Saturday, April 17, 2010

Tazziberry Friands

Katie from Eat This! is hosting this edition of Weekend Herb Blogging and this week I'm enjoying the new season of Tazziberry

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Even though the name is extraordinarily cringe worthy, the fruit is actually very good. This is one case where you can believe the hype, it does have the aroma and taste of pineapple and strawberry with a mix of pear and apple and raspberry. It's something you'd expect Willie Wonka to have conjured up.

These little fruits are the berry of the Ugni Molinae, a member of the Myrtle family and a native of Chile. It's now being grown in Tasmania and unfortunately the marketing genius have taken a leaf out of the Kiwi Fruit bible and tried to usurp its origins by appending the horrid Tazzi to the name.

That is bad but there is worse - the New Zealanders are also growing this plant and have decided to call it New Zealand Cranberry. I do feel the urge to use a rolling eye emoticon about now.

It should have been a good week but it wasn't - it's bad enough being sick but when your so sick that you can't celebrate your birthday that just makes you feel sick and depressed.

To help cheer myself up now that I'm feeling better, I've used these Tazziberries to make adorable and gluten free Friands.

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Tazziberry Friands
[Makes about 18 friands]

150 grams butter, melted and cooled
150 grams pure icing sugar
50 grams rice flour
100 grams almond meal
4 egg whites
150 grams Tazziberries


Whisk the egg whites until fluffy but not overly stiff.

Sift the icing sugar and rice flour together into a bowl, then sift in the almond meal - give it a stir to distribute the ingredients.

Make a well in the center and pour in the cooled, melted butter - stir it in to form a thick paste.

Drop in about half of the whisked egg whites to help slacken the mix and then fold through with the remaining egg whites.

Sprinkle the tazziberries over the batter and very gently fold them through.

Scoop the batter out into the friand cases - if you don't have friand cases, small muffin or cupcake cases will do fine.

Bake in a preheated 160°C oven for about 20 to 30 minutes or until cooked through and golden.

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Let them cool in the cases before umoulding.


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The combination of butter, almond meal and whipped egg white gives the friand a highly desirable moist and chewy texture, the addition of those little pockets of flavour make these an almost irresistible treat.

10 comments

  1. These a delicious looking little friands. They look very moist. I have never seen a tazziberry before but would be keen to try them, especially in friand form.

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  2. This is a type of berry I've never seen or heard of here, very interesting.

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  3. hope you're feeling better Haalo and wishing you a Happy Birthday! love your baking results as usual:)

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  4. I've never seen tazziberry before!!
    They look so nice!!!

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  5. Happy birthdddaaayy!!! hope you are better now...and "re-celebrate" it "because you are worth it"! ;-)
    Another unusual ingredient you introduce us to...In the end, I'm always so limited to try your recipes...because I cannot find all the wonderful things you use in them!!:-D But, it's worth it to learn about them, and create a halo of mystery around them...so, when I eventually find them I'll be double happy: to have found them and to be able to try the recipe!!!

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  6. Happy Birthday! 'hope you're feeling better; the friands oughta help - they look great. Wikipedia describes the berries as native to Chile and Argentina (and says it is also sometimes known as "Chilean guava", and was a favorite of Queen Victoria). I wonder if they're available in the USA?

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  7. Happy birthday!! I've never heard of tazziberries, either, but now I'm dying to try them!

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  8. Being a New Zealander, I have never heard of Tazziberries. I bought a Chilean Guava plant many, many years ago and have always enjoyed the fruit. More recently the plants have been marketed as NZ cranberries and as ugni berries but I have never seen the berries for sale. If you want some you might need to grow your own - they are very easy to grow

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  9. Happy birthday! These look like just the thing to cheer you up after an illness. How delicious!

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  10. Thanks Mark - friands are just the best

    Thanks Kalyn!

    Thanks Heart - feeling much better now!

    Thanks Zia - they are gorgeous but the smell is quite amazing

    Thanks Colette that is so sweet of you - won't be quite the same but blueberries would make a good substitute in this recipe

    Thanks Anon - don't know if they are commercially available in the US, perhaps your best option is to the buy the plant and harvest your own crop.

    Thanks Katie - I hope you get a chance to find them!

    Hi Penny - the name is only used here in Australia

    Thanks Joanne - they certainly cheered me up!

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