Fruity friand slice

I am a tad obsessed with friands (financiers). I will try any new twist on these gems. The first one I prepared was not nice. And I felt so disappointed – nearly sad. I followed the recipe to the letter but the final texture definitely did not please me. However, I was very determined to try this little beauty. And I carried on hunting for other recipes. My future attempts were all very successful and in a way I ended up preparing it my way.
This recipe is great and you can use any frozen fruit you have – I had raspberries and that is what I used. I just take them from the freezer when it is time to add them. I like sifting all the dry ingredients, and tend to use a fouet for that. It mixes everything and at the same time leaves the mixture quite aired.
If I could have shared those with someone it would have been Paz. She has always been such a great supported of this blog – even when I stopped posting in English. She visits my Portuguese language blog – which is frequently updated, and leaves lovely messages. ‘Thank you sweetie!'


You will need:

4 egg whites
100g butter, melted
1 tablespoon milk
½ teaspoon vanilla extract
1 cup (125g) almond meal
1 cup (160g) icing sugar
1/3 cup (50g) self raising flour
1 vanilla bean
2/3 cup (100g) frozen fruit chopped coarsely

Then just do like that:

1. Preheat oven – 170oC/150oC fan assisted. Grease 19cm x 29cm slice pan; line base and two long sides with baking paper, extending paper over long sides
2. Place the dry ingredients in a bowl and mix very gently. Add milk and extract, followed by egg whites. Split vanilla bean in half lengthways, scrape seeds from bean, and stir seeds into the mixture, using the fouet - mix gently to incorporate the ingredients. The butter is added last and then mixed until completely incorporated to the batter. It might look as if there is too much butter – have faith and keep mixing. You will see how the amount is just right.
3. Pour mixture into pan, sprinkle fruit over mixture. Bake for 30 min. Stand in pan for 10 min before lifting slice onto wire rack to cool. Dust with sifted icing sugar, if desired.
Keeps really well in a tin – tastes even more moist the day after