Spring Salad of Arugula, Strawberries, Baked Goat Cheese & Candied Spiced Pistachios

Spring really is salad season.  I eat salads all year long.  But suddenly in the spring, when the local growers begin to bring heads of freshly harvested lettuce and bags of just cut baby greens and arugula, I begin to really relish salads.  Even the baby lettuces have substance and flavor.  They become far more than just a background for other foods; they are something I enjoy eating just for their own merit (and I often do—munching away on them as I’m cleaning them and putting them away).  So even though my last post was a salad…and I haven’t been posting as much recently because of the busyness of settling into my new home…I’m going to share another salad today.   This one features young arugula paired with the bountiful and flavorful strawberries that are filling the markets right now.

Arugula and strawberries are a fairly common salad combination.  The peppery bite of the arugula goes very well with the sweet and tangy strawberries.  And since they are abundant and at their flavor peak at right around the same time, making a salad of them is a no-brainer.  If you look around on line you will discover that many people add a salty and tangy cheese to the combination…like Feta, a blue or goat cheese…and usually a nut of some kind for added crunch.  I have not veered away from this combination at all.  Instead I have altered the manner in which I add the cheese and nuts.

For the cheese, I used goat cheese.  And instead of simply crumbling it over the salad, I form it into a round, coat it with breadcrumbs and bake it.  The cheese contributes a varied temperature element this way…and also textural variation if you serve it with toasts or crusty bread.  If you don’t want to take the time to form and bake rounds, you can of course just crumble the goat cheese over the salad.  But if you have never had a salad with baked goat cheese before, you really do need to give it a try. 

The nuts that usually appear in this salad are almonds or pecans.  Both are delicious, but I opted for pistachios.  I think their color is particularly.  And to echo the pepper and spice of the arugula…and emphasize the sweetness of the strawberries…I gave them a caramel and spice coating. They are so tasty this way that you’ll probably want to make extra just to have on hand for a snack.

When I worked at The American Restaurant many years ago, we used to put these pistachios (with just pepper for the spice—I’m also adding fennel and coriander) 

on a spinach and blue cheese salad.  It was on a banquet menu so every cook in the kitchen got to make them at one time or another.  I think every cook probably used a slightly different method when making them.  The process is admittedly a bit tricky.  I am giving two methods—one that uses the oven and another that is accomplished entirely on the stove top.  If you toast the nuts in the oven and add them to the hot caramel (my preferred method), you must work out the timing so the nuts are still hot when you combine them with the caramel.  If you don’t, you will have a hopelessly stuck mass of nuts and caramel.  If you choose to toast the nuts in a sauté pan and add the sugar after the nuts get hot (allowing it to caramelize around the nuts) you must be very careful not to scorch the nuts.  Either way, you will need a non-stick sauté pan, an oiled heat-proof spatula and an oiled baking sheet—and you will have to work quickly and be vigilant about tossing and stirring—even continuing to stir a bit after the nuts are out of the pan if you want to have perfectly separated nuts.  If you don’t mind having clumps/clusters, then you can just turn them out of the pan and leave them alone while they cool. 

My final addition to the salad is finely sliced spring onions.  I always keep masses of spring onions in my kitchen this time of year.  I use them as a base for pilafs, pastas and vegetables ragouts…and in salads.  When I cook with them I use some of the green.  For this salad I only use the white and pale green portion.  If you don’t have any spring onions, you may replace them with finely shaved shallot or red onion.  Just make sure that you soak the sliced or shaved onion (or shallot) in a bowl of ice water for five minutes or so.  This will soften the heat/bite of the onion and crisp them up at the same time. 

I hope that everyone is enjoying salads as much as I am this year.  But if not, you can still use the baked goat cheese and spiced pistachio recipes.  Both would make outstanding additions to an appetizer spread for your next summer party.   But I hope you do like salads...and I hope you will try this one.  I would love to promise that my next post will not be a salad post...but you never know.  Salad season isn't quite over yet.

