So these don’t look like friands because I’m an uncommitted baker and don’t owne the moulds. But guess what? you don’t need them to make these delicious treats, they work just as well in lined muffin tins.

Full disclosure: I did not make these to be part of your every day diet. They’re treat food and there’s nothing wrong with that. I always feel weird sharing ‘less healthy’ recipes on my blog because I know it’s not completely ‘on brand’. But I don’t always eat ‘clean’ or whatever that means and all these things are in inverted commas for a reason. Especially the whole concept of ‘clean’ food. What makes it clean? Like did you wash it filtered water prior to eating it? I really dislike that word as it means that some foods are being presented as dirty. I try to eat a diet high in nutritionally dense foods and lower in foods that are high in sugar or highly processed. I 100% eat home made treats and things from my local bakery though. Because I love them.

All this means is that I didn’t try and make these a healthy treat, I did make them delicious though. I also love that both my phone and computer want to autocorrect friand to friend and you know what I don’t disagree Apple, they are delightful little friends. They have that ideal golden chewy crust that makes friands such a great time.

They can be made completely gluten free by using gluten free flour in them, as there is very little flour to start with. I replaced half the butter eith extra virgin olive oil which means they’re lower in saturated fat than usual but I mostly did this to compliment and enhance the fragrant basil and lemon flavours.

I learnt how to make friands using the basic recipe from ‘In the Kitchen‘ by Allan Campion and Michelle Curtis. This book is amazing and a go to for me for basic, reliable recipes. I’ve obviously adapted and changed this over time and to suit the flavour combinations I was using but it’s an easy starting point. If you’re looking for other friand recipes there’s a blackberry and star anise recipe in Ottolenghi’s book Sweet that’s incredible!

Friands are very easy to whip up and don’t require any special equipment, they’re the perfect thing for a Mother’s Day afternoon tea as they also look so pretty! It is important that use choose small not overly ripe strawberries like you find early and late in the season as the large super ripe variety are too watery.

Makes 9 muffins/friands

Ingredients

100g butter

80mls extra virgin olive oil

1/4 cup finely sliced basil leaves (roll the leaves up together in a cigar shape and slice finely)

1 1/4 cups icing sugar

1/2 cup plain flour (or gluten free, I used a low fodmap flour and it worked beautifully)

1 1/4 cups ground almonds

zest of 1 lemon

5 egg whites

9 small strawberries, cut in half

Icing sugar for dusting (optional)

Directions

Preheat oven to 200 degrees celsius. Grease (with butter) your friand moulds or place 9 paper muffin cases in a muffin pan.

Melt butter and allow to cool slightly for a few minutes. Add extra virgin olive oil and the basil and leave to cool further while you complete the next steps.

Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl. Add the almond meal and lemon zest and stir to mix evenly.

In a medium sized bowl, whisk the egg whites with a fork until frothy. Pour into the dry ingredients and stir until combined. Mix in the butter, basil and oil mixture until completely incorporated.

Pour the mixture into your prepared moulds, and top each with 2 strawberry halves, cut side facing up.

Bake for 15-20 minutes in the preheated oven, checking at the 15 minute mark. They will be golden when cooked and a skewer poked in the middle will come out clean.

Remove from the muffin pan/friand moulds and cool on a wire rack. Dust in icing sugar to serve if you like.

HH. x