Ingredients
100 g butter, melted, plus extra for the tin
80 g ricotta
¼ tsp vanilla paste
½ lemon, finely zested
125 g icing sugar, plus a little for dusting
1 tbsp icing sugar
50 g pistachios
35 g plain flour
50 g almond meal
3 large egg whites
1 peach slightly firm, sliced into 6 good ½ cm thick rounds
Method
- Heat oven 200C/fan 180C. Lightly butter a 6-hole friand tin or regular-sized muffin tin. Mix the ricotta with the vanilla, lemon zest and 1 tbsp icing sugar until smooth. Roughly chop 20g of pistachios.
- Put the remaining 30g pistachios in a mini food processor with the flour and pulse until very finely ground, like your almonds. Mix with the almonds and icing sugar in a big mixing bowl.
- Whisk the egg whites in a separate bowl until you get a light foam. Tip this into the dry ingredients with the melted butter and gently stir together. Divide the batter between the friand holes, then, working quickly, top each with a spoonful of the ricotta mixture. Add a slice of peach to the top of each, a sprinkling of chopped pistachios, and a dusting of icing sugar. Bake for 20-23 minutes until they have risen and are golden – if you check with a skewer you’ll probably hit the molten ricotta, so check round the edges instead.
- Cool for 10 minutes in the tins, then lift out onto a cooling rack.
