Taking the fruit biscuit out of Christmas

Fruitcake "cookies" a La Barefoot Contessa was served at an engagement party we threw in spring just gone. I made both the non-free friendly version and the free friendly ones (taste control, if you will). Yes, quite diligent. It turned out to be a hit, or rather, my polite friends gushed over them as is required manners in modern society, but I'm easily affirmed by such gushings whether they be sincere or otherwise. Quite unsurprisingly, I cannot remember where I put the free friendly recipe - I think we are beginning to get the hang of my life in recovery mode here, and I am challenging myself to come up with an equal or superior batch. Quite handy presents for Christmas with all that cranberry, nuts, apricots etc, one would hope. If it works.

I'm also adding ground almonds instead of only flour - so here we go again twisting recipes. The bright side of the egg free, wheat free pavlava (ha!) is that there is no risk of salmonella or of over mixing, and therefore you can lick mixing utensils, bowls, kitchen aids and surfaces to your heart's content. Avoid at all costs if you are on a diet as whilst licking that paddle doesn't appear to be that sinful, it has been known that paddles are left deliberately unscraped to falsely provide a I-stuck-to-diet security. However, diets are not made for Christmas, one should go right ahead and lick with abandonment. The paddle that is.

By the by, did you know that if your weighing machine runs out of battery, heating the battery between your hands (or any other warm parts of your body with which you so prefer) gives it that one last boost? Interesting what you can learn from mindlessly watching badly made movies.

Back to verdict on biscuits: this recipe turns out different shaped biscuits than the ones we made for the engagement party largely because of the addition of ground almond. Consistency is therefore different too. I will try to recreate the original recipe. Taste wise, I loved it but then again I'm easily pleased...

My recipe: 

Now I do not know exactly quite how much this recipe makes as quite a lot of the batter was eaten before it was even rolled into 50p batons. Dice 110gms dried figs, 55gms dried cranberries, 30gms dried apricots, 90gms pistachios and mix together with 1 tbsp honey, 2tbsp Marsala 1tbsp lemon juice and leave to sit overnight at room temperature. Cream room temperature sunflower spread (I use pure) and 1/2 cup brown sugar on high speed until smooth then add 1/4 cup oil on low speed. Add 1 and 1/3 cups almond flour and 1/2 cup free-flour and salt of course.  If you want add 1tsp xanthum gum but I didn't because I don't mind my biscuits crumbly. Roll into batons of 1 1/2 inch diameter and wrap in parchment or cling film. Refrigerate /freeze for at least a few hours. When in need of a biscuit fix, cut into 1cm tall coins and bake at 175C for 15 minutes. Leave to cool (if you can, but we ate half of it straight from the oven) and it should resemble Florentines and be crumbly and cute.