Thursday 20 March 2008

Recipe: Egg-White & Almond Biscuits

Sunday Morning. The four-footeds had raced around in the park for twenty minutes or so, before heading home to doze in front of the fire. We had exactly half an hour to spare before heading out to the Royal Academy to see the Cranach Exhibition - so, time enough to make some almond biscuits to have with coffee before we left. Approximately three minutes to make the mixture, and a further two to pipe the biscuits onto a baking sheet; ten minutes later, and they're done!

Yet another way of ploughing into the Egg White Mountain, these biscuits are simple and delicious, and come across as surprisingly sophisticated for the amount of work involved. When first out of the oven, they are quite soft and could easily be moulded to use as the outer form for a charlotte; after a couple of hours, they become quite crisp - if there are any still left at that point, that is!

Oh, and the Cranach exhibition was stunningly good!


For about 24 biscuits.

Ingredients: 4 Egg Whites; 4 ox Ground Almonds; 2 oz Sugar + equivalent volume Splenda; 2 tablespoons Flour; half a teaspoon of Almond Essence.

Method:

1. Heat the oven to 250 degrees C.

2. Assemble all the ingredients. Beat the egg whites until stiff, then fold in all the other ingredients.

3. Pile the mixture into a piping bag, and pipe it onto a greased baking sheet, or a sheet lined with greaseproof paper or silpat. (I use a fluted piping nozzle, in order to produce a more 'finished' result).

4. Bake ten minutes in the pre-heated oven - don't leave them any longer than that, as they burn very easily.

Remove from the baking sheet and leave to cool on a rack. Ready to eat as soon as they've cooled down sufficiently, although they will also be fine after they've crisped up, several hours later. I'm told they keep reasonably well if stored in an airtight container - personally, I wouldn't know......

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

Oh, I do like the sound of those! Almonds are my weakness, and to think of them sweetened and crisped is making my mouth water. If I ever get egg whites, I shall be trying these out.

Anonymous said...

Why Splenda? Does it add anything sugar doesn't?

Pomiane said...

Absence of calories! See the earlier post http://www.pomiane.com/2008/03/eating-well-and-staying-trim.html
which goes into this - essentially, Splenda is the only sweetener I know that retains sweetness when baked, and it is possible in recipes like this to cut the normal amount of sugar with 50% Splenda without compromising the end result....or the waistline (too much!)

epi said...

Did yours really crisp up after several hours. Mine went soggy. I followed the recipe from Jane Grigson's Fruit Book, which is more or less the same as this.

Pomiane said...

Yes, as far as I can recall - it's several months now since I last made them, and I confess that they mostly get polished off when still warm from the oven....but the few which do get left on the rack definitely crisp as they cool down..Is it possible that you're taking yours out of the oven too soon?