Pistachio Blueberry Friands

I’m excited to share with you my favourite friand recipe. These Pistachio Blueberry Friands are not only beautiful to look at and super simple to make, they taste delicious. With a light but dense, chewy crumb and bursts of blueberry flavour, it is hard to stop at just one!

These friands are always popular and they look so pretty on a plate when dusted with icing sugar and sprinkled with crushed pistachios. The perfect choice for entertaining friends over a cuppa or just for your family. Every time I make these I am always asked for the recipe and they have become my friend’s favourites too. Give these a go, you’ll love them! Oh, and they can easily be made gluten-free by simply substituting plain flour with gluten-free flour.

What are Friands?

Friands are small almond based cakes that are popular in both Australia and New Zealand. They are similar to the French Financier. They use egg whites which act as a raising agent and create lightness. In this recipe, we are substituting some of the almond meal with pistachio which gives these a beautifully coloured and flavoured crumb. I love the addition of blueberries, but feel free to use raspberries.

About The Ingredients

• Nuts – This recipe has a mix of pistachio and almond meal. I love the flavour of pistachio nuts in baking and the almond meal provides a nice texture. You can use just pistachios or just almonds in this recipe, just make sure you use a total of 160grams. Do try my combination if you can though. If you don’t have almond meal, you can use whole blanched almonds. Just process these with the whole pistachios in the blender with the icing sugar.
• Flour – as mentioned earlier, these can be made GLUTEN-FREE by using Gluten-free flour instead of Plain flour.
• Blueberries – I love the combination of pistachios and blueberries and I think they work really well together in these Friands, but if you prefer or only have raspberries, these are great as well.

Method/Tips

This is a very easy recipe with everything made in one bowl. The only step you do first is to blend/process the pistachio nuts until fine. Once that’s done, everything is combined together in one bowl and whisked to combine.

These can be baked in Friand Tins or if you don’t have these, they can be baked in Muffin Tins.

My biggest tip for this recipe is to make sure you grease your friand or muffin tins well with melted butter. As these friands are beautifully moist, they have a tendency to stick if you haven’t prepared your tins well. Once they are cooked and rested, I use a narrow palette knife to go around the side of each friand (between the friand and the tin) to separate them as well as lifting them slightly at the bottom as I’m working my way around. You can then ease them out carefully and place them upside down on a cake resting rack.

To Serve/Suggestions

Delicious served as is, with just a dusting of icing sugar, however I like to add a few more crushed pistachios to decorate, as I just love their vibrant green colour which gives a hint of what’s inside. I’ve made this friand recipe so many times, and it bakes perfectly every time. You can see from the photos here that I have decorated them a few different ways. In some of the photos you can see I have sprinkled over crushed freeze-dried raspberries as I love the pop of colour it brings with the crushed pistachios. I also added dried rose petals once too. Whichever way you choose to present your Pistachio Blueberry Friands, you are sure to impress your friends and family with this delicious bake!

The friands are best served on the day, however they can be made the day before and sealed in an airtight container. Decorate them on the day you use them.

They keep well for a few days and can be frozen in an airtight container for up to 3 months.

Another baking recipe that can be made gluten-free is my Chewy Chocolate Coconut Slice (very popular) or Torta Caprese (a beautiful and moist chocolate cake).

Other delicious baking ideas: Chocolate Brownies, Gingernut Biscuits, Anzac Biscuits, 👩‍🍳