Almond Biscuits

During the last Chinese New Year, I was treated to a jar of very tasty almond biscuits. They were homemade biscuits which looked very much like biscottis but were much thinner. In fact, if I remembered correctly, they were almost wafer thin. One of my family members bought them through a friend. I have been looking for these biscuits lately but they don't seem to be available in bakery shops or supermarkets. I was very happy when I came across this almond biscuits recipe from a Chinese cookbook. From the picture it looked very much like those biscuits which I have been craving for. I tried this out immediately after I bought a packet of whole almonds.

The recipe is rather straight forward and simple. The only difficult part is cutting the dough into thin slices. You will need to use a sharp knife to cut through the almonds without squashing the dough. Furthermore, the dough gets soften up rather fast in our local climate. As such, it is not easy to cut slices of even thickness.

The biscuits are rather crispy with a very light buttery flavour and not too sweet. I have given some to my sisters to try, will ask them for their comments. I do not know whether these come close to the original biscuits, as it was almost a year ago, I have actually forgotten how they tasted liked!

Ingredients:

100g almond, whole
130g butter, soften at room temperature
100g caster sugar
1 egg, lightly beaten
270g cake flour

Method:

1. Soak almonds for 20 mins in warm water. Drain and set aside.
2. Cream butter with caster sugar until white and fluffy.
3. Add in the egg gradually, mix well each time egg is added.
4. Add in sieved flour together with the almonds. Mix into a dough. Shape the dough into a rectangular block and wrap with cling wrap. Chill the dough in the fridge till it is harden.
5. Cut dough into thin slices (about 5mm thick). Lay on baking sheet lined with parchment paper and bake in preheated oven at 180 degC for 20 mins or until biscuits become golden brown. Transfer to wire rack to cool completely before storing in an air-tight container.