Salad of Arugula, Strawberries, Baked Goat Cheese & Candied Spiced Pistachios

6 oz. soft, Montrachet-style goat cheese

Olive oil

A few sprigs of thyme or winter savory, if you like

Freshly ground black pepper

1/4 to 1/3 c. fine, dry toasted breadcrumbs

3 to 4 oz. arugula, or arugula mixed with baby lettuces

1/4 to 1/3 c. very finely sliced (on a long bias) white and pale green of spring onion, soaked in ice water for 5 minutes and blotted dry

8 to 10 oz. strawberries—preferable on the smallish side (about a half ounce each), rinsed, dried, hulled & quartered

1 recipe Candied Spiced Pistachios

White Balsamic Vinaigrette

Cut the log of goat cheese into four slices.  It is likely the slices will be a bit misshapen, so use your hands to form the slices into 4 neat, 1/2- to 3/4-inch thick disks.  If time permits (or you are thinking ahead) place 1/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil in a shallow pan.  Add a few herb sprigs and a few grindings of black pepper.  Place the goat cheese rounds in the seasoned oil and turn to coat.  Let marinate for an hour or so (or overnight in the fridge), turning once or twice.  If you don’t want to marinate the goat cheese, simple drizzle the rounds with just enough olive oil to coat.  Place the breadcrumbs on a small plate or in a small dish.  Coat the goat cheese with the breadcrumbs.  Place the goat cheese rounds on a lightly oiled baking sheet or dish.  When ready to serve the salad, bake the cheese in a preheated 400° oven for about 6 minutes, until the cheese is softened and lightly bubbling at the edges.

While the cheese is baking, place the lettuces, spring onions and strawberries in a large bowl.  Season the greens with salt & pepper.  Drizzle with a few spoonfuls of the vinaigrette.  Use a sparing hand, you can always add more.  Toss until everything is lightly coated.  Add more vinaigrette if necessary.  Add the pistachios and toss to distribute.  Divide the salad among four plates.  When the cheese is ready, use a small spatula to transfer it to the plates.  Nestle the soft rounds alongside the piles of greens and strawberries.  Serve immediately with crusty bread or toasts.

Serves 4

If you don't have any goat cheese on hand, the salad makes a nice side for a Quesadilla, too

Candied Spiced Pistachios

1/2 c. pistachios

2 T. sugar

1/4 t. each black peppercorns, coriander seed, & fennel seed, coarsely crushed in a mortar & pestle

Kosher salt

Spread the pistachios on a small, lightly oiled baking sheet (or in a pie tin) and toast in a 350° oven until hot through—about 5 minutes.  The goal isn’t so much to fully toast the nuts as to get the process started—they will continue to toast in the caramelized sugar.  The goal is to get them hot.  If they are not hot when they are added to the caramel, the mixture will seize into a tight blob.  The goal is separated pistachios, coated with a light crust of spiced caramelized sugar.

Two or three minutes before the nuts come out of the oven, scatter the sugar in a small non-stick sauté pan (one that will just hold the pistachios in a single layer) and set over high heat.  Shake the pan occasionally to keep the sugar distributed.  It will begin to melt and turn to caramel almost simultaneously.  When the sugar has turned to liquid caramel, 

sprinkle the spices over the caramel and then scatter in the hot nuts.  Using a lightly oiled heat proof spatula to strategically stir and turn the nuts, helping them to become coated in a thin film of caramel.  

Reduce the heat if the caramel starts to smoke.  The nuts will want to stick together, but just continue to stir, turn, and separate them with the spatula until the nuts are mostly evenly coated.  Transfer back to the oiled sheet and use the oiled spatula to spread them out, separating them as much as possible.  

Some will persist in sticking, but they should break up fairly easily once the caramel has cooled.  Let cool and then finish breaking them up.  Store in an airtight container at room temperature.

