Tuesday, February 24, 2015

Raspberry almond heart biscuits



A quick and easy biscuit recipe using the same ingredients as pie crust. I actually had some extra left over, and I thought it would be nice to just roll it out, cut it with a nice cookie shape and top it with whole almonds and raspberry jam. The result was really delicious, not too sweet, but well-flavored. 
I like making this kind of biscuits at least once a week, because they keep well and they're just what was missing from my morning coffee or tea. Enjoy :).

P.S: I featured the heart-shaped biscuit today because in Romania we celebrate Dragobete, considered by many a pre-Christian celebration of love and romance, just as spring is about to set in. Truth be told, no one was actually observing this holiday anymore a few years ago, so it remained in our minds only in name (most of us had maybe heard about it as an old pagan rite that great-parents used to observe in rural areas decades ago and maybe not even then). It was more or less extinct in anything but name, but the last few years brought on a revival of the Dragobete, only as a cultural response to the growing number of people celebrating Valentine's Day (following the logic that if we must have such a kitschy holiday, the least we could do is celebrate our own instead of the American one). I personally couldn't care less about either of them, but a nice occasion to celebrate whatever you hold dear is always welcome. :)

Last year: Courgette and feta cheese tart.
Two years ago: Bulgogi (Korean fried beef with cellophane noodles).
Three years ago: Home-made Raclette bowls with wild mushrooms, lemon and capers.
Four years ago: Spaghetti and tuna balls and Orange and poppy seed muffins.





Ingredients:
  • 200 g flour
  • 100 g butter
  • 2 tablespoons powder sugar
  • pinch of salt
  • 1 egg
  • 1-2 tablespoons milk (if necessary)
  • 4-5 tablespoons raspberry jam
  • a small handful of raw almonds

Mix the flour with the sugar and salt in a bowl. Add the cubed butter and mix with your hands until it resembles breadcrumbs. Add the beaten egg and just enough milk for it to come together into a ball of dough. 
Preheat oven to 200 degrees C. Roll out pieces of the dough and cut heart shapes out of it:

Transfer the hearts to a baking paper-lined tray as you make them. Top each with two almonds (on the top of each heart), then surround the remaining space with raspberry jam:

When you're done, put the tray in the oven and bake the biscuits for 12-15 minutes. Take out, allow to cool and dig in!

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