Almond & Fudge Biscuits

These are lovely biscuits and with the added fudge chips/chunks are a change from the ubiquitous chocolate chip cookie. I really like them and as is becoming increasingly apparent in my posts, my gauge for whether a biscuit or cookie is worthy of inclusion in my recipe bank is whether I enjoy it with a cup of a tea. Well, these ones pass that test with flying colours. I love my tea and I like to have something nice to nibble on in the biscuit tin when I am having a cuppa.

Although I love trying out challenging new recipes, I like to develop and I am drawn to recipes that are quick and simple to make but are also full of flavour.

I buy individually wrapped fudge sweets and chop them into chunks myself. Although you could use chocolate flavoured fudge I think that vanilla fudge works the best in this recipe. Even though I haven’t done it here, a couple of balls of stem ginger cut into tiny cubes and added to the dough to give a spicy gingery hit, could also be very nice.

Ingredients:

75g flaked almonds, crumbled roughly
50g vanilla fudge, cut into small chunks about ½cm square
200g plain white flour

½ tsp bicarbonate of bread soda

125g butter, diced

125g muscovado sugar

1 egg

1tsp almond extract

Topping:

25g flaked almonds, crumbled roughly

25g vanilla fudge, cut into small chunks as above

Icing sugar for dusting

Method:

1. Preheat the oven to 190C/Fan Oven 170C/Gas Mark 5. Line two large baking trays with non-stick baking parchment.
2. Sift the flour and bicarbonate of soda into a large bowl. Add the butter and rub in using your fingertips until the mixture resembles breadcrumbs. Add the sugar, egg, almond extract, flaked almonds and fudge and mix, using a wooden spoon to a fairly firm dough.
3. Turn on to a lightly floured work surface, knead briefly and then shape into a cylinder shaped logged about 25cms long. Cut the dough evenly into 24 rounds and place on the prepared baking sheets well-spaced apart.
Topping:

4. Scatter the fudge and crumbled almonds for the topping over the biscuits on the baking tray, pressing them into the biscuits slightly. Bake the biscuits for about 12 minutes until they are just beginning to turn golden around the edges. Remove from the oven and allow cool for about 5 minutes on the baking tray before removing them to cool completely on wire racks.

5. Dust lightly with icing sugar before serving.

Makes 24.