When I remember of red currants, I think of me as a child, standing in front of the red currant bushes in the garden of my relatives in Coburg. Just plucking and nibbling one after the other with pleasure. Really loved that time of year, since I’m still loving it today. And I’m still in love with red currants.
Unfortunately we don’t have a garden, so no nibbling them straight from the bushes for me. But by the time you buy them and they are coming in boxes, it isn’t so tempting anymore to eat them straight away. So I thought about what I could do with them anyway. Since I was also looking for something, which uses up some of my left over egg whites, I just thought of friandaises. Usually I make them with flaked almonds. The friandaises are light and mellow pastries with crunchy edges. They are divine! And they use up 6 egg whites!
I substituted the almond flakes with red currants. The red currants are really pairing well in the friandaises! I’m evenly surprised, how good the red currants come of in pastry in general. So maybe there will be coming up more with them!
Traditionally friandaises are baked in little moulds formed like ships. But since It’s a lot of dough just for the ships I also put some dough in moulds, that were about the same size like muffin moulds. In the smaller moulds your friandaises will become more crispy, which I prefer. Another good option may be moulds for madeleines, since they are also very small.
Red Currant Friandaises
Yield: about 25 small ones
Ingredients:
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190g butter
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250g powdered sugar
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80g flour
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130g grounded almonds
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1 pinch of salt
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6 egg whites
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about 300g red currants, washed
Melt the butter in a small saucepan, until it begins to brown. Remove the saucepan from the heat and let it cool a bit. Preheat your oven to 180°C.
Whisk together the sugar, flour, almonds and salt. Whisk together the egg whites, but do not beat them! Then whisk them together with the sugar-flour-mixture, until it’s smooth. And don’t beat it! Just stirring.
Stir in the melted butter in a thin stream, until it’s incorporated. If you do not use silicon moulds, like me, butter your moulds, to prevent your friandaises to stick to them. Fill the moulds with the dough. I made them nearly full. Now pluck the red currants from the stems and put them on the friandaises.
Bake them for 5 minutes at 180°C, then turn down the heat to 160°C and bake for another 20 minutes, until they are golden brown and have crispy edges. Turn off the stove and wait for another 5 minutes. Take them out of the oven and let them cool.
Köstlich!!!!!!!!
Ma