Alternatively:  Combine the sugar and the spices and set aside.  Place the pistachios in a non-stick sauté pan over medium-high heat.  Toast the nuts stirring frequently, until they are fragrant.   Begin to sprinkle the sugar mixture over the nuts as you simultaneously shake the pan back and forth.  The sugar will immediately begin to caramelize and coat the nuts.  Continue to sprinkle the sugar and shake the pan until the nuts are nicely glazed with the spiced caramel.  Immediately spread the nuts on a greased cookie sheet to cool.

White Balsamic Vinaigrette

2 T. White Balsamic Vinegar

1/2 t. (slightly mounded) Dijon mustard

1/8 t. Kosher salt

1/4 c. Extra Virgin Olive Oil

Place the vinegar, mustard and salt in a small bowl.  Whisk until smooth.  Add the olive oil in a thin stream while whisking constantly.  Taste and correct the seasoning.  The vinaigrette should be tangy and slightly sweet.  Store any leftovers in the fridge.  Re-whisk before using.

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A Special Springtime Dessert…Danish Almond Cake with Fresh Strawberry Buttercream and Mixed Berry Compote

If someone were to take a look at my last few posts, they might think this was a blog devoted just to desserts.  In the last five posts I have shared a recipe for chocolate mousse, two cookie recipes and a cake.  And today I’m posting another cake.  I promise to get back into savory mode as we head into spring…but I just couldn’t resist sharing the simple, delicious and oh-so-perfect-for-spring cake that I served to my family for Easter this year.

I have actually shared the recipe for this cake before (in the Holiday Almond Cake Squares that I posted several Christmases ago).  But I wanted to share it again to demonstrate how versatile it can be….and also to emphasize how much I love it.  I don’t think it is a secret that I really like cake… all kinds of cake.  I eat cake almost every day…and I have shared many different kinds of recipes for cake over the years.  But when it comes to cakes for dessert, this almond cake is the cake.  If I could only have one cake to make for birthdays and special occasions for the rest of my life, this is the cake I would choose.  It is perfect in every way.  It bakes into beautiful, level, fine-grained layers that slice cleanly and neatly.  It can be baked in just about any kind of shape (square and round…small and large…).  It can be eaten plainly—with nothing more than a dusting of powdered sugar…or a scattering of toasted almonds.  It is wonderful accompanied by a little fruit…fresh, poached or roasted.   And it can be covered with almost any favorite buttercream or glaze.  And it is of course delicious!  If you love almond flavor, this will probably become your favorite cake too.

                                                                                                                          

I have been making this cake for more than twenty years.  And up until about four years ago my love for this cake was marred (only slightly, I admit) by the persnickety mixing method.  As originally published in Madeleine Kamman’s The New Making of a Cook, the recipe directed you to finely grate the almond paste before creaming it with the butter and sugar.  If you have every worked with almond paste, grating small amounts is a wonderful trick for getting this moderately stiff and sticky substance evenly distributed throughout a batter…or over a pastry or bar cookie.  But grating ten and half ounces of it is a sticky mess.  The fact that I continued to make this cake despite how I felt about grating the almond paste says a lot about how much I love it.  But just in case it was out there, I was always on the lookout for another way to blend the almond paste perfectly and smoothly into the batter.

Then, a few years ago I ran across Thomas Keller’s version of this cake in his book Bouchon.   (There are many, many versions of this cake…it is so lovely that most pastry chefs have it in their repertoire in some form.)  His method for incorporating the almond paste is fantastic.  Instead of softening the butter before creaming it with the almond paste and sugar, the butter is added while it is still cold.  Because the butter is still hard when the creaming process begins, it smoothly absorbs the almond paste bit by bit.  By the time the action of the paddle has softened the butter, it has absorbed all of the almond paste and sugar into a stiff, thick, uniform mass.  

Continued creaming warms and softens the butter while simultaneously incorporating air and eventually produces a perfectly light and fluffy mass of creamed butter, sugar and almond paste.




Brilliant.  And easy. 

