With autumn rapidly approaching it’s time for some more baking again. The original recipe for “Honey and Almond Shortbread Biscuits” I cut out of the now long defunct Reading Evening Post many many years ago. I modified it slightly by changing it to metric, adjusting some ingredients and the process and adding an admittedly insignificant Islay touch. Just because I could. Here we go:
Starting with the ingredients:
- 250g butter
- 90g runny honey
- 90g caster sugar
- 1 tea spoon vanilla extract
- 250g plain flour
- 125g ground almonds
- 3 tbl sp Islay single malt whisky (I used a Bowmore No1)
This is how I made them:
- Mix together butter, honey, sugar and vanilla until creamy
- Add the flour and almonds, mix well
- Add the whisky (maybe while allowing yourself a dram?), mix well
- Form/roll the dough into a long cylinder shape. It will be very soft and sticky, so this might be challenging
- Chill or even briefly freeze the dough (this will make the next step easier)
- Slice the dough into thin round(ish) biscuit shapes, spread out on a baking tray/rack lined with baking paper
- Bake at 150°C (preheated), I think 20-25 minutes will probably be plenty enough (I left mine in for 30 minutes which made them much darker than I wanted, so the next batch will be in the oven much shorter)
And that’s it. As you can see I enjoyed some with a mug of tea and a dram of the Bowmore whisky. Did they taste of the whisky? No, not really. Can’t expect that from 3 spoons of whisky in 800g of dough. But it’s the thought that counts. And the kitchen smelled amazing while I was preparing and baking them. Good enough for me. Maybe you as well?
