Gluten-free,  Sweet

Spicy almond and raisin biscuits (gf) and being knocked senseless

almondraisinbiscuits
What do Hugo and a large buzzard have in common? The answer is they both have raging headaches. Hugo’s favourite thing in the world, other than mature camembert, is to jump into cars through their open windows. Much to the post lady’s dismay, he quite often ends up sitting on a massive pile of post in the passenger seat of the van. She has a tricky job explaining why the letters and parcels she delivers are covered in dog hair and paw prints. The other day though, the window was closed. Poor Hugo, who had taken a long and powerful run up, head butted the pane with a resounding thud and fell to the ground where he stayed knocked senseless. It was a good few minutes before he shook himself off and looked around to check that nobody had witnessed the fiasco. The next day, an impressive-looking buzzard did the same thing into one of our kitchen windows. It fell to the ground and staggered around a bit, before deciding to sit down and wait for the head spinning to pass. I did go out to offer a cup of tea and painkiller, as I had done with Hugo, but it just snarled at me, which I thought was a bit rich in view of the fact that it had come very close to smashing my kitchen window to smithereens.
Yesterday 52% of voters in Britain had apparently also had the sense knocked out of them. A sad day indeed for Britain and for Europe.
Ingredients (makes 25-30 biscuits)
125g millet flour (or normal flour is you prefer)
50g ground almonds
50g oat flakes
½ teaspoon ginger powder
½ teaspoon cinnamon powder
Pinch of salt
1 teaspoon bicarbonate of soda
40g raisins
25g chopped or flaked almonds
80g cane sugar
100ml olive oil
1 teaspoon vanilla
2 eggs, beaten
Mix the flour, spices, raisins, almonds, oats, spices, bicarbonate of soda, raisins, almonds and sugar in a bowl and set aside. Whisk the olive oil, vanilla and eggs together and add to the dry mixture. Mix thoroughly and roll into a sausage shape, roughly 5cm thick. Refrigerate for several hours or even overnight.
Preheat the oven to 190°C. Cut the dough into slices of just under a centimetre and space out onto a greased baking sheet. Cook for 12 minutes and leave to cool.

9 Comments

  • KJ

    Sorry about the dog and bird misadventures and this looks like something I can make. Disagree about the British vote, though. My ancestors from Shropshire would be proud of their decision. My friends in Germany wish they could be next.

    • The Healthy Epicurean

      They’re as easy as anything to make and full of nutrition. I hope you enjoy them as much as Léo does – he can go through a whole batch in about ten minutes. I’m considering setting up an assembly line! We’ll have to agree to disagree on the referendum. I feel bereft (and I have dual nationality). I have a terrible feeling I owe you an email (which I started and got distracted from). Did I reply to your last email? F

      • KJ

        From my viewpoint, disagreement between friends, without animosity, contributes to making friendships interesting. I don’t remember receiving a reply, but please don’t consider it “owing” one to me. That would subtract from the pleasure of the communication.

        • The Healthy Epicurean

          It’s not that I’m closed to discussion, it’s more that I don’t want to do it here! (see my comment below). I stand corrected on the use of the word ‘owe’. My Franglais sometimes get the better of me. 🙂

          • KJ

            Oh, I heartily agree with the premise of “the correct time and place,” which this is not, for a political discussion. I take the “Montalbano” approach, in that there is a time for food, and a time for other things.

  • Joyce Rebecca Nichols

    Looks like a great bicci. Will try it tomorrow. As To GB . I am an expat living in Canada…. and I say good for them. It is too late they have let in too many people and given up to much, but at least they are not calling it quits. They are going to try and rectify the situation.
    Good on them. They have finally come to their senses.

    • The Healthy Epicurean

      I don’t want to get into a political debate because this is a light-hearted food blog in which I indulged in one sentence on the referendum to express my dismay. You illustrated everything that is wrong with most of the leave voters argument; they want to abandon what is, amongst other things, the most ambitious and successful project for peace and freedom of the 20th Century, due to fear of immigration… (It seems telling that you refer to yourself as an ‘expat’ and not an immigrant. I am an immigrant in France). Europe isn’t perfect by a long way and there are improvements to be made, but I have yet to hear one rational justification for leaving. I know that the Europe project is seen by some as elitist and idealistic, but when has a prevailing culture of anti-intellectualism ever led to anything other than bigotry?

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