An intriguing combination of aromatic cardamom and Pink Lady® apple, these fragrant friands offer a sophisticated twist on the nation’s favourite pudding.
Full preparation
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Preheat oven to 180˚C and grease your friand tin well. If you don't have one, use a muffin pan instead (and you will end up with 12 friands this size).
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Crush the whole cardamom pods in a mortar and pestle and discard the skins. Grind the seeds to a fine powder. Set aside for now.
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Make the crumble by mashing the butter and plain flour together in a small bowl to a porridge-like texture. Stir in the oats, sugar and a pinch of the cardamom. Set aside for now.
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Whisk the egg whites in a large bowl until fluffy, no need to make more than soft peaks.
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Sift over the icing sugar, ground almonds, plain flour and remaining cardamom then fold them in with the melted butter.
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Now wash the Pink Lady® apple, slice in half and remove the core leaving as much apple in tact as possible. Dice half of the apple finely and add to the bowl of friand mixture. Divide the mixture between 10 of the wells in the friand pan (or all 12 if using a muffin pan).
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With remaining half of the Pink Lady® apple, cut it in half once again and then slice it as finely as you possible can. You need 30 quarter circle shaped pieces of apple. Take 3 slices and lay, overlapping each other down one half of the friand.
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Sprinkle the remaining half with the crumble mixture.
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Bake for 25-30 minutes until risen, the crumble golden, the apples slightly dried out but still soft and a skewer comes out clean from the centre of the cake.
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Cool in the pan on a rack for 10 minutes before removing - I use a thin, flexible plastic picnic knife to loosen them but they using take very little persuasion to leave the tin.
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Can be served still warm or at room temperature. Store in an airtight tin if not eating immediately.
