Coconut Friands

It's friday again, time for another recipe from FFWD, from Around my French Table.
I missed the last two posts, since they had fishy things as their main ingredients. I can't stand anything that has lived in the water, to the point where I say I'm allergic, so people don't insist I try it one more time. Nobody messes with seafood allergies.
So I'm glad to be back with a baking recipe. Today is all about friands. They first time I saw them they looked like very moist muffins bakes as little round cakes. They had blueberries and tasted great.
This recipe is for mini coconut friands, where shredded coconut replaces the traditional almond flour.
Our master bakes suggests adding fresh fruit or jam on top before they go into the oven. So I resorted to my very versatile, go-with-almost-anything old friend, dulce de leche. Coconut and ddl are a heavenly combination. The bars are a best seller at the cafe simply because they taste incredible.

The batter for this little cakes is a breeze to put together. Just mix egg whites, coconut, sugar, flour, melted butter and flavorings. It ends up being heavy and satiny.

The dulce de leche looked very messy after it was baked. Maybe I should've put a tablespoon in the middle of the batter. DDL is a milk and sugar jam, and when cooked further it caramelizes more. So it becomes stickier. More so when it touches the pan. But this is actually good, since the flavor deepens. I just had to use a spoon to mound the overflowing jam back on top of the friands.

This is caramel, so don't even think of touching it or, worse, popping one in your mouth, before they are warm.
And there's nothing a little sprinkle of powdered sugar can't fix. Let's just call them rustic coconut friands.
Anyway, I took them over to a friends house and people wen't mad for them both, plain ones and the ddl morsels. They raved about them actually.

This are a find for many reasons. They're easy and fast to bake, keep for a few days and can adapt to a lot of combinations. I'll try it with raspberries when the season comes again.

Unless you're a coco nut (which I'm not) I think they're better paired up with another flavor.
A great little sweet morsel to have with a cup of good coffee.