Almond Biscuits

Soft almond biscuits are a light Sicilian dessert, easy to prepare, excellent for tea time. I created this recipe while trying it, and it is quite similar to the recipe of hazelnut biscuits. I started with the idea of creating almond biscuits with the help of a pastry syringe (also known as sac à poche) and let them rest for about ten hours before cooking, then I gradually found myself in the kitchen with a compact dough, easily workable by hand, to be cooked after a couple of hours of rest.

I really liked the result I obtained, biscuits with crispy almonds outside and soft inside, to decorate at my pleasure (I used candied cherries, which I love very much, but nothing prevents you from replacing them or alternating them with almonds, hazelnuts and so on).

Now, let’s talk about the calories of almond biscuits, because after having cooked them and eaten three of them, I also reckoned how many calories each of them contained. Although they are made with just three ingredients, these cute biscuits are almost the most caloric food in nature if you count that just one apparently harmless and small biscuit contains about 120 calories (which can only increase depending the garnish you choose), a factor that can not be ignored if you decide to prepare and eat them.

How to make almond biscuits

• To make almond biscuits, the first thing I suggest you to do is to start from peeled, whole, and good quality almonds.
• You must chop up these and reduce them to a fine flour using a mincer. Whenever possible, I always prefer to start from the raw material rather than buying ready-made flour, because this guarantees me that I can choose the type of almonds I want to use and also the "grain" of the flour that I will use to make almond biscuits.
• After you have done this, take care of the rest: grate the peel of half a strictly organic lemon, it will serve to flavor the biscuits giving it a delicious scent and taste and slightly soften the very sweet note, typical of this preparation.

• Then whip the egg whites until stiff, add the almond flour, the grated lemon peel and the confectioner’s sugar. Amalgamate everything with the whisks.
• When all the ingredients are well mixed, you will get a series of sticky "crumbs".
• Transfer this "crumbled" mixture onto a countertop, compact it with your hands and create a cylinder with a diameter of about 4 centimeters.

• Cut it into small circles with a thickness of about one centimeter. You should be able to get about thirty circles that will turn into just as many almond biscuits.
• Take each small circle and create small balls of dough the size of a large walnut. To facilitate this operation, you can help yourself covering your hands with some confectioner’s sugar.
• Place each ball on a baking tray and gently flatten them to create the biscuits. Anyway there is no need to distance them a lot because during the cooking these almond biscuits will not increase in volume. Sprinkle them with a bit of granulated sugar and place half a candied cherry on top of each biscuit, pressing a little to make them stick well. Let them rest a couple of hours in a cool and dry place.
• Then bake them at 160 degrees for about ten minutes, making sure that they do not acquire too much color and that the bottom does not burn. Then let them cool, before consuming them. Almond biscuits can be preserved for days in a tin box.

Tips

If you want to put chocolate in your almond biscuits, we suggest you to use 100 grams of dark chocolate. After having taken the biscuits out of the oven, melt the chocolate (bain-marie) and dip them in it. Then take a wire rack and, after having dipped them, place them vertically until the dark chocolate has solidified.

Variations

Almond biscuits can be also prepared with two unmissable variations, after having tasted the original recipe:

Biscuits with almonds and chocolate: slightly spiced, to be served with a cup of tea;

Biscuits with coconut and almonds: small biscuits that can be quickly prepared, very friable, delicate, and in this case it is necessary to use the vanillin.