Friday, April 20, 2012

French Fridays with Dorie - Coconut Friands


Today's recipe schedule for the French Fridays with Dorie group calls for Coconut Friands.



As Dorie Greenspan mentiones in her introduction to the recipe, Friands and Financiers are both very popular small French tea cakes. The difference between the two kinds of "Petits Gâteaux" is not always easy to make out. Financiers usually contain almond meal, browned butter and confectioner`s sugar.




The Friands, on the other hand, often contain desiccated coconut, small pieces of fresh or dried fruit or even a bit of jam.



The Friands have become very popular in Australian and New Zealand baking and are widely available treats at the coffee shops there.








They are often baked in small rectangular or oval shaped baking pans or mini muffin trays.

As mentioned above, bakers often add a bit of fruit such as raspberries, strawberries, blueberries or even apples to the batter before baking.










Since both the almond meal/fruit version as well as the coconut/Dorie version of the Friand recipe looked delicious, I decided to bake two batches. First, I baked Almond Raspberry Friands, following an Australian recipe.

The recipe that I chose contains almond meal as well as some shredded coconut. It yields only six little tea cakes and seemed perfect for the half dozen mini loaf pans that I bought the other day. The addition of ground almonds made these pretty little cakes very moist and the raspberries were a nice compliment to the nuts. We liked them a lot.



Then I pulled out twelve little tartelette molds.These molds are from my very favorite Dutch/Belgian kitchen supply store but I had never gotten around to using them before. I guess they were just waiting to be used for Dorie's recipe. I buttered (and lightly floured) them. Prepared the batter, baked them for 17 minutes and turned them out while still hot because I was scared that they would never release from these mini molds.

But they did not stick to the molds and I ended up with 24 Coconut Friands, one dozen with blueberries, the other dozen plain, as per the original recipe.





These dainty little cakes turned out to be crisp on the outside with a soft and chewy macaroon centre.

Looking at them, I believe that they can be served dusted with some confectioner`s sugar, with a bit of vanilla ice cream or softly whipped cream on the side or, simply, just on their own.

They certainly are delicious, no matter how you serve them and whether you add fruit to the batter or not.





All in all, the Friands are quite easy to prepare and the whole family enjoyed them, no real preference there as to the addition of fruit or almond meal. I will certainly make them again soon.

To see what the other Doristas are up to, please click here.



36 comments:

  1. I am always impressed with the photography, the recipes

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  2. Both of your friands look delicious and what fun to have all those little molds to play with. What is the name of the kitchen supply store you shop at?

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    1. Rose, you can find the information that you requested here:

      http://kitchenlioness.blogspot.de/2012/04/dille-kamille-kitchen-supply-store.html

      Thank you also for your nice comment - please, do let me know if you like the stores if you get a chance to visit one of them in the Netherlands or in Belgium...

      Have a nice weekend!

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  3. I love the shape of your cakes. I wish I had thought to add fruit; I think it would have been perfect. I would love to know the know of the kitchen supply shop as well. I'm making a trip to Holland, and I would love to check it out.

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    1. Thanks for your kind comment, you can find the information that you requested here:

      http://kitchenlioness.blogspot.de/2012/04/dille-kamille-kitchen-supply-store.html

      Do let me know if you like the Dille & Kamille store/s if you get a chance to visit during your trip to the Netherlands. Hope you are going to have a wonderful time there - are you leaving soon?

      Have a great weekend!

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  4. I love the way both of your friands look! Beautiful! The fruit was a great addition and your molds are lovely! Have a great weekend!

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    1. Thank you for your nice comments - have a wonderful weekend too!

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  5. The are all lovely! What gorgeous pans you have!

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    1. Thanks, I do seem to have so many of these differently shaped molds and pans and it is always a lot of fun using them.

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  6. Everything looks so delicious and the various molds are so cute. I have not made the financiers, but looking at yours,
    I will attempt that recipe. We loved the friands and I want to make them again adding some of the fruit or nuts
    that Dorie mentions.

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    1. The Friands as well as the Financiers are delicious - but when I came the recipe for the Almond Raspberry Financiers, I could not resist and try that recipe too.

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  7. Your cookies look very pretty - nice choice of molds.

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    1. Different molds are always somrthing I cannot resist when browsing in a store that carries them - the problem is finding a good use for them once I bring them home. This recipe was just right...

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  8. Beautiful treats, Andrea! I love the look of the fruit-studded mini-loaves. I do not like coconut. I was thinking of substituting nuts for the coconut, but then I would have been making financiers, not friands. My sister made them for me instead.

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    1. When I did a bit of research on the Friands, I came across the recipe for Almond Raspberry Financiers - the recipe sounded delicious and I thought preparing them in mini loaf pans would be nice. Your sisters post was great - I enjoyed it a lot!

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  9. Beautiful! I'm sure they tasted delicious.

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    1. Yes, we liked them a lot and this is a recipe that is easy and delicious.

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  10. I love your beautiful friands molds :) and I am sure both your friands taste good. I added fruits to it and mine turned out great too :) We have Dorie to thank for this wonderful coconut friands :) A keeper for sure.

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    1. Adding fruit to the Friands is a good choice but they are also good an their own, so to prepare two or three different variations on Dories wonderful recipe seemed just perfect.

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  11. Wow! Yours is the prettiest post I've seen! I love the little flower molds! And, I'd like to try these with fruit next time. Very nicely done!

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    1. What a great compliment - thank you very much! Having way too many molds to choose from made it easy to play around with this wonderful recipe.

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  12. The raspberry-studded friands are so pretty! I imagine they would be perfect for a little tea party.

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    1. Indeed - tea parties and dainty little cakes always sound good to me.

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  13. Both your friands look delicious! Is that a little purple walrus in the last pic? I love it! :)

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  14. So beautiful, Andrea! I bet the almond meal makes them taste even more wonderful. Don't you just love it when you finally have an excuse to use molds/pans that you knew you couldn't live without when you bought them? I just love the scallop shapes.

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    1. I completely agree - I am always looking for ways to use my different molds and pans that have accumulated over the years. Just cannot resist buying them when I see them...

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  15. Your pictures are just beautiful! I love the mini tartlett trays, they seem perfect for this recipe. I will have to try adding fruit/or jam next time and also the almond meal recipe (I love almond stuff!). Have a good weekend!

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    1. Almonds seem to pair well with raspberries - the little tea cakes turned out moist and are certainly a nice variation on the traditional Financier recipe. I love almonds too..

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  16. Wow, Andrea, you really did us proud this week. I loved all three of the versions, especially the little mini-loafs. Thank you for showing all the products that can be found in your grocery stores. Very interesting. Nice Post this week (as always). Mary

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    1. Thank you for your nice compliment - the recipe lends itself to a bit of "playing around" and I love baking in small molds, so the inspiration came from the recipe...

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  17. whoops - mini-loaves not mini-loafs

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  18. All of the versious look delicate and delicous! I am ready for tea! (Though I am again terribly late to the party)

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    1. Tea party would be nice indeed and the Friands would be just the right sweet snack to serve alongside a nice cup of tea.

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  19. Your mini-loaf friands remind me of traffic lights, except they are all red lights! LOL. Both shapes look so dainty and beautiful, I wouldn't mind having high tea at your house...if I am invited, that is :)

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