eat pray bake: Day 6 - Almond Star Biscuits

Tuesday, 6 December 2011

Day 6 - Almond Star Biscuits

"Keep your eyes on the stars and your feet on the ground. Theodore Roosevelt"

Today's offerings are Almond Stars, Nutella (chocolate spread or a ganache) sandwiched between two biscuits, topped with some toasted almond flakes. This is a mash up of a Nigella recipe and my absolute favourite place on the internet, BBC Good Food.

Recipe

For the Biscuits

90g soft unsalted butter

100g caster sugar

1 large egg

1 teaspoon vanilla extract

1/2 teaspoon baking powder

1/2 teaspoon salt

1. Preheat the oven to 180oC/gas mark 4.

2. Cream the butter and sugar until soft and pale, then beat in the egg until mixed thoroughly. Finally add the rest of the ingredients and mix until it becomes a soft dough.

3. Divide into two sections & place each one between two sheets of baking parchment. Roll the dough out to the thickness of about 5mm and leave to chill in the fridge for at least 30 minutes.

4. Once chilled, cut out the shapes and place on one side of the baking parchment with a little bit of space between each one. You can re-roll the scraps to make more biscuits. I found the dough to be quite sticky once it gets warm so you will probably need to dip the cutters into flour to make it easier to cut.

5. Sprinkle some almond flakes onto half of the biscuits.

6. Place the biscuits onto a baking sheet and bake for about 10 mins. I turned the biscuits around after 5 minutes to make sure that they cooked evenly. The cooking times are approximate and will depend on your oven. Keep checking the biscuits regularly as they can quick go from cooked to burnt. When they are ready, they will have a pale gold colour at the edges but still be a bit soft - they harden as they cool.

7. Place the cooked biscuits on to a cooling tray and leave to cool.

8. Once the biscuits have cooled, sandwich two biscuits together, one with almonds and a plain one using half a teaspoon of Nutella or another filling of your choice.