Lemon Myrtle and Golden Syrup mini Friands

                              lemon myrtle and golden syrup mini friands

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Anzac Day 25th April:  a national day of remembrance for Australia and New Zealand

Feel like baking something different this ANZAC Day but still want that aussie theme? Then mini lemon myrtle and golden syrup friands tick all the boxes. Friands are the Australian version of French financiers... ours are baked in an oval shape, flavoured and often with fruit. Lemon myrtle is Australian plant and golden syrup whilst not originating in oz is the traditional flavour of an Anzac biscuit. 

These little tea cakes taste like "a cuddle from nanna", all sweet and familiar. Plus it's a one bowl, no mixer and 10 minutes or under bake. 

With less than a cup of flour it's an easy swap to gluten free, just change out the flour for plain gluten free and make sure your baking powder is gluten free too. 

Lemon Myrtle 

Botanical name Backhousia citriodora, Lemon Myrtle has long been used in culinary and medicinal ways by Indigenous Australians and is a popular "bush food" flavour. Grows wild in parts of Queensland. 

Dang just I love Lemon Myrtle with it's delicious lemon/bordering on lemon grass aroma and flavour plus a little goes a long way!

You buy it in leaves or ground. 

Use the ground in your cakes, biscuits/cookies, breads. Try it mixed in mayo and dips, add it to rice and noodle dishes taking advantage of the lemon grass like flavour... go easy it's strong. 

lemon myrtle mayo dip for seafood

The leaves are used for teas, infused into milk or cream for ice-cream, custards or white chocolate ganache to fill your macarons. 

I'd like to tell you I make my own tea, nah I buy green tea lemon myrtle tea bags for afternoon drinking. 

Lemon Myrtle and Golden Syrup mini friands 

Pans:  these are a friand pans, I'm using the mini with the embossed base today but you could use a mini muffin tin. 

Ingredients

*I cup of almond meal (almond flour)

1 1/4 cups of sifted icing sugar  (confectioners) 

3/4 cup of sifted plain flour (want gluten free? Swap out for gluten free flour) 

1/2 tsp baking powder

1/2 teaspoon of ground lemon myrtle

5 egg whites

125g salted butter, melted

1/4 cup of golden syrup (oil your cup for easy removal) 

Preheat oven to 180 cel (170 cel fan forced)

*I'm using Australian measuring cups, a cup is 250ml

Method

sift straight into your bowl to save dishes and time

Put the almond meal, icing sugar, flour, baking powder, lemon myrtle, egg whites, melted butter and golden syrup into a mixing bowl. 

Stir or whisk until just combined, don't over mix. 

Divide mixture into two mini greased friand tins, or if you just have one you bake in batches.

Bake for 8 to 10 minutes, being careful not to over bake... they will look like this, a bit golden around edges, slightly puffed. 

All done that's it .... they are best eaten warm or at least the same day, but they do freeze extremely well once cooled.

Scented with lemon myrtle they have a slight sugar crust and are super moist and light.

Notes: if you've used a mini muffin pan instead of friand pan, the baking time will be slightly different... check from 8 minute mark to avoid over baking. 

Happy Baking :) 

and since I was thinking of nanna's, it was far more likely your nan would give you lollies so in that spirit make starburst fruit chew flowers for your cupcakes. 

Dattelkonfekt The Baking Bible

                                           dattlelkonfekt 

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Dattelkonfekt: a German date and almond meringue confectionary (cookie) 

Super excited that I will be joining the fabulous existing Rose's Alpha Bakers to bake the recipes from Rose Levy Beranbaum's 'The Baking Bible'.

Rose Levy Beranbaum is the queen of cakes and an award-winning American baker, cookbook author and blogger. It's going to be fun :)

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How it works; Once a week I will post about what I have baked, this won't include the recipe due to copyright however I will be posting how it went and photos of making/baking the gorgeous baked goods. 

This won't affect the usual blog stories and there will be plenty of cupcakes, chocolate and sugar still to come.

Today is my first entry 'Dattelkonfekt'... ummm, can't pronounce that at all...and I'm sugar rushing from too many morning dattlelkonfekt but here goes ....

I needed dates and the supermarket had fresh, Californian fancy eating and a few brands of dried "cooking" dates. I went with Trident a Turkish grown date that is fairly "dry" as I thought this wouldn't add too much moisture to the meringue. 

I started with processing almonds, dates and then it was time to make the meringue. 

Rose's books are meticulously detailed to assist perfect baking, for example egg whites could be measured by "3 egg whites" or in imperial or metric weights. I went with metric.

Interesting meringue method as it isn't taken to stiff peaks, after the dates and almonds were mixed into the meringue I filled a disposable pastry bag a third full and snipped the bottom ready to begin piping. I didn't use an icing/pastry tip as the mixture felt thick enough to pipe without one.

There was the option to pipe the meringues onto oblaten a thin edible wheat based wafer that you may have come across before on the base of your Christmas Dutch and German cookies. I could only find multi coloured ones and I thought the cookies would look odd with bright pink and green, so I went with option two of baking on non stick paper lined trays. 

They don't take long to bake and cool, what you end up with is a meringue "cookie" that has a crisp meringue exterior with a moist slight chewy interior... plus the crunch of nuts. 

My step son Daniel and I thought they would be on the cloying side of sweet, with sugar and dates but they are not. When Dan ate his second one he was nodding in the universal "yep, these are good" way. I thought they were nice, perhaps a still a little sweet for me. 

Would I bake again: Yes

Would I make any changes: Yes, I'd add ground cardamom to pair with coffee after Indian food, Turkish food etc. Maybe for Christmas track down those oblaten bases and add orange zest along with ground coriander seeds. 

That's it post one for Rose's Alpha Bakers done.  Haven't been to Rose's site? Real Baking with Rose Levy Beranbaum.  

Happy Baking :) 

Feel like making sugar springs?