Coffee and Almond Biscuits - egg free baking (Baking)

Member Name: mjc121

Product:	Baking
Date:	28/02/09 (257 review reads)
Rating:

Advantages: quick, easy and egg free

Disadvantages: they get eaten too quickly

When baking for my housemates and my department at work I am often hit with several problems over what people can or can't eat due to food allergies. Whilst baking without nuts or dairy is fairly easy one of my colleagues is allergic to eggs. Baking without eggs has been a bit of a challenge as some recipes I have tried quite frankly I wouldn't serve the results to my worst enemy.

However, I did find this recipe in an old handwritten book my gran had which we found whilst we were clearing her house out after she died 10 years ago. As the book is hand written I don't know where she got the recipe from but it is one of my regular bakes. Mainly because they are quick and easy to do.

There are several variations of the recipe you can do and they go down well for both those who are allergic to eggs and those who aren't

The recipe book is written is imperial measures throughout as my gran didn't trust the metric system hence I have written it in the imperial form. According to a Delia Smith book I have 1 oz is 25 g. However please remember to stick to one set of measurements throughout as they are not exactly the same.

Ingredients.

6 oz unsalted butter
3 oz golden caster sugar
8 oz self-raising flour
2 tsp instant coffee
1 tsp almond essence or extract (not 'flavouring')

Method:

Pre-heat oven to 180 deg C (350 deg F gas mark 4)

1. Cream the butter and sugar until light and fluffy then beat in the almond essence
2. sift in the flour and instant coffee and fold in

Make small balls out of the mixture, about a tea spoon full and place them on greased baking trays. Space them out as they do spread out quite a bit on baking. The mixture makes about 24 biscuits. If the balls are too big they may not cook all the way through.

Flatten the balls down to about half their original height and bake for 12-15 minutes. They should come out golden brown if not put them back into the oven for another 2-3 minutes. However, as all ovens are different I'd start with the 12 minute timing as these can catch easily if over cooked so keep an eye on them.

Anyway the main taste of the biscuits is the coffee, especially if you have pushed it through the sieve to make it a finer powder. The almond is more of an after taste. They are not overly sweet and smell really good whilst they are cooking. The texture is fairly crumbly due to the lack of eggs but they hold together well and can have that melt in the mouth thing.

If you don't flatten them down you get more of a 'bun' like result. These tend to then be slightly uncooked in the middle. This gives a different taste and texture but as there is no egg it's not a danger to anyone

Variations:

For those who have a dairy allergy simply replace the butter with block margarine, I do this anyway as it's cheaper than butter.

For those who are allergic to peanuts be careful about the almond essence/extract as some contain peanut oil. (a friend of mine is allergic to all nuts except almonds) However the essence can be replaced by vanilla extract which gives a variation on the original.

Summary: quick, good, and egg free