TheDirt

Almond Friands with Poached Mandarins Posted by Kate Flower 13 September, 2010 - 5:31 PM

Fallen Sports Stars Hit The Headlines AGAIN!!

Extra marital affair with Lara Bingle, admission of gambling addiction, drunken antics while working for channel nine at last year’s Brownlow Medal count and now allegations that he exposed himself to a mother at a football function! If this man does not prove that the link between sports star and role model is a tenuous one then who will?

Certainly not Stephanie Rice after her recent use of socially insulting language on twitter!

Let’s find role models of true worth for our children rather than rely on those born with athletic ability!

But who am I to preach? I was only born with an ability to bake fluffy friands so I will stop my ranting there and stick to what I am good at. Enjoy my latest recipe!

Almond Friands with Poached Mandarins (Makes 8 muffin size cakes)

Ingredients
Poached Mandarins
220g (1 cup) caster sugar
500ml (2 cups) water
2 cinnamon stick
4 mandarins, peeled, portioned and pith removed
2 piece lemon rind
Almond friands
Melted butter, to grease
185g (1 1/2 cups) icing sugar mixture
150g (1 cup) plain flour
100g (1 cup) almond meal
5 egg whites
180g butter, melted (plus a little extra to brush pans with)
1 tbs toasted flaked almonds to serve

Method
To poach the mandarins place sugar, water, lemon rind and cinnamon sticks in a medium saucepan. Stir over low heat, uncovered, for 2 minutes or until sugar dissolves. Bring to the boil over high heat. Reduce heat to medium and add mandarin segments. Simmer, uncovered, turning mandarins once during cooking, for 3 minutes or until soft. Use a slotted spoon to transfer mandarins segments to a large plate and cover to keep warm. Place the syrup over high heat and bring to the boil. Boil, uncovered and without stirring, for 5 minutes or until the liquid reduces by half.

To make almond friands, preheat oven to 200°C. Brush eight standard muffin pans with melted butter to grease. Combine the icing sugar, flour and almond meal in a large bowl. Add the egg whites and butter and stir until just combined. Spoon the batter among prepared muffin pans. Bake in oven for 10-15 minutes or until a skewer inserted into the centres comes out clean. Set aside in pans for 5 minutes. Turn onto a wire rack to cool slightly.

To serve, top each friand with three segments of mandarin, drizzle with syrup and finish with toasted almond flakes. Ice cream is good too!

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