Because the proportions of the recipe I use differ slightly from Keller’s recipe, I have adapted his method to work with my recipe.  I leave two thirds of the butter cold and bring the other third to room temperature.  After creaming the cold butter with the almond paste and sugar until everything is completely smooth, I beat in the remaining softened butter and continue to cream until the whole mass is light and fluffy.  Basically Keller’s method seems to work well if the weight of the cold butter is about half the weight of the almond paste.  I have gotten lumps of almond paste that didn’t want to smooth out when I have tried to use all cold butter in my version of the recipe. 

For Easter this year I frosted the cake with a fresh strawberry buttercream.  The recipe is the one my friend Chef Nancy uses in her bake shop and it is basically a Swiss Meringue style buttercream with puréed strawberries beaten into it.  It is light, fresh and delicious—and sets the almond cake off beautifully.

If you have never made Swiss Meringue buttercream, it is a fairly straightforward operation.  Classic recipes are based on a formula where egg whites, along with about twice their weight in sugar are placed in a mixing bowl and heated over a bath of simmering water until the sugar has dissolved and the mixture is hot to the touch.  The temperature of the mixture should be in the 150°F to 160°F range. Once you have made it a few times, you will not need a thermometer—you will know by touch if it is ready.  While this mixture is heating, it must be stirred constantly.  You may use a rubber spatula for this, but I find it easiest just to grab the whisk attachment of my mixer at the top and use this to keep the mixture moving over the heat. 

When the mixture is hot, attach the bowl to the mixer and whisk at high speed until it has cooled to room temperature.  Beat in room temperature butter (in an amount roughly equal to the weight of the sugar and whites combined).  At this point flavorings (extracts, fruit purees, etc) are added.  If the mixture looks curdled, 




or is too stiff, warm it briefly (you don’t want to melt the butter—just get the bowl warm to the touch) over the simmering water you used to warm the egg whites and then return it to the mixer and beat with the paddle attachment until smooth. 

You will find all kinds of recipes for Swiss Meringue buttercream—all with slight variations in quantities of whites, sugar and butter.  As long as the ratios of the ingredients are in the ball park of what I have described, the recipe should work just fine.  If you already have a favorite recipe, by all means use it as the base for your strawberry buttercream.

I garnished my Easter cake with my favorite fresh berry compote.  I make this particular compote all the time during the spring and early summer months.  It is wonderful with ice cream, angel food or pound cake, lemon tart…fritters, pancakes and waffles…just about anything that would be set off to advantage by a few berries and a little sauce. Because none of the components are cooked, the compote is bright and fresh—perfect for spring and summer.

Easter is of course over for the year, but there are many spring and early summer celebrations yet to come—graduations, bridal showers, Mother’s day…  This cake would be just the thing for any one of them.  But even if you don’t make the compote….or the buttercream…I hope today’s post inspires you to try this amazing cake.  Once you make it, I think you will find yourself wanting to make it often…for any (and possibly every) occasion.

Danish Almond Cake

200 g. (1 c.) granulated sugar

300 g./10 1/2 oz. almond paste, (not marzipan)

1/2 lb. unsalted butter, divided—1/3 at room temperature and 2/3 kept cold and cut into 6 to 8 chunks

1 t. vanilla

5 large eggs (250 g.)

100 g. (1 c.) sifted cake flour

1/4 t. fine salt

1/2 t. baking powder

Preheat the oven to 325°.  Butter a 10- by 2-inch round cake pan.  Line the pan with a round of parchment, butter the parchment.  Flour the pan, knocking out the excess flour. 

Place the sugar and almond paste in the bowl of a stand mixer and using the paddle attachment, mix on medium low to begin breaking up the almond paste.  Add the cold butter and increase the speed to medium high (you may need to put some plastic wrap around the mixer to prevent the almond paste, sugar and butter from being flung out of the bowl).  Beat until the mixture is smooth.  When no lumps of almond paste or butter remain, increase the speed to high and add the soft butter.  Cream until light and fluffy—about 5 minutes.  Scrape down the bowl add the vanilla and mix in.

