Rooibos & Rose Friands
Baking can turn any day into a rainy day. I don’t mean that in the gloomy “all of my plans are ruined” kind of way, but rather, in the “I’m taking a peaceful moment away from the rest of the world” kind of way. Over the years I have cultivated a collection of baking books to fill my peaceful moments with chocolate-stained aprons and accidental swipes of flour that speckle my awaiting pup’s fur like fresh falling snow. Oftentimes these books offer many of the same type of recipe, and although there’s no denying the comfort of a classic chocolate chip cookie, I find myself more drawn to recipes with unique ingredients or flavor combinations. That’s why I couldn’t wait to try A Good Day to Bake by Benjamina Ebuehi. The recipes stray from the typical cookie and cake types you would expect and boast unconventional ingredients that are just perfectly left of center to catch your attention without scaring you off. The Rooibos & Rose Friands recipe first piqued my interest because both my old college roommate and my dad often drank Rooibos tea. Also, I had to google “friands” and the thought of trying my hand at something I’ve never heard of was too tempting!
This recipe called for a couple ingredients that were difficult to find in the store; namely, vanilla bean paste and rose water. Although I was able to find the expensiveandisthisreallynecessary vanilla bean paste, the rose water was nowhere to be found in all of Colorado (i.e. the two stores I checked). However, once I got baking, I found that the grocery hunt was the toughest part. The friands were incredibly pleasant to make as they did not require any softened butter, a clunky stand mixer, or sifted ingredients. This book does list ingredients using the metric system which I personally prefer as it’s more accurate but should be noted as a scale is necessary. The batter came together quickly and I had the friands in the oven within 15 minutes. The aroma of the rooibos tea seeping out of the oven as they baked is the candle scent I’m now desperate for Yankee Candle to replicate! The friands were a deep golden brown before time was up so I took them out about 7 minutes early. This was probably due to the altitude here and was not a problem as I’m used to checking my bakes for that reason.
The
friands came out perfect. They weren’t over or underbaked, the crumb was
moist yet airy, and the amount of rooibos flavor was a Goldilocks level of
juuust right. There was a slight crunch to the edges which provided a little
textural variety and the sweetness was subtle enough to make these a great
breakfast or tea-time pastry. The rosewater was not missed and, to my chagrin,
the vanilla bean paste did actually bring more of a warm brown vanilla profile
than extract would have. Am I a vanilla bean paste snob now? I’ve already
shared the recipe with several friends and if I still had my mom’s old recipe
box, I’d file this one under “keepers”.
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