Thursday, March 4, 2010

Maple Pecan Friands

"Friands" I had never heard of a friand (I still don't know how to properly pronounce it) until about 6 months ago. I was surfing my favorite blogs and came upon a recipe for Coconut Banana Friand (I am sorry I do not remember the author). Ooooo, my eyes lit up knowing "J" loves anything coconut and it looked perfect for the warm weather, so I had to try it. Besides I just had to know what a "friand" was. For my first go around I followed the directions to the letter. As soon as I took the first bite I knew they were the cousin to the Financier. For my second attempt I utilized the same techniques I use when making financiers. Now they were great! :) So when I came across this recipe, courtesy of Patricia at Technicolor Kitchen I was excited. I followed the measurements and ingredients as written but again changed up the technique. How you ask? Well, I like to beat the egg whites until foamy and slowly add the sugar, as you would for meringue. Then I slowly add the melted, cooled butter as done for an emusion. Lastly, the dry ingredients are folded in. The resulting batter is light and when baked the finished cake is light and delicate as well. I like to use a mini-cheesecake pan filling each cavity about 2/3 full. They pop out easily and make a very attractive presentation. The pecan half sunk to the bottom on most of the cakes. So in the future I'll wait until they are almost done baking then pop on the nut half. The pecan and maple flavors together are heavenly. This is definitely a keeper. As a matter of fact I'll be making them for house guests this weekend!