I am noticing a bit of a theme here, with simple tasty recipes.  This one from Gabriel Gaté does not disappoint.  These biscuits are simple, moorish and beautifully nutty.  I love buying raw almonds for snacking and so just roasted up a few of these in the oven for this recipe.  The house was filled with a warm toasty aroma that just made my mouth water (and several faces pop up at the kitchen bench wondering what was cooking!)  Don’t forget to read this post down to the bottom for a bonus serving suggestion recipe…

Ingredients

• 250 g (9 oz) caster sugar
• 2 egg whites
• 140 g (5 oz) plain flour
• 180 g (6 oz) whole roasted almonds, halved
• ½ tsp pure vanilla essence
• a little icing sugar, for dusting

How to do it

If you have raw almonds, first of all you will have to toast them.  This is really simple.  Just preheat your oven to 180 degrees celsius and place the almonds on a baking tray in a single layer.  Place the tray on the middle shelf of your oven and roast for 10 minutes, or until a yummy, nutty aroma starts ti fill the house.  Take them out of the oven and cool before giving them a rough chop (you still want quite chunky pieces).

Mix your egg whites for a minute or so in a bowl with an electric or stand mixer with the whisk attachment.  Then add in the sugar and mix to combine until the mixture is thick, white and creamy…………………………..

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With a wooden spoon, mix in the flour, vanilla essence and chopped almonds. The mix will be quite sticky and firm.  Form the mixture into a ball, flatten it out into a disc with the palm of your hand and leave it to rest in the fridge for about an hour or so.

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Take it out of the fridge and place the chilled disc between two sheets of baking (parchment) paper.  Using a rolling pin, urge the mixture out until it is about 1cm thick.  Take off the top sheet of parchment and use a sharp knife to cut the dough into strips about 6-8cm wide.  Then cut each strip into 2cm lengths.  Dont worry too much about getting this part perfect though, it is the ramshackle homemade look that makes these little beauties so charming.

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Then simply place the lower sheet of parchment, containing the cut cookie dough onto a backing tray and place in the oven to 8-10 minutes depending on your oven.  You’ll need to keep an eye on them as I found they brown up quickly.

When golden, remove from the oven and cool before separating and dusting with icing sugar to serve.

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Bonus Extra:

So, I was in the process of plating these up for the final photograph, when I was struck by sudden inspiration.   How would these biscuits work paired with vanilla ice-cream and the left over drunken raspberry sauce from yesterday’s Cherry Fruit Salad recipe?

So, to put this together I simply grabbed a whisky glass and crumbled one of the almond biscuits into the base.  I topped this with vanilla ice-cream and generously drizzled over the brandy spiked raspberry sauce before finishing it off with a whole almond biscuit which I pushed down the side of the glass.  The result: simple yet stunning.  A magical combination of flavours and textures that just work perfectly together.  This would be a great dinner party dessert that is simple to prepare ahead of time, and one that will draw a raft of compliments for the cook!  Go ahead, give it a go and let me know what you think!