If you haven’t tried a friand, it’s a delicious intersection of a cobbler and a cake. And with all the fresh fruit it’s a delightful summer dessert.
This recipe is inspired by the Friand recipe in the book Ottolenghi Simple, but has been modified to be gluten-free and remove refined sugar, making it a quasi-paleo version of the dessert and something you can enjoy more often without a sugar crash.
Mix the Fruit and Make it Juicy
The first step is to mix the fruit and add a little sugar. Letting the wedges fruit and sugar sit helps the juices run out and will make the cake moist and delicious.
Wedge the plums and toss in a medium-sized bowl with blackberries, cinnamon, bay leaves, and both kinds of maple. Stir together until they are all blended and make sure the bay leaves are at the bottom of the bowl so they get time to sit in the fruit juices.
Let the fruit sit for 30 minutes so they can absorb the flavors of the cinnamon and bay leaves and express their juices.
The Dough
Next is the dough. I love this dough because it combines the minimalism of a cobbler with the fluffiness of cake. The frothed egg whites make it extra light.
After mixing the dry ingredients and pouring them into the frothed egg whites, the dough goes evenly into the baking dish.
Putting the Friand together.
The next part is pretty simple. After the dough is spread evenly on a buttered baking dish, pour the fruits and fruit juices on top and spread them out evenly.
Then bake in a preheated oven for 40 minutes until the edges are golden brown.
Serve cooled with homemade whipped cream!
What to do with the extra Egg Yolks?
Make ice cream, custard, or throw them in a scramble!
Bay Plum and Blackberry Friand
Ingredients
Mix the Fruit and Make it Juicy
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Pit and wedge Plums
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Add wedged plums, blackberries, vanilla, maple sugar, maple syrup, and 1/2 tsp of the cinnamon to a bowl. Mix well and make sure bay leaves are at the bottom of the bowl. Let sit for 30 minutes
Putting the Friand Together and Baking
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Mix flours, coconut sugar, salt, and remaining 1/2 tsp cinnamon into a small bowl and set aside
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Preheat the oven to 400 degrees
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Whisk egg yolks until frothy, about 60 seconds. They should have small little bubbles and have increased slightly in volume.
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Melt butter and mix into frothed egg yolks. Whisk in flour mixture until evenly combined
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Use the butter wrapper to grease the baking dish
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Pour batter into the greased baking dish and smooth until flat
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Add fruit and fruit juices atop batter evenly
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Bake for 40 minutes. Remove and let cool for 20 minutes before serving.
Note
- This recipe is best when we mix several types of flours, leveraging different qualities of the GF flour options. However, it will work fine with less mixing. I've offered substitution options in the ingredients but the simplest way is 1 cup of almond flour and 6 tbsp all-purpose gluten-free flour mix or 1:1 GF flour mix. You could also use an ancient grain flour like quinoa, amaranth, or millet.Â
- You will have egg yolks left over from this dish, which works great because then you can make custard, creme brulee, homemade ice cream or a dense and rich egg scramble.Â
- To make it fully paleo, use additional almond or hazelnut flour instead of brown rice flour.Â