Add the eggs one at a time, beating briefly on medium-high speed after each addition to return the batter to fluffiness and scraping down the sides before each next addition.  

Finally, sift the dry ingredients directly over the batter and fold in.  Turn into the prepared pan

and bake for 35 to 40 minutes.  The cake is done when it is golden brown and a toothpick inserted in the center comes out clean.  Unmold immediately onto a plate.  Invert onto a rack to let the cake cool right side up.  Cool completely. 

The cake may be frosted or simply dusted with powdered sugar and served plain or with whipped cream and berries.  Serves 12 to 16. 

(Recipe adapted from The New Making of a Cook by Madeleine Kamman)

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Fresh Strawberry Buttercream

4 egg whites (120 g.)

1 1/4 c. sugar (250 g.)

3/4 lb. unsalted butter, at room temperature

8 oz. fresh strawberry purée (see note)

Place the egg whites and sugar in the bowl of a stand mixer and place over a pan of simmering water.  Stir constantly—with a whisk or rubber spatula—until the sugar is dissolved and the mixture is hot to the touch.  An instant read thermometer will read between 150°F and 160°F.

Using the whisk attachment, whip the mixture on high speed until the mixture has formed a thick, glossy, billowy meringue.  Continue beating until the bowl no longer feels warm to the touch.  Reduce the speed to medium-high and add the butter two or three tablespoons at a time, beating until it is completely absorbed.  Stop the mixer, scrape down the sides.  Whisk in the strawberry purée.  If the mixture appears curdled, place the bowl back over the pan of simmering water just until the bowl is warm.  You don’t want the butter to melt you just want the bowl to be warm.  Return the bowl to the mixer and beat until the mixture no longer appears separated.  Switch to the paddle attachment and continue to beat on medium or medium low speed until the mixture is very silky and smooth and has lightened to a lovely pale pink color. 

Makes about 5 cups of buttercream.  (You will only need about half of this for the Almond Cake.)  The buttercream may be refrigerated for a week or frozen for six months.  Allow the buttercream to come to room temperature before rebeating to restore its silken texture. 

Note:  To make strawberry purée, wash and hull 9 oz. of strawberries.  Purée the hulled strawberries in the food processor until completely smooth.  If made ahead, bring to room temperature before adding to the buttercream. 

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Fresh Berry Compote

1 6 oz. box raspberries (or use an equal weight of frozen—thaw before using)

3 T. sugar

2 to 3 t. lemon juice—or to taste

1 lb. strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and cut into wedges or sliced

1 to 2 T. sugar

1 1/2 c. mixed berries—raspberries, blueberries and/or blackberries

Make a raspberry sauce:  Purée the raspberries and pass through a fine-meshed strainer, pressing hard with a ladle or spatula in order to extract all of the purée.  Stir in the sugar.  Add lemon juice to taste.

About an hour or two before you plan to serve the compote, place the strawberries in a bowl and sugar lightly and toss to combine.  When you are ready to serve the compote, add the other berries to the strawberries along with the raspberry sauce, folding carefully to distribute the berries and until all of the berries are coasted with the sauce.   

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Pistachio & Strawberry Friands

I'm not sure when it was that I first saw a picture of one of the window displays at Yotam Ottolenghi and Sami Tamimi's Restaurant "Ottolenghi" in London, but suffice it to say that I loved everything about what I saw:  the abundance...  the beautiful vegetables...  the variety of grains... and most of all the fantastical display of miniature desserts (cakes, tarts, meringues, cookies...).  I was...and still am...completely enamored.  Regular readers will know that I cook and bake under the influence of these two talented chefs all the time.  The little cakes I am posting today make frequent appearances in their displays, so I think it is safe to say that I first became aware of them because of my admiration for the Ottolenghi chefs.  This particular recipe is in fact adapted from one of theirs.

