Blueberry Hazelnut Friands

A friand is a French term for a bite-sized almond cake typically made in an oval shape, but suitable for a muffin pan too. They are a great way of using up leftover egg whites and other than almonds, you can also use hazelnut or pistachio meal.

This recipe uses a mix of confectioners' sugar and powdered agave (I ordered mine from Amazon), a natural sweetener made from dried organic agave syrup. Its consistency is very similar to confectioners' sugar, but much sweeter and contains 25% less calories than sugar. If you plan to use only confectioners' sugar, increase the amount of sugar to 100 grams.

100 g Butter, melted and cooled
40 g Organic powdered agave
50 g Confectioners' sugar, plus extra for dusting
40 g White spelt flour
80 g Ground hazelnut
4 Small egg whites
80 g Fresh blueberries

Preheat oven to 200C/400F. Grease eight non-stick standard-size muffin or friand holes. Melt the butter and set aside to cool.
Sift the powdered agave, confectioners' sugar and flour into a bowl. Stir in ground hazelnut. In a separate bowl whisk the egg whites until just frothy. Make a well in the centre of the dry ingredients. Gradually add egg whites, stirring with a spoon until combined. Stir in melted butter to form a soft batter.
Divide the batter among the muffin holes and sprinkle a few of blueberries over each cake. Bake for 15-20 minutes until just firm to the touch and golden brown.
Cool in the tins for 5 minutes, then turn out and cool on a wire rack. To serve, dust lightly with icing sugar.

Apt3D

Blueberry Hazelnut Friands