Preheat the oven to 180°C (170°C fan-forced). Grease a friand mould or muffin tin.
For the syrup, stir the sugar, mandarin juice and lemon juice in a saucepan over low heat until the sugar dissolves (5 minutes). Add the mandarin peel. Increase the heat and boil for 2-3 minutes until the syrup thickens. Remove from the heat.
To make the friands, combine the almond meal, icing sugar and flour in a bowl. Whisk in the melted butter, mandarin juice and mandarin rind.
Fold the egg whites through the almond mixture. Divide the batter evenly into the friand pan, filling to ⅔ of each hole. Brush some syrup on each friand and then place a mandarin segment on top.
Bake in the oven for 15 minutes until a skewer inserted into the middle comes out clean. Cool and unmould on a wire rack. Bake of the rest of the batter the same way if there's any leftover.
To serve, drizzle some more syrup with zest over the top
