Friands are one of my favorite French pastries to bake. Why? you ask. They’re incredibly easy. All you do is combine some regular flour, nut flour, egg whites, and sugar in a food processor, spin it until the batter is combined, and then spoon it into a prepared friand pan (or a muffin tin, if you don’t have a friand pan…which honestly, I’m guessing most people don’t).

My two favorite parts of making these friands are the egg white part, and the raspberry part. The egg white part might throw some people for a loop. Why would you enjoy separating egg whites when that’s objectively one of the worst parts of baking, you might be asking. Well, for me it’s cathartic. I even alternate the way I do it: Sometimes I use the shell (here’s a good tutorial), or other times, I use my hands. The second way is a little dicier because you’re relying on your hands to be a sieve for the egg whites, but in my opinion more fun.

My second favorite part of making these is the raspberry part. If you have huge raspberries, which you probably do if you’re living in the Midwest in the middle of the winter and that’s all that’s at the grocery store, you can probably drop two of these on top of each friand before they bake in the oven. Otherwise, go for three, because the more raspberries, the merrier.

A couple words to the wise when making these friands: One, grease the pan within an inch of its life. You want the softened butter to form a thin layer so the cakes don’t stick to the mold. You can use a pastry brush or your fingers, which I did when I got impatient with the brush. At this point in the blog post, it sounds like I don’t use any baking tools and only use my hands, which kind of makes me look like a baking OG, or just someone who scorns modern day conveniences.

My second tip is the “spring” test. A lot of people think baking is all about using your sense of smell and taste, which it is, but it’s also just as much about touch. You’ll know the friands are done when you crack open the oven and press lightly on the top of one and it springs back. Resist the temptation to take them out before this happens.

I can’t wait to bring these into work tomorrow and enjoy one with a cup of my morning coffee. Here’s a song to get you started on your friand journey, should you choose to embark on it. It also happened to be playing when I was making these this morning.

Hazelnut Raspberry Friands

Ingredients
115 g unsalted butter, melted, plus more for greasing the pan
90 g all-purpose flour
3/4 tsp baking powder
90 g superfine almond flour
40 g superfine hazelnut flour
190 g confectioners’ sugar
5 egg whites, lightly whisked
2 tsp vanilla extract
fresh raspberries
confectioners’ sugar for dusting

Directions

Preheat the oven to 320 degrees F. Grease a friand pan or muffin tin with butter and set aside.

Combine all the ingredients except the raspberries in a food processor and spin until well combined, about a minute or two. Spoon the mixture into the molds, filling them about 3/4 way full, then top with up to three raspberries (depending on how big they are- I could only fit two in each mold).

Bake the friands for 15 to 20 minutes until the tops spring back to the touch. Allow them to cool in the molds for about 15 minutes, then carefully remove them to cool the rest of the way on a wire rack. Top with a generous dusting of powdered sugar. Enjoy!