Almond and Fruit Tea Biscuits

These almond and fruit tea biscuits are an adaptation of a recipe from Yotam Ottolenghi and Helen Goh’s ‘Sweet’ Cookbook.  https://ottolenghi.co.uk/recipes/sweet I’ve used almonds and a mix of dried cherries, blueberries, cranberries and longanberries. As Ottolenghi and Goh suggest, you can play around with different dried fruits. Try dried figs or apricots, and use whatever nuts you have on hand. Mine aren’t wafer-thin as per the original recipe, but I’m happy with the result.

I love these biscuits because you make the dough in advance and refrigerate it until you’re ready to bake. The recipe makes a lot of biscuits, so I like to to put the prepared dough into two smaller tins. I cooked one batch to take down on holidays to the south coast. Now that we’ve returned to Sydney for lockdown, I’m grateful for that second batch to enjoy with a cup of tea on my porch.

I hope you enjoy these almond and fruit tea biscuits. Here’s another biscuit recipe that’s good to have with tea: https://atamandastable.com.au/brown-sugar-shortbread-with-walnuts-and-rosemary/

Best wishes,

Amanda

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Print Recipe

Almond and Fruit Tea Biscuits

Thin biscuits with a a hint of mixed spice and orange, perfect to have with a cup of tea

Servings: 40 biscuits

Author: Amanda Lawson

Ingredients

• 400 g wholemeal spelt flour
• 240 g brown sugar
• 240 g raw almonds substitute with hazelnuts or pistachios
• 100 g mixed dried berries
• 100 g unsalted butter, cubed
• 1 orange, zested
• 1 tsp bicarbonate of soda
• 1 tsp mixed spice
• 1/2 tsp salt
• 70 mL water

Instructions

• Line the base and sides of two small loaf tins (25 cm x 8 cm x 4 cm deep). If you don't have small tins, you can easily divide the dough into two portions, shape it into logs and wrap them in baking paper.
• Sift the flour, bicarbonate of soda, salt and mixed spice into a large bowl. Add the orange zest and set aside.
• Melt the butter in a small saucepan and add the water and sugar, stirring until all the sugar has completely dissolved.
• Add the butter mixture, together with the nuts and dried fruit to the flour mixture, and stir until the ingredients form a smooth dough. Divide the mixture two and shape into two logs, or press in the small loaf tins.
• Refrigerate the mixture for about an hour so that it's easy to slice. If it's too hard, it will crumble. If it's too soft, it will be hard to slice.
• When you're ready to slice the dough, preheat the oven to 190°C (170°C fan-forced) and line a baking tray with baking paper.
• Slice the dough as thinly as you can, and lay the biscuits out on the tray with a little sapce between them.
• Bake for 10-14 minutes until the biscuits are golden. They'll still be a little soft, but they'll firm up as they cool.

Notes

The biscuits will keep in an airtight container for up to a week. The baked dough can be kept in the fridge for up to a week, or in the freezer for up to three months.