 
If you have never heard of a friand (pronounced fryʹ uhnd), let me introduce you.  Friands are little muffin-sized cakes that are popular in Australia and New Zealand.  The word Friand is actually French (pronounced freeʹ ahn) and means "tasty morsel".  The cakes themselves are almost identical to a French petit four called a financier.  Both cakes are made of roughly equal quantities of egg whites, melted butter, sugar and a blend of all purpose (plain) and nut flours. 

As far as I am able to tell, the most significant difference between them is twofold:  When making financiers, the melted butter is always browned first.  When making friands, it appears that the sugar used is always powdered (icing) sugar.  I would also add that in my experience, friands tend to have a higher percentage of sugar.  They are quite sweet.  I like to eat cake for breakfast, but I would probably not choose a friand for breakfast...they are definitely a tea time/dessert treat. 



Some will tell you that another difference is that friands usually have added fruit...sometimes bits of chocolate.  But since more and more you will see financiers made with added fruit, I'm not sure this distinction is particularly valid.  To be honest, I think the best definition is that the friand is the Down Under version of a financier.  A financier is, after all, a tasty morsel. 

Both financiers and friands are usually made with almond meal/flour.  But you can of course make them with all kinds of nut flours.  Almond flour is widely available these days...other nut flours, not so much.  Occasionally I will see hazelnut flour.  But I have never seen pistachio flour.  (Of course, that doesn't mean it isn't out there).  I use a drum-style rotary grater, fitted with the finest drum, to grind small quantities of nuts into nut flours.  You can attempt to grind nuts to a flour in your food processor, but even if you are able to do so without creating nut butter, you will find that instead of a fluffy, flour-like texture, you will have produced something that is rather oily and has the heavy texture of sand.  It might make an acceptable cake...but the texture would not be as light.   If you like to bake with nut flours, it is definitely worth seeking out a special nut grinder/grater of some kind. 

The texture of a friand is probably not what you might expect.  They are often compared to muffins, but their texture is not muffin-like at all.  They are tender and moist (like a good muffin)...but whereas a muffin is supposed to be light and airy, a friand is rich and dense (in fact, rather pound cake-like).  One of the particular qualities that I love in both financiers and friands is the browned, tender-chewy exterior crust.  If you were to try to dig in with your fork, you might decide you had encountered a tough or a hard cake.  But if you pick it up and eat it with your fingers, you will discover that it isn't in the slightest bit tough or hard.   Rather, it has a definite and pleasant chew before dissolving into sweet, nutty and buttery deliciousness in your mouth. 



The particular texture of the crust as I have described it is most pronounced on the day the friands are made.  After that, the exterior softens a bit.  It is still very good...just not the same.  Some might in fact prefer the texture on the second or third day.  Since the cakes can be iced with a powdered sugar glaze that tends to dissolve when it comes in contact with moisture—like the moisture in the fruit scattered over the top of the cake—it is best to ice the cakes on the day they will be served.  It is not the end of the world if the icing dissolves a bit, it's just not as pretty (they still taste great).  You can also forgo the icing altogether and serve the cakes with nothing more than a dusting of powdered sugar.

An iced friand on the second day...  you can see bits of strawberry
 peeking through where the icing has begun to dissolve...

Finally, for those of you who have been following my blog for a long time now, you might realize that the presence of a pistachio cake can only mean one thing.  That's right...an anniversary.  I began keeping For Love of the Table seven years ago today.  Ever since the first anniversary I have always posted something pistachio on the day (most often a cake).  It's difficult to believe it has been so long.  I will have to sit down to a bite of cake to mark the occasion.  I hope you will vicariously join me.  And, I hope you will continue to visit For Love of the Table...where, for the foreseeable future, I will continue to share all kinds of delicious things to cook and bake...so that you will be able to share them with the people you love...at your table.

