Friends for supper (!) and a sugar biscuit recipe

No big deal?  Normally there would have been eight or more of us but in this case only the four of us – and we ate inside instead of in the garden – baby footsteps towards normality.  

 

I have forgotten how to cook for more than two – and to schedule a meal.  I know this sounds pathetic but I haven’t been very creative and certainly not more than one course for the two of us.

 

We started with some grilled fresh prawns with the good old Marie Rose sauce with our drinks.  We then moved onto Pickled Fish followed by a chicken tagine with a tabbouleh salad made with freekeh and bulgur wheat and a berry crumble to finish off.  

 

It was a bit much for four of us – the good news being that we ate leftovers for the rest of the week – the crumble was the first to be finished! 

 

Cucumbers are so cheap at the moment that I have invested in some preserving jars and will be making a big batch of Bread and Butter Pickle.  I have made a couple of batches recently but they went very quickly.  (I’m channelling my mother here – we had a pantry full of jars of preserved fruits, vegetables, pickles, chutneys and homemade tomato paste – I won’t go that far.)

 

This biscuit is a favourite with everybody. They are called Nut Shortbread but the grandchildren just call them the Sugar Biscuits.

Nut shortbread aka the sugar biscuits - Bella’s

225 grams butter                          

4 tablespoons caster sugar 

60 chopped almonds*          

1 teaspoon vanilla and a pinch of salt

280 grams plain flour (include 4 tablespoons of cornflour)

Sugar for coating

 

Cream butter and sugar (I find this works best if the butter is cold). Add vanilla and then salt and flour and pulse.  Add nuts and pulse.  Knead well. Refrigerate for one to two hours**.

 

Heat oven to 150°C.  Roll into balls about 2 cm in diameter.  Place on a lined pan and then press with a fork to give a ridged appearance.  Bake for about 45 minutes until lightly coloured.

 

Put some sugar into a bowl and roll the biscuits in the sugar while still warm and leave on a wire rack to cool.

 

*       the original recipe called for walnuts but I use almonds as no one in the family is allergic to them – you can use any nuts.

 

**      longer than that makes it difficult to work, less than that the mixture will spread too much. 

I usually put the tray in the fridge for half an hour before baking.