Almond Biscuits

Here's the recipe for the almond biscuits I showed the other day. This is another of the recipes from my Auntie Mary's collection. She was my mum's oldest sister and she was an amazing baker and always had so many good things on the plates when we went to visit her.

A few years ago, I asked my cousin if she would send me Auntie Mary's recipe book so I could copy them all and she was kind enough to do that. Douglas scanned the recipes for me and I then printed them all out. It's a great source of memories both of recipes but also of Auntie Mary - a lot of the recipes are in her hand-writing. :o)

Almond Biscuits - makes about 24

200g/7 oz butter
90g/3¼ oz caster sugar
½ tsp almond extract
280g/10 oz SR flour
25g/1 oz ground almonds
glacé cherries for decoration

Heat the oven to 180ºC/350ºF/GM 4.

1. Put the butter in a large saucepan and slowly melt.
2. Take off the heat then add the sugar & almond extract and stir together.
3. Add the flour and ground almonds and mix to a smooth dough.
4. Roll into small balls and put on to baking trays spaced well apart.
5. Flatten the tops with your hands (or a wet fork or tattie masher).
6. Top each biscuit with half a glacé cherry.
7. Bake for 10 to 15 minutes until golden brown.
8. Leave on the baking tray for 2 or 3 minutes then transfer to a wire rack to cool.
9. Eat. :oD

As you can see from the photo, the outside edges of mine got slightly browner than they should have done. It didn't make any difference to the taste - they were still delicious! :o)