   

Pistachio & Strawberry Friands

185g unsalted butter melted and cooled (170g plus 15g for brushing the pans)

75g all purpose flour

40g finely ground almonds (almond meal/flour)

85g finely ground pistachios

225g powdered sugar, sifted

1/4 t. salt

180g egg whites (from 6 eggs)

1 t. orange zest

110g strawberries, washed, dried, hulled and cut into a 1/4-inch dice

1 recipe strawberry glaze (below), optional

3 to 4 T. chopped toasted pistachios for garnish, optional

Powdered sugar for garnish, optional

Preheat the oven to 350°F

Use a tablespoon (15g) of the melted butter to generously brush the bottoms and sides of the pan(s) (see note).  This buttery coating helps create the crisp edges that are one of the special characteristics of a friand.  Chill the pan(s) to firm up the butter.

Place all of the dry ingredients in a medium bowl and whisk to combine. Set aside.

Place the egg whites in a medium bowl and using a clean whisk, whip the whites until very frothy/foamy. It isn't necessary to whip them to soft peaks—you just want to loosen them up a bit. 

Spread the dry ingredients over the top of the egg whites.  Add the zest to the cooled butter and pour this mixture over the dry ingredients.  Fold all the ingredients into the egg whites, mixing just until the batter is smooth and uniform.  You may use the batter immediately or cover and chill for a day or two.

Divide the batter among the pans using an ice cream scoop.  Fill each of the pans 2/3 to 3/4 of the way up.  Scatter the strawberries over the top of each of the cakes, dividing evenly.  (If any of the berries are touching the edges of the pans, use a fork to gently pull them away from the edge.)

Place the pan(s) on a baking sheet and place in the middle of the preheated oven (if your baking sheet is very thick or heavy, place it in the oven while the oven is preheating and then just place the cake pans directly on the preheated sheet). Bake for 20 to 35 minutes (depending on the size and depth of your pan) until the friands have risen, are golden around the edges and springy to the touch.  A skewer inserted into the center of one should come out clean. 

Take the friands out of the oven and leave them to cool in the pans for 3 to 5 minutes.  Don't allow them to stay too long in the molds or they will stick.  Turn the cakes out (running a sharp knife around the edges first if they seem to want to stick).  Transfer the cakes to a wire rack to cool.

To finish:  Dredge the cooled cakes with powdered sugar or ice them with the strawberry glaze.  To glaze the cakes, place them on a wire rack set over a baking sheet.  Drop a blob of glaze on the top of each cake and spread out to the edges, allowing it to slowly drip down the sides.  Before the glaze is set, sprinkle the top of each cake with a few chopped pistachios. 

Un-iced, the friands will keep—in an airtight container—for several days.  Glazing/icing should be done on the day they will be served. 

Note on pans:  You may use any shape of small, muffin-sized cake tin that you like as long as you butter it well and don't fill it any more than 2/3 to 3/4 full.  You can use a muffin pan...or small loaf pans.  I use a couple of individual cheesecake pans.  These are similar to 6 cup muffin tins, but have straight sides and removable bottoms.  The holes in my pans are two inches deep and 2 3/4 inches in diameter.  I only fill them about half full (75g batter each) because I don't want the cakes to be too large.  The recipe makes 10 cakes of this size.  You could probably use individual porcelain/china/stoneware ramekins too.

Strawberry Glaze:

55g. strawberries, washed, dried and hulled

1 T. milk

1/2 t. lemon juice

225g. powdered sugar

Place the berries in a small bows and smash with a fork.  Pass through a fine sieve, pressing the pulp against the sides.  Measure out 25 grams of strained strawberry purée.  Place the powdered sugar in a small bowl and add the measured berry purée, the milk and the lemon juice.  Stir with a rubber spatula to make a thick, smooth glaze.  It should be just thick enough so that it will slowly drip down the sides of the cakes when spread on the top.  Adjust the consistency with milk, strawberry purée or powdered sugar.  Cover with plastic wrap until ready to use.

Recipe adapted from Ottolenghi and Waitrose

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