It is finally December! Time to put up the Christmas tree and start baking beautiful treats reserved specially for the occasion. I’m a bit of a stickler for reserving Christmas recipes just for Christmas; so rum balls, fruit cake and fruit mince pies are all on the cards over the next month, and I can’t wait!
This year we are spending Christmas Eve with my husband’s Polish side of the family, so this recipe is inspired as ciasteczka na święta or roughly ‘biscuits/cookies for Christmas’ (I think?! – my Polish is non-existent other than the helpful: ‘thankyou’ and ‘cheers’). As we all know that over-indulgence is just around the corner; these are a prelude into the full-blown Christmas cheer. Like shortbread biscuits…these almond crescent biscuits are a bit sweeter, beautifully coated in layers of icing sugar.
christmas almond crescent biscuits
ingredients
- 225 grams unsalted butter, room temperature
- 1/2 cup caster sugar
- 1 egg
- 1 teaspoon vanilla extract
- 1/4 cup ground almond meal
- 1 2/3 cup plain flour
- icing sugar, enough to coat all of the biscuits, placed in a bowl
method
- Line two oven trays with non-stick paper and preheat your oven to 175 C (350 F).
- Cream butter and caster sugar in a mixer until pale and fluffy.
- Beat in egg and vanilla, you will need to scrape down the sides and mix until combined.
- Add the almond meal and flour and mix until it resembles damp dough.
- Dust your hands lightly with plain flour, to stop the delicious mix sticking to your hand, then grab a 2.5 cm ball of mix and shape into a crescent.
- Continue until all the mix is used and place in the oven for 15 – 20 minutes until the edges of the biscuits turn golden.
- Remove from the oven, and whilst still hot (watch for burns here people), one at a time roll each biscuit in icing sugar and set aside on a rack to cool.
- Once biscuits are cool, roll them in the icing sugar once more, just to get a really good coat on them.
- Serve with an espresso and a good book.
