Raspberry and Orange Gluten Free Friands

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Goodness me, is $5.50 each too much to pay for a small gluten free friand? That's what our local department store cafe was charging when I was there with friends recently. 

The poor little plain orange friands looked a bit on the dry side; it got me thinking about why are gluten free cafe cakes always so dry, hard and often lacking in flavour? 

With only 1/3 to 1/2 cup of flour per recipe friands must be one of the easiest recipes to convert to gluten free. I tested the following gluten free friand conversion out on friends and family this week, concentrating on "moistness" and packing with flavour. Everyone loved them... hope you do too :)

Raspberry and Orange Gluten Free Friands

greased oval friand tin or muffin tin (1/2 cup 125ml capacity)

preheat oven to 200c (392F) or 180c (356F) fan forced

Ingredients

6 egg whites

185g butter melted and cooled

1 tbl orange juice

1 cup almond meal (almond flour) 

1 1/2 cups (240g) sifted pure icing sugar (confectioners, make sure it's pure with no flour added)

1/2 cup gluten free plain flour (gluten free all purpose) 

4 teaspoons fine orange zest

1 cup of raspberries, fresh or frozen

Topping

1/2 cup toasted slivered almonds

* optional .... 1/4 cup freeze dried raspberry pieces

1 cup of sifted pure icing sugar 

1 to 2 tablespoons of orange juice

Method

Put the egg whites in a medium bowl in a medium bowl, use a fork to lightly whisk and break up the whites. Add the butter, zest, almond meal, sifted icing sugar, juice and *berries; stir until the mixture is combined. 

Divide the mix between the 12 hole pan. Bake 18-22 minutes, don't over bake. Allow to cool 5 minutes in pan before removing cakes and transferring to a cooling rack. 

adapted from AWW lemon and cranberry friands

Icing

In a small bowl, add one tablespoon of orange juice to sifted icing sugar. Stir until smooth, add more juice if needed to created a drizzle over consistency. 

Drizzle over icing and top with toasted almond slivers and freeze dried raspberry pieces.

                         moist and flavourful 

Notes:

*if using frozen berries don't defrost first, stir through in their frozen state

*if you can source freeze dried raspberry pieces they do add a natural flavour punch; the pieces will loose their crispness after a short while however they still will taste wonderful.

*undecorated friands freeze well wrapped for three weeks, defrost in the refrigerator before decorating.

*friand tins are easily available in Australia, mine is a Wiltshire tin from the supermarket. Cute Mini friands  silicone moulds are available on Amazon..they really are "mini" about 3 teaspoons of batter per hole.

 Happy Baking :)

Need to use your left over egg yolks? How about a batch of pastry cream to fill tarts, pastries and cakes.

Or an easy Hollandaise sauce.

Toblerone dessert in 30 minutes!!

                               

                                Toblerone dessert in 30 minutes

A super quick and easy "emergency" dessert today for the holiday season. It's creamy, it's chocolaty, it's yummy and it's ready in only 30 minutes!

Makes 8 small or 6 medium or 4 "husband Mark" sized serves.

Ingredients

200 gram (7oz)  Milk or Dark Toblerone (melted)

500g (17.5 oz) *softened Philadelphia Cream Cheese

1/2 cup sour cream

1/2 cup caster sugar (superfine sugar)

1 tsp vanilla 

Optional... 2 tablespoons of chocolate, or honey, or almond liqueur

Decorations

200 gram (7oz) Milk or Dark Toblerone 

thick cream

honey to drizzle

flaked, chopped or silvered toasted almonds

Method

Beat softened cream cheese with caster sugar until smooth. Add melted Toblerone, sour cream, vanilla and liqueur if using and beat until combined.

                          beaten cream cheese

 melt toblerone in a metal or glass bowl over a pan of barely simmering water until just melted.

 beaten Toblerone mixture still contains the pieces of honey nougat from the chocolate bar

Spoon into small serving glasses, bowls or ramekins. 

Top with a spoonful of thick cream, toasted almonds, Toblerone pieces and a drizzle of honey... that's it, ready to serve! 

If you do want to make ahead of time, spoon the Toblerone mixture into glasses, cover with plastic wrap and refrigerate until required. Just before serving add the toppings. 

*to soften your cream cheese roughly chop and place in a microwave safe bowl, zap on low in 30 second increments  until soft. 

Notes: reduce the fat in the dessert by substituting light sour cream and light Philly cheese for the full fat varieties. 

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Mini Chocolate Cake Puddings

   Ode to Bounty Bar Cupcakes