Friands are generally baked in individual, oval muffin-style tins. Interestingly, friends, baked like this are considered to be a baked good, designed in Australia or NZ. French friands are like a sausage roll! The tins are very particular, so if you do not have them, try this twist and bake the mixture as a slice. Delicious served with whipped cream or a scoop of mascarpone.

Ingredients

• 1¼ cups icing sugar
• ½ cup flour
• 2 x 70 gram packets ground almonds
• 100 grams white chocolate, chopped
• grated rind 2 lemons
• 6 egg whites
• 175 grams butter, melted
• 2-3 firm ripe pears, peeled and sliced

Lemon Syrup

• ¼ cup boiling water
• ¼ cup caster sugar
• 2 tblsp lemon juice
• grated rind of 1 lemon
• 2 tblsp limoncello or lemon vodka (optional)

Method

1. Sift the icing sugar and flour into a bowl. Stir in the ground almonds, white chocolate and lemon rind. Mix well.
2. In a clean bowl, lightly beat the egg whites until frothy. Stir them and the cooled, melted butter into the almond mixture until smooth.
3. Spoon the mixture into a 20x30cm baking paper-lined slice tin. Spread out evenly.
4. Finely slice the pears and arrange them in two strips along the length of the tin.
5. Bake at 180ºC for 20-25 minutes or until the cake is firm to the touch in its centre. It should be shrinking from the sides of the tin.

Lemon Syrup

1. Stir the boiling water and sugar together until dissolved. If necessary, warm in a microwave. Add the lemon juice, lemon rind and limoncello or vodka if using. Pour the hot syrup over the just-cooked Pear and White Chocolate Friand Slice.

Cooks Tips

Egg whites will whip up better and will gain greater volume if whipped at room temperature.

The recipe calls for 140 grams of ground almonds. This is approximately 1 1/2 cups.