Blackberry-Plum Friand
I’ve made two blackberry-plum friands in the past three days, and eaten 1 3/4 of them myself, with a spoon, straight out of the baking dish. A friand is a dense, chewy almond cake, this version studded with juicy fruit, from Ottolenghi’s Simple- I had it out for a virtual book club, and when I got home from picking up a farmers’ market box (from the Bridgeland Farmers’ Market), which had plums and blackberries bigger than my thumb in it, I took it as a sign.
The original recipe also called for fresh bay leaves, which would have been a fine addition-but I don’t have any, and so I didn’t. I also don’t usually have ground almonds on hand, but almost always sliced or slivered almonds, and so gave some a quick blitz in the food processor. The recipe looks involved, and I tend to balk at the requirement to beat egg whites, but these only needed beating to a froth, not to stiff peaks, and so I went ahead and whisked them by hand, and it wasn’t a big deal at all.
Things I like about a friand: you can serve it with a spoon, but it still has cakey texture, but isn’t too doughy (I halved the original, which made a 9×13-inch panful, and the smaller quantity only requires 3 tablespoons of flour), and has a similar appeal to an eggy clafoutis, which I want to like more than I actually do.
Anyway, once you make this, it’s the sort of thing you can do quickly, and with just about any kind of fruit in season- it would be fab with any stone fruit, or cherries, or berries, or rhubarb from the freezer. It would even be fab with apples or pears as they come into season, sliced thinly. Arrange them in an orderly fashion on top if you like, or just scatter them about, according to your mood.
Blackberry-Plum Friand
AuthorJulie
Preheat the oven to 400F. Put the plums and blackberries into a bowl and sprinkle with the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the icing sugar, ground almonds, flour and salt. Whisk the eggs until they’re frothy; add to the icing sugar mixture along with the melted butter.
Pour into a buttered or otherwise greased pie plate or 8 or 9-inch baking dish, and top with the fruit, scattering any excess sugar (or pouring juices) overtop. Bake for 45-50 minutes, covering with foil for the final 10 minutes, until the cake is deep golden and the fruit is bubbling. Serves 4-6.
Ingredients
Directions
Preheat the oven to 400F. Put the plums and blackberries into a bowl and sprinkle with the sugar, vanilla and cinnamon. Set aside.
In a medium bowl, whisk together the icing sugar, ground almonds, flour and salt. Whisk the eggs until they’re frothy; add to the icing sugar mixture along with the melted butter.
Pour into a buttered or otherwise greased pie plate or 8 or 9-inch baking dish, and top with the fruit, scattering any excess sugar (or pouring juices) overtop. Bake for 45-50 minutes, covering with foil for the final 10 minutes, until the cake is deep golden and the fruit is bubbling. Serves 4-6.
Thanks Julie!! I’m so glad you posted this. I was trying to get a good look at your dessert at the book club but it was hard to see over zoom. How beautiful! I had to make this tonight. It was delicious! I only had apples and cranberries in the house so I made it with those but I will need to make it again with blackberries and plums. Yum!!
Thanks again! Nice to do a book club with you!
Wow that looks good! I love an adaptable fruit dessert!
I just like saying “friand”! Sounds so cheffy. Looks somewhat like “clafouti”…which I don’t likes saying (or eating). Too eggy. But, I see almonds in the mix so I’m thinking “frangipane”…delicious, whatever we call it!
The black strawberry-plum donuts you cook are delicious./ easy-to-understand recipe. I love this cake.
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So delicious. I can see how you sat down with a spoon and just went at it. I particularly like the caramelly/chewy bits that form around the edges of the pan. My edges turned out *just* on the edge of burnt after 45 minutes at 400, and I used a 9.5 inch pie plate. I might either turn down the temperature a bit or find a deeper pan. Otherwise, this was super easy to whip together and may very well be an ongoing danger to my waistline.
Thank you for this post – I’m hooked!
First time round I did with peaches and blackberries and tonight I did blueberry pear with a chai baking spice blend (mostly by accident as I was intending to reach for cinnamon). DELICIOUS!
that sounds so amazing!! I’m so glad!
Hi there! This is delicious. I made the Ottolenghi version and was wondering if next time I should skip the parchment paper because it made the cake hard to release for leftovers. Is plain greasing what you’d recommend? Thanks!
I haven’t done it with parchment, but greasing the pan worked well for me!
Would cranberries work for this?
Yes! You might need to add a bit more sugar though!
Thanks for this recipe! I’m looking to make this in advance – would it hold okay for a day? Any reheating instructions/tips?