Blueberry & lemon thyme friands

Name: Blueberry & lemon thyme friands
Prep time: 20 min
Cook time: 40 min
Total time: 1 h
Yield: 12
Ingredients: 200 g unsalted butter, plus 10g for greasing; 70 g plain flour, plus extra for dusting; 200 g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting; 150 g ground almonds; ½ tsp fine salt; 5 egg whites (about 200g); 1 unwaxed lemon, zest of all, juice of 1/2; 1½ tbsp lemon thyme leaves, chopped, plus extra to serve; 150 g pack Essential Blueberries; 10 g flaked almonds

Friands always feel a little more special than a muffin or cupcake, yet they’re no more effort. Lemon thyme adds an elegantly fragrant note here. Pack into a tin and wait for the happy reaction when you reveal your treasure.

A traditional friand tin with oval holes can be used instead of a regular muffin tin if you have one.

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Vegetarian

Makes12
CourseDessert
Prepare20 mins
Cook40 mins
Total time1 hr
Pluscooling

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Ingredients

200g unsalted butter, plus 10g for greasing
70g plain flour, plus extra for dusting
200g icing sugar, plus extra for dusting
150g ground almonds
½ tsp fine salt
5 egg whites (about 200g)
1 unwaxed lemon, zest of all, juice of 1/2
1½ tbsp lemon thyme leaves, chopped, plus extra to serve
150g pack Essential Blueberries
10g flaked almonds

Icing

60g icing sugar
2 tsp lemon juice

Method

Preheat the oven to 180°C, gas mark 4. Melt 200g butter in a small saucepan over a low heat, then tip into a bowl and set aside to cool for 15 minutes. Meanwhile, melt the remaining 10g butter in the same pan and use to grease a 12-hole muffin tin. Dust the muffin holes with flour, tilting to coat the sides, then tap out the excess; chill.
Sift the flour and icing sugar into a large bowl, then add the ground almonds and salt; mix to combine. Put the egg whites in a separate bowl and use a fork to froth them up for a few seconds. Pour into the dry ingredients with the cooled, melted butter. Stir until incorporated, then add the lemon zest, juice and lemon thyme. Mix into a batter. Fold through 50g blueberries.
Remove the muffin tin from the fridge and divide the batter between the 12 holes. Scatter over the flaked almonds and add a few blueberries to each. Bake for 30-35 minutes until golden and a skewer inserted comes out clean. Leave to cool for 10-15 minutes before easing the friands from the tin. Allow to cool completely.
For the icing, sift the icing sugar into a bowl and stir in the lemon juice. Drizzle over the cakes and scatter over extra lemon thyme leaves.