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Pistachio Lime & Chilli Friands
Toothsome, sweet little cake with ground nuts, the zippy tang of lime and the throaty hum of chilli powder. A flavour sensation!
Servings: 12 servings
: 305 kcal
Author: Just Jo
Ingredients
  • 250 g egg whites
  • 250 g icing sugar
  • 1 tsp chilli powder
  • Zest of a lime
  • 75 g shelled pistachios
  • 45 g ground almonds
  • 100 g plain flour
  • 160 g melted butter
To finish
  • 25 g shelled pistachios crushed in a mortar and pestle
  • 1/2 cup icing sugar
  • Lime juice as needed
Instructions
  1. Grease your friand tin with soft butter and preheat the oven to 180°C.
  2. Blitz the pistachios in a food processor until finely ground - it can take several minutes but stop every 30-40 seconds to break up any clumps that are may form.
  3. Add in the ground almonds, icing sugar, chilli powder, lime zest and flour and give another blitz to mix well.
  4. Whisk your egg whites in a large bowl until they are frothy.
  5. Fold in the mix from the food processor and then stir in the butter. Mix until no streaks remaining.
  6. Scoop into your prepared tin and bake for 22-25 minutes by which time they should be well risen, lightly browned, spring back when pressed and have a hump like madeleines do.
  7. Cool for 5 minutes in the tin then use a thin flexible plastic knife or spatula to loosen the cakes and transfer to a rack to finish cooling.
  8. When cold, mix the 1/2 cup of icing sugar with enough lime juice to form a spoonable paste then drizzle over your cooled cakes.
  9. Immediately sprinkle over your extra pistachios before the icing sets and leave for 15 minutes before serving.
Recipe Notes

When I make a drizzle icing, I just use an American half cup measure and dip it into my icing sugar bag, leveling it off on the bag as I go. Less chance of covering your kitchen in an icing sugar cloud and you don't need accurate measures to drizzle a splish splash of icing on a cake!
I often use a bag of Sugar & Crumbs' Chilli Lime flavoured icing sugar as it's dead easy and I don't have to make my stupidly sensitive hands sore dealing with a whole citrus. The chilli isn't strong enough though so I add upto a tsp of chilli powder to bump up the flavour, depending on how hot it is!