Almond & Elderflower Cookies : heavenly little biscuits!

Following on from a number of requests, here's the recipe for the cookies that went so beautifully with the Gooseberry Cream & Elderflower Jelly Pots.

The basic recipe is a Rachel Allen basic vanilla shortbread biscuit one, with the elderflower cordial instead of the vanilla and with some ground almonds added.

It really doesn't get any easier than this - unless you make use of a Kenwood Chef, like I did.  Well, it is helpful for when you run out of mixing power in your arms!

ALMOND & ELDERFLOWER COOKIES  (Makes around 18)

Ingredients :

200g softened butter

100g icing sugar

200g plain flour

half a tsp of baking powder

2 tsp elderflower cordial

100g ground almonds

caster sugar, for sprinkling.

Method :

1.  In a bowl, cream the butter with the sifted icing sugar until light and fluffy.

2.  Sift in the plain flour and baking powder, along with the elderflower cordial and  ground almonds.

3.  Mix them all in, only stirring as much as is necessary. Too much stirring will result in hard, tough biscuits.

4.  Once they are all combined, lay a large piece of cling film onto the work surface and tip the dough into the middle. Quickly form the dough into a sausage shape and roll it up in the cling film, twisting the ends tightly – so compressing the contents.

5.  Place in the refrigerator for a half an hour until firm, then pre-heat the oven to 180deg C (Gas Mark 4).

6.  Remove the cling film and slice into rounds of about a half centimetre thickness.

7.  Place the rounds onto a baking tray lined with parchment paper.  Sprinkle with a little caster sugar and bake in the oven for 10 - 15 minutes until light golden brown.

8.  Remove from the oven and give them a second or two to firm up, then carefully transfer to a wire rack to cool.

Try hard not to eat them all! 

Look what we've got!

Such treasure!  A Kenwood Chef - at last!

I don't know how long we have lusted after a Kenwood Chef.  Well, we've been together for nearly 13 years, so it's probably about that long.  Now, thanks to our friends Laura and David deciding to have a turnout of their kitchen, we are the proud owners of a beautiful shiny as-new Kenwood Chef.

Hubby is terribly excited, as the Kenwood came with a dough hook.  Well you know what an artisan baker he is - although I'm not sure artisan bakers are supposed to use things like Kenwood Chefs, aren't they supposed to sweat as they mix things by hand?  LOL  Anyway, we'll forgive him that, as anything that makes life a teensy bit easier has got to be a good thing.

You'll see above his first loaf of bread, made using the Kenwood.  He was so proud.  Now, I think we're on to loaf three or four of various incarnations of bread, in the search for the perfect "everyday" loaf.

I have to admit, that all I've done with it (so far) is make a smoothie - but what a smoothie!  I've always wanted to be able to add ice cubes to a smoothie - and ice cubes are definitely more than my little stick blender could cope with.  The Kenwood, however, just munched it's powerful way through them.

My smoothie was made with an enormous Cox's apple, three red plums, a banana, three dessertspoonfuls of plain live yoghurt, around 200ml of apple juice and three ice cubes.  Whizz it all up and it makes enough for two smoothies that will wake up the most jaded of taste buds!