Gluten-Free, Dairy-Free, Sugar-Free Citrus Friands

No-Flour Citrus Friands

(gluten-free, sugar-free, dairy-free)

Firstly, let me apologise again for the slightly overdone friands. I set the buzzer for 10 minutes cook time, but just as it buzzed there was a huge cat scrap in the yard, which required human intervention. Then I spent a good five mins trying to catch the neighbour's cat to make sure Razzy hadn't pierced his jugular or something.  

By the time I gave up on that, then texted the neighbour to tell her to check Timmy over (he's fine), the friands were heading toward overcooked. I'll try again next weekend for a better pic, but in terms of edibility, these are o for awesome.

Ingredients

(makes 12)

• 2 cups of almond flour/meal
• 1 cup orange juice and pulp (I'll explain how to make this in the method section)
• 3/4 cup erythritol
• 3 Tbsp coconut oil
• Grated rind of half an orange and one lemon
• 1 egg and 1 egg white (two eggs would be fine too)
• 1 tsp baking powder
• 1/3 to 1/2 tsp pure stevia powder (90% steviosides, no fillers)
• 1/2 tsp salt

• optional: 3/4 tsp citric acid

Method

Grease your muffin pan (or friand pan if you have one). These friands are fragile when done, so you need either a really well greased metal pan, or use paper muffin cups or (my choice) a silicone muffin tray. The silicone tray does not require greasing.

Put the erythritol and stevia into a bowl and mix well. You need the stevia to be well dispersed.  

A note about the sweeteners: 

The ratio of stevia to erythritol will affect the sweetness of the friands dramatically.  I experimented with the levels and found that 0.5% w/w of stevia worked the best and 1% was too sweet for my tastebuds (although some may like that level of sweetness). I'd recommend starting with 1/3 tsp stevia (0.5%), and it's easy enough to use less or more for your next batch.   

The beauty of erythritol is that it buffers the stevia aftertaste. They go together like berries and coconut yogurt. Also, please be aware that I am talking about using a pure stevia extract here (like this one) - not one that already has additives. Check the label ingredient list: it should only list stevia, and not already contain erythritol, maltodextrin or 'flavours'.  

Melt the coconut oil on your stovetop.

Mix all dry ingredients in with the erythritol/stevia. If you have citric acid, this adds a little extra 'bite' that I like in a citrus cake/muffin/friand and it helps the baking soda to react.

Add the rind, and the juice+pulp.  How to get the pulp: take the orange that you've grated half the rind off, cut it into quarters and then just squeeze the juice into the mix. Once the juice is out, mush the remaining orange innards through your fingers, removing any pips, and drop that in the bowl.

Add the egg, egg white and coconut oil and combine everything with a fork or whisk. You can whip it up a little near the end so that it goes a bit fluffy, but don't beat all the air out of it. This is not the moment to take out any frustrations with some extra vigorous whisking.

Drop in spoonfuls into your muffin tray and bake at about 180C (350F) for 10-15 minutes. Watch like a hawk as (IMO) they go from 'golden' to 'brown' in oh-point-five seconds.

Remove from the oven and commence the important step of waiting for them to cool completely. This builds character.

Do not even think about trying to remove them from the pan until the bottom of the pan can be touched and feels just slightly warm. Ideally, wait until there is no heat left.  Of course, if you like a pile of delicious friand crumbs instead of an actual friand, then go ahead. ;)

Please have a try and let me know how it goes. I'm always interested to know if my recipes are acceptable to the outside world.