whisked egg whites which make the Friands beautifully light and fluffy while still being full of Blueberry flavour.

Ingredients

1 punnet of Blueberries
50 g sifted flour
50 g ground almonds
150g caster sugar
4 egg whites
75 g melted butter
1 tsp Vanilla paste
½ shot glass of Orange Flavoured liqueur

Directions

Preheat the oven to 180 degrees Celsius fan forced.

Butter a large Friand cake tin with six moulds.

In a large mixing bowl, pour the sifted flour. Add the ground almonds and the caster sugar.

In another bowl, add a pinch of salt to the egg whites. Whisk them into very stiff peaks.

Fold two or three tablespoons of the whisked eggs to the flour mix. The mixture will be easy to work with. Then fold carefully the rest of whisked eggs to the cake mixture.

Pour in the melted butter and fold into the mixture.

Add the blueberries, vanilla paste and liqueur and mix well.

Divide the mixture between the cake tins and bake in the oven for 20 minutes until the friends are golden brown.

Take the Friands out of the oven and leave them to cool for 5 minutes. Then, turn them out of  the moulds and leave them to cool on a wire rack.

Serve the friand dusted with icing sugar with some berry coulis on the side.

Tip: If you don’t have any “Friand” moulds handy, you can also use small cupcakes moulds instead.