Pistachio and olive oil friands with orange blossom frosting

Even though friands are a traditional French cake, they’ve become an Australian cafe classic. This recipe uses ground pistachio nuts, rather than the traditional almonds. The pistachio gives the cakes a beautiful palegreen colour. 3 eggs, lightly beaten 200g caster sugar

1 tsp vanilla extract 120ml olive oil

100g butter, melted 200g ground pistachios 55g polenta

55g plain flour

1 tsp baking powder

Orange blossom frosting 150g cream cheese, softened

tsp vanilla extract

75g Greek yoghurt

25g icing sugar, sifted

tsp orange blossom water

To decorate

55g pistachios, roughly chopped Freezedried raspberry powder

Method

Heat the oven to 170degC.

Grease 10 150ml silicon moulds or friand tins.

Whisk together the eggs, sugar and vanilla extract. Combine the olive oil and butter and slowly add to the egg mixture, whisking constantly.

Mix the ground pistachios, polenta, flour and baking powder together. Add to the mixture, whisking constantly until just combined.

This is a wet batter, so do not be tempted to add more flour.

Pour the batter into the moulds and bake for 15 minutes or until a skewer poked into the centre comes out clean.

To help the friands keep their green colour, put a roasting tin of water in the bottom of your oven while you bake them (this will prevent browning).

To make the frosting

Beat the cream cheese to soften. Beat in the vanilla and yoghurt until smooth. Beat in the icing sugar and then the orange blossom water.

Spread the frosting on the friands, then scatter with chopped pistachios and freezedried raspberry powder to serve.