Hi everyone and welcome back to my blog! It’s been a while but today I have a new recipe for you: Melt-in-the-mouth Caramelised Almond Biscuits. These delicious little treats are made using a pipeable biscuit dough, similar to that for a Viennese whirl. However, some of the flour replaced with ground almonds giving it a fantastic texture and flavour. The biscuits are then half-covered with milk chocolate and finished with a sprinkle of caramelised almond pieces. In Germany, you can buy caramelised almond pieces from the shops, where it is called “Mandelkrokant”. If you cannot buy it where you are, check out the recipe tips below!
Top Tips for Making these Caramelised Almond Biscuits
These caramelised almond biscuits are very easy to make but there are a few tips and tricks that will help guarantee success!
Top Tips for the Biscuit Dough
Firstly, for the biscuit dough, make sure your butter is very soft when you make the dough, as you want the dough to be able to fill it into a piping bag and pipe onto trays. Once piped though, the biscuits needs to be chilled in order to let the butter harden again before baking. If you skip this step, the biscuits won’t hold their shape in the oven and you will lose any definition you achieved when piping it.
A short-cut for tempering chocolate
In order for chocolate to maintain its shine after melting, you have to “temper” it, which means to heat and cool it to certain temperatures (read more here). A very easy and straightforward short-cut for this, is to only melt 2/3 of the chocolate in a bowl over a low heat, and then stir in the remaining chocolate afterwards to cool the chocolate down again. Do this and your biscuits will look beautiful and the chocolate will be shiny and crisp.
How to make your own Krokant
In Germany, caramelised hazelnuts and almonds are readily available at supermarkets because they are used a lot in German baking. However, you can also make them yourself! To make a caramel, melt 75g caster sugar and 15g of butter in a pan. Once melted and starting to caramelise, stir in 150g of chopped almonds (or hazelnuts if you prefer) and continue to stir until completely coated in the caramel. Transfer the mixture onto a sheet of baking paper. Then place another piece of baking paper on top and use a rolling pin to spread it out evenly in a thin layer. Leave to cool and then use a sharp knife to chop the Krokant into smaller pieces. Any leftovers will keep well in an airtight container and can be used for other bakes – it is also brilliant sprinkled over ice cream!
More Biscuit Recipes
Are you looking for more delicious biscuit recipes? Make sure to check out some of my other recipes listed below!
- Mary Berry’s Viennese Whirls
- Best-ever Chocolate Chip Cookies
- Paul’s Wagon Wheel Biscuits
- Chocolate and Hazelnut Shortbread dipped in Chocolate | Haselnussbrot
- Traditional Scottish Shortbread
- Millionaire’s Shortbread | British Baking Classic
- Love Heart Sandwich Biscuits filled with Cherry Jam
- Chocolate Digestives | British Baking Classic
- Mixed Nut Butter Cookies (Vegan/Dairy-free)
- Maple and Walnut Biscuits
- Gingernut Biscuits | British Baking Classic
- Chocolate Orange Crescents | German Christmas Baking
- Mini Egg Cookies
- Terry’s Chocolate Orange Cookies
- Almond Shortbread Fingers
Melt-In-The-Mouth Caramelised Almond Biscuits
Recipe
Ingredients (makes ~14 biscuits)
FOR THE BISCUIT DOUGH
- 125g unsalted butter, softened
- 125g plain flour
- 35g icing sugar
- 25g cornflour
- 1 tsp vanilla extract
FOR DECORATING
- 150-200g milk chocolate
- 50g caramelised chopped almonds (“Mandelkrokant”) (see recipe tips above on how to make your own)
Method
- Prepare two large baking trays and line with baking paper. Clear some space in the fridge so that you can place the trays in later to chill the biscuits (you could also do this outside in the winter if it’s cold).
- To make the biscuit dough, ensure the butter is fairly soft so that the dough can be piped easily. Add the butter and remaining ingredients for the dough to a mixing bowl and whisk together with an electric hand mixer until smooth and well combined.
- Fit a piping bag with an open star nozzle and fill the biscuit mixture into the piping bag. Pipe circles of dough onto the tray, leaving a centre circle of about 2cm diameter.
- Place the trays into the fridge for 30 minutes to allow the biscuits to firm up. This will prevent them from spreading in the oven so is an important step if you want to keep the shape and definition.
- Preheat the oven to 170°C and bake the biscuits in the preheated oven for 12-15 minutes until a pale golden brown colour. Remove from the oven and leave the biscuits to cool completely on the trays.
- To decorate, finely chop the milk chocolate and carefully melt 2/3 in a bowl over pot of gently simmering water. Once melted, take off the heat and stir in the remaining 1/3 of the chocolate until melted. Dip the cooled biscuits into the chocolate to half-coat them, allowing any excess chocolate to drip off. Place the biscuits back on the baking paper on the trays.
- Sprinkle some caramelised chopped almonds over the chocolate on the biscuits. Leave the chocolate to set completely before serving or storing in an air-tight container.
