Coconut Friands

I was watching the latest Masterclass episode of the Masterchef Australia Season 5 last week. The MC Oz S5 is in their final week with 5 remaining contestants i.e. Rishi my man..., Lynton, Emma, Christina and Samira. I hope (fingers crossed) that Rishi will win. That man is a machine, he's genius, he's so focussed but at the same time has some sense of humour.

So back to the story of the Masterclass episode, Gary made a batch of friands and I never thought that it was so easy. I saw one coconut friands recipe in one of my cookbook by Dorie Greenspan but it didn't come with a photo so I was turned off. But when I saw Gary made it which is obviously so simple and seems like making a pancake batter, so...I thought I can do this. I have an office potluck scheduled on Monday 26th August and my colleageus requested for tiramisu. I made 2 batches of tiramisu using 12 egg yolks on Sunday. So I thought of using the egg whites for the friands and I thought the cakes are best to be consumed on the day they are baked so I bake them on Monday morning.

The original recipe by Dorie uses 4 egg whites so I doubled the recipe...and I still have some more egg whites in the fridge. Her recipe is a basic recipe using coconut without any filing, nuts or fruits. So I took Gary's idea by adding some raisins soaked in some liquid. So what I have here is an adaptation of Dorie Greenspan and Gary Mehigan's recipe. Actually I was a bit worried seeing the ratio of sugar in it! But Dorie assuring us a not-too-sweet little tea cake...and yes it was true. So enjoy!

Ingredients:
1/2 cup raisins
1/4 cup orange or grape juice

4 egg whites
1/2 cup cake flour
1/2 tsp baking powder
2/3 cup sugar
1.5 cups shredded dried or dessicated unsweetened coconut
1/4 tsp salt
1/2 tsp vanilla essence
1/2 cup unsalted butter, melted

1. In a small saucepan, combine the raisins and juice. Heat them up on medium, and let it boil and the juice reduced a bit. Turn of the heat and set aside.
2. Center a rack in the oven and preheat to 180C. Have ready 12 paper cups or a 12-hole greased muffin pan 
3. In a medium bowl, sift together flour, baking powder and salt. Fold in the sugar, salt and coconut. Lightly whisk and set aside.
4. In a large bowl, whisk the egg whites until smooth and a little foamy. Whisk in the dry ingredients in 2 addition, making sure it fully incorporated. Add the melted butter and whisk until smooth.
5. Spoon the batter into the paper cups, filling them almost to the top. Spoon a small amount of the soaked raisins on top.
6. Bake for 15-17 minutes, rotating halfway of the baking time. Bake until a cake tester inserted into the center of the cake comes out clean.
7. Cool on wire rack.