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Fruit Salad
Ali Slagle
380 ratings with an average rating of 4 out of 5 stars
380
20 minutes
Updated Oct. 10, 2023
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Heat oven to 400 degrees. In a small bowl, mix strawberries with 1 tablespoon of granulated sugar and transfer to a parchment-lined baking sheet. Roast until the strawberries have released a bit of juice and are just tender, 10 to 15 minutes. Set aside to cool.
In a small saucepan, melt butter, letting it cook until it turns nut brown and smells toasted, about 5 minutes. Pour into a heatproof bowl and let cool. (Do not scrape up any black bits from the bottom of the pot.)
Meanwhile, in a large bowl, combine sugar, almond flour, all-purpose flour and salt. Using an electric mixer fitted with the whisk attachment and set on low speed (or use a whisk and a strong arm), beat in egg whites until the flour mixture is damp. Add butter and beat on medium-high speed (or vigorously by hand) until very smooth, about 2 minutes. Beat in vanilla. At this point, the batter can be used immediately or refrigerated for up to 4 days without the strawberries.
Right before baking, drain the roasted strawberries from their liquid and blot on a paper towel or clean cloth. Fold the roasted strawberries into the batter. (You may have about 1 to 2 tablespoons of strawberry syrup left to add to yogurt or seltzer.)
Butter 12 (½-cup) muffin cups and coat all over with a little granulated sugar. Divide batter across the cups, and bake until financiers are golden brown and the tops spring back when lightly pressed, 15 to 25 minutes. Cool on a wire rack before unmolding.
I am certain to be in the minority in hating cooked strawberries. I loved the recipe for the cake, so I used the remaining peaches I had from another dish. Brilliant.
These are delicious! I made a mistake that I think altered the texture, so thought I would share. Even though there isn’t much AP flour, I overbeat the batter activating the gluten so they were dense instead of light. For me this is easy to do with a stand mixer. Next time will try by hand with a whisk, or go the extra step of whipping the egg whites in the mixer and folding them into the batter. Also, I will roast and drain the strawberries the day before.
Tender and excellent flavor. Brown butter takes more then 5 minutes to make but the flavor (and I doubled the vanilla) is a treat.
5 large egg whites is 5⅞ oz, 165 g, or about 2/3 cup
Absolutely amazing recipe. Made just as is and it tasted like something right out a French bakery. Highly recommend!
I made these little cakes as directed and they turned out great. Next time I will take them out of the oven by 18 minutes…15 minutes wasn’t long enough and 20 minutes was just a bit too long. A big hit with my family.
I didn't like the taste of the cooked strawberries, and I found these far too sweet. I will try again with fresh raspberries and less sugar (since sugar acts as a liquid in baking). And a bit less salt. There's a commenter (Tony) who will criticize me for straying from the original recipe (he does it to many commenters), but so be it. Part of being a cook is sharing changes which people may or may not appreciate.
Someone asked about the temp - the recipe wasn't super clear but yes cook at the original 400 used to roast the strawberries. Watch them carefully. They weren't quite done at 15 mins and the edges were already browning. I left them in another 5 mins and unfortunately I had to toss 3 that I wasn't able to get out of the tins fast enough - but i scooped out the insides and they were delicious. These muffins are absolutely divine. Like an almond muffin slathered with butter and jam. A keeper!
In future, I think that I'll make this with raspberries. I roasted, drained and dried the strawberries but they still seemed a bit too juicy for this recipe.
Should work fine! At a bakery I used to work at we used a mix of hazelnut and almond flour in our financiers!
No leavening except the egg whites? Is it better to beat them and fold in the other ingredients?
These turned out beautifully and were fun to make, but even after cutting down the sugar by a half cup I found them too sweet.
Delicious and easy. Quite sweet. I used <1oz. of freeze dried strawberries. I’ll use more next time.
I made them completely gluten-free, with almond flour (as directed) and Bob’s Red Mill 1-1 gluten-free baking flour. They’re delicious! Everyone loved them!
I bet freeze dried strawberries would work well!
Any suggestions re using five egg yolks? It would be welcome info if such suggestions could be included as a 'tip' with such recipes. Thanks in advance
I'm pretty sure I've baked this before, to success. This morning I had a huge disaster with this recipe. I must have missed an ingredient (!) - it was like soup, so I added more almond flour before folding int eh strawberries. I wanted a cake, so I baked it in an angel food cake pan... which got glued together. I managed to get it the 'cake' out (eventually and at the expense of a perfectly round center hole). It didn't rise at all. ... All that said, it still tastes good!
I doubled this but accidentally forgot to double the sugar, and the resulting muffins were excellent, and even pushing my threshold for sweetness. It’s hard for me to imagine the full amount plus all the sugar dusted in the pans and suggested on the muffin tops. I’ve just done a second attempt where i repeated the doubling of everything but the sugar (intentional this time), and I beat the egg whites to soft peaks. I’m making this as two 9” cakes (sort of which I had done 8”). I’m out of space
Great taste for such little work. Next time I'll use the leftover strawberry syrup to combine with confectionary sugar to pipe a little strawberry goodness on top.
I reduced the confectioners' sugar slightly (to 200 g), and these were plenty sweet. Next time might try 180. Used 60 g King Arthur Measure for Measure gf flour and 30 g sorghum flour in place of the all-purpose. Otherwise followed recipe exactly. These were pretty tasty, but if you have a dark non-stick muffin tin like I do, you may wish to bake these at 375 instead of 400 (they got *quite* brown around the edges at 400)!
Made this today, Allergic to flour so I used gluten free, which worked. It's a bit sweet for my taste but they are light and full of butter.
Delicious! I tried to follow the recipe exactly as written, and almost succeeded. (I forgot to sugar the tins before adding batter. When I realized that, I sprinkled a little granulated sugar on top before baking. No one was the wiser.) I weighed all ingredients, which I think helped ensure they weren’t overly sweet. My 230g of confectioners sugar was less than 2 cups. Given the compliments, I’ll definitely be making these again. In buttered AND sugared muffin muffin tins.
Delightful. Melissa Clark is a baking genius. Brilliant strategy for the strawberries. Far too much sugar, though. With sweet fresh berries, next time I’ll try decreasing to 1 1/2 cups.
These are very good, and nearly foolproof. I accidentally dropped an egg yolk in once and they were still delicious. I add more strawberries than the recipe calls for, as well as the cooked-down juice. This can make the cakes less stable when unmolding, but is delicious for strawberry lovers.
For a vegan version, what could I substitute egg whites for?
Made 9/27 Made small ones V good
I used some strawberries that were on the way out - little less liquid after roasting. Lucky break and oh so perfect. Now this is my go to when I have too many strawberries on hand.
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