Raspberry marshmallow friands

I've been on a bit of a baking spree, eh? Last night, I took a break from baking cupcakes and decided to try a recipe from marie claire style: desserts. Part of my criteria in picking a recipe to try is 1) it has to sound yummy, 2) it has to use ingredients that aren't too chi-chi and are easily available at any supermarket, and 3) it has to be easy to make.


I had no idea what friands were, but judging by the picture, friands looked like mini-muffins. A search on the web revealed that friands are kind of like tea-cakes, with a dense and pretty moist interior, and made with almond powder. As with so many recipes, I found that following it to the letter would not provide the same result as what is shown in the picture. Actually, my friands look nothing like the picture. Hmmph. If you're interested, here's the recipe, modified to suit my tastes and kitchen:


Raspberry marshmallow friands
Makes 12

1 cup plain flour
1.5 cups icing sugar
100g almond powder (the book says hazelnut meal, but I used almond instead. Also, the almond taste came out too subtle, so I'd actually go with half a cup more)
0.5 cup desiccated coconut (I skipped this, since I don't like coconut)
5 egg whites
180g unsalted butter, melted and cooled
100g raspberries
50g small pink marshmallows, chopped (I'd say you can add more marshmallows if you want to)

1. Preheat the oven to 170 deg. (Book says 200 deg, but I think that's a little high. I'd rather bake for longer at a lower temperature to risk burning)
2. Sift flour and icing sugar together. I've mentioned this before, but I'll say it again: sifting icing sugar is a pain in the bum!
3. Whisk the egg whites in a clean, dry bowl until foamy. This means you have to beat them until they get really light, white and frothy. It could take a while.
4. Fold into the dry ingredients, together with the melted butter.
5. Set aside 12 raspberries, and fold the rest into the mixture.
6. Spoon into tins (make sure you grease them!)
7. Press a raspberry into the top of each friand. The book mentions pressing a halved marshmallow onto the top as well, but I don't recommend that. My marshmallows just melted into an awful brown gooey mess.
8. Bake for 20 min or until golden and starting to come away from the tins. I made the mistake of taking them out a little too late, as I thought they still looked a little moist.
9. Leave to cool, and once ready, dust with icing sugar to serve.

They don't look too pretty, but at least they tasted